Water for Elephants

I hate circuses. I hate everything they entail—over-the-top dramatization, a focus on “freaks,” mistreatment and housing of animals (I also hate zoos for this same reason). I reluctantly picked up this book, because I wanted to satisfy my curiosity—why have people cited this as a favorite book so often?—and also satisfy one of the challenge tasks for the College Students Spring/Summer Challenge.

I actually liked this book a lot. Jacob is a narrator who is easy to relate to, and you really get a sense of his life and his environment. I especially like the transitions from the past to the present. I love books that send you into particular times and places. I could almost hear the sounds, and I definitely could picture August and Marlena—and I also loved Rosie!

All in all, this book was a good read. I wouldn't call it a favorite because I hated the subject matter, but the characters were likable and distinct despite the basic plot. Gruen has a wonderful way of storytelling and would definitely read other books from her in the future (though hopefully not related to circuses!).

I enjoyed this book about circus life during the Great Depression. I especially like the way the author skillfully wove in historic facts such as an elephant not understanding English and the problem “jake leg” which was caused by tainted Jamaica ginger.

A fun, quick read. Really enjoyable–I was really impressed by the research into 1930s circuses. Which are awesome.

Thanks to Megha's review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39133771. I had lowered expectations of this, after all the other rave reviews.
I realise it has several flaws and doesn't innovate in any way but if you're looking for a good old story to relax into, you couldn't do much better.
Somebody coming from chick-lit might be amazed that a woman could take on the voice of the male narrator in all his male adventures, but for this man it didn't ring quite true. Still it never distracted me from the two threads of the story while my imagination was fed with details of travelling circus life.

I read this in one sitting. It's well-written and the story is very compelling. The beginning is a bit rough (emotionally), but it's worth sticking it out. The way she closes the circle in the last few chapters is very satisfying.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book when I first heard about it it didn't sound like something I would be interested in, but I kept hearing how amazing it was, so I thought I would give it a try and I am SO glad that I did! This was just an amazingly good read, rich in details, gritty, humorous, I basically finished it in two days! I was also very pleased to read that many of the events in the novel are based on real happenings, this made the book all that more enjoyable for me. I would most definitely recommend this book as a delightful read!

It might sound funny, but I learned a lot about circus life from this book. Interesting and entertaining.

This is a page-turner if there ever was one. So much going on in this book–a fascinating account of circus life in Depression-era America, for which a lot of really excellent research was done, and a sometimes deeply saddening account of aging in America as we do it now, in nursing homes and “assisted living.” The circus chapters really sparkle; they are action-packed yet still wholly believable. It's not the deepest book ever (some of the characters lack a little depth), but I'm totally willing to forgive that because after all the excitement, I wasn't hoping for a happy ending, but got one anyway :)

This is a quick read. And a fascinating introduction to Depression era circus life. But after the first 150 pages or so, you become accustomed to the circus train atmosphere, after which there's nothing that special about the story. In fact, here are some problems with it: 1) The ending is so predictable! 2) The best drawn characters in the book are an elephant and a dog. And that's only because I didn't expect the animals to be anything more than one-dimensional. 3) The use of violence against Rosie the elephant was gratuitous and manipulative. Somehow it just felt cheap. Although, I did really like the narration from the elderly Jacob's perspective. I thought that was well done. I'll have to think about it some more before my book club discusses it next week.

Great book, quick read with fun characters. Also I loved all the animals. I really don't like the circus, but once I got past that, I really got into the book.

This is story about a young guy who runs off and serendipitously joins a Depression-era circus that travels by train. And I'm often a sucker for a good circus story. The young man, Jacob, is a veterinarian who hasn't yet become a licensed doctor (which is of little concern to the characters who run the Benzini Brothers circus). This is a richly detailed story with occasional dashes of excitement and romance, but dramatic throughout and it's essentially a fast, rewarding summer read. The story moves along briskly and the writing is of a quality that's so good you don't really notice it. Some great characters here, but Jacob is the best and most interesting.

Have read/listened to several times