Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

Date Started: 4/19/11
Date Finished: 4/22/11

One-Word Summary: Meh

Look, I liked this book. But I didn't love this book (which everyone else seems to). It was a good read, and I would certainly recommend it, but I wouldn't tell people that this is an all-consuming book that you can't put down.


Here is what I liked:

• It was a good story - engaging and one I wanted to follow. 
• The descriptions were beautiful and with the pictures at the front of each chapter it really brings you back to different time. 
• The ending tied everything together in a good way. 

What I didn't like:

• I didn't see the need for the constant back and forth between present day (Jacob is either 90 or 93, he can't remember) and his circus start (1931 I think). It made the story choppier than it needed to be. 
• The present day descriptions were maybe one of the most depressing depictions of aging I have read; striking for it's realism but depressing nonetheless, so I found myself dreading these chapters. 
• It seemed like the story went too fast, like there was too much action packed into the time the story took place. It felt like the whole story of him joining the circus and falling in love with Marlena took two weeks max. Then at the end of the book when Jacob calls back the dean to ask if he can re-sit for his exams, we learn that three and a half months has supposedly passed. It just didn't seem that way from the way the story read. 

So overall a good book but probably one that I wouldn't come back to and read again.