Monday, October 12, 2009

Water for Elephants [Gruen]

Book: Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Reason for Reading: book club
Genre: Fiction

Review: 23-year old Jacob has almost completed his veterinary studies at Cornell when his parents are killed in a tragic automobile accident. Unable to focus on his final exams, he abruptly leaves school, jumps a train, and becomes a veterinarian for a traveling circus.

Set during the Depression, '..Elephants' is filled with colorful characters, both human and animal. It is beautifully written and has elements of friendship, romance, murder and secrets. Jacob is a likable main character and while 'reveal' at the end of the book was anti-climatic, this was still an engaging read.

Book Junkie's Grade: B+

2 comments:

Jennifer Boch said...

Have you read The Dirty parts of the bible by Sam Torode?

beckyday said...

I just finished this - got it off Amazon Prime with the 1 free Kindle book a month. I thought it was okay. It was written well but really predictable. Not sure if I'll see the movie although as I write this I think that the movie could be a good "Sunday afternoon" flick. Have you seen the movie yet?