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Details
| Genre/Form: | Love stories Historical fiction Fiction |
|---|---|
| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Gruen, Sara. Water for elephants. Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books, c2006 (OCoLC)607500393 |
| Material Type: | Fiction |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Sara Gruen |
| ISBN: | 9781565125605 1565125606 1565124995 9781565124998 1442066075 9781442066076 |
| OCLC Number: | 61362217 |
| Description: | 335 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Responsibility: | Sara Gruen. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.--From publisher description.
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WorldCat User Reviews (3)
Good except the ending
I really enjoyed this story until the very end. I want to be very careful not to spoil, so I'll leave it at that. This was the best of Ms. Gruen's offerings and I recommend this for adults and children 14 and up. Very well researched topic and quite believable.
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Water for elephants
It's funny. It's sad. He's 91 (or maybe 93) and in a nursing home. He's grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. But not as grumpy as the others living there, so he thinks. He's young, and getting a job in a circus during the Depression. Life is hard, the living is hard, the working is hard, the loving is hard. In the...
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It's funny. It's sad. He's 91 (or maybe 93) and in a nursing home. He's grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. But not as grumpy as the others living there, so he thinks. He's young, and getting a job in a circus during the Depression. Life is hard, the living is hard, the working is hard, the loving is hard. In the past or the present? A good story with a surprise ending, or is it?
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Debut by Gruen is a Winner
Sometimes you pick up a book just because the title grabs you. This was the case with Water for Elephants. Told in flashbacks by 90, or perhaps 93 year old, Jacob Jankowski, nursing home resident, this debut by Gruen is a keeper and one you'll want to share with others. Young Jacob is studying to be...
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Sometimes you pick up a book just because the title grabs you. This was the case with Water for Elephants. Told in flashbacks by 90, or perhaps 93 year old, Jacob Jankowski, nursing home resident, this debut by Gruen is a keeper and one you'll want to share with others. Young Jacob is studying to be a vet at Cornell when his life is turned upside down by the death of his parents. Grief renders his mind blank while sitting for his final exams and he flees only to find himself hopping a train. The car he hops turns out to be one of many of the Great Benzini Brothers Circus Train. The story unfolds beautifully from here. Gruen fleshes out her characters so well that you feel you know them and come to love and care about them. The circus is so alive you'll smell it and feel the thrill of the behind the scenes action. But nothing is better than the nursing home scenes where the grumpy, garroulous older Jankowski reigns. Any of us with aging parents can take a lesson from this character. The audio is narrated in two voices, Jankowski as a young man, Jankowski as an old man and enhances the listening. A sentimental ending only makes the whole better, leaving the reader feeling just right. The book has pictures of the circus and explains that some of the stories woven in the book are based on true events. For anyone who ever wanted to join the circus or loves a good storytelling this is as satisfying a read as they come.
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Similar Items
Related Subjects:(7)
- Circus -- Fiction.
- Depressions -- 1929 -- Fiction.
- Circus performers -- Fiction.
- Parents -- Death -- Fiction.
- Elephants -- Fiction.
- Circus animals -- Fiction.
- Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction.
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