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    Water for Elephants
    Water for Elephants
    Water for Elephants
    Audiobook11 hours

    Water for Elephants

    Written by Sara Gruen

    Narrated by John Randolph Jones and David Ledoux

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jacob Janowski's luck had run out—orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was the Great Depression and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. There he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but brutal animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this group of misfits was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

    Editor's Note

    Wondrous balancing act…

    Pulls off a wondrous balancing act with the right amounts of drama, romance, and magic, and captures all the most fantastic stories from the era of train circuses. With the permanent closing of Ringling Bros., it’s an even more pertinent piece of historical fiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMay 22, 2006
    ISBN9781598872729
    Water for Elephants
    Author

    Sara Gruen

    Sara Gruen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants and Riding Lessons. She lives with her husband and three children in a conservation community outside Chicago.

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    Reviews for Water for Elephants

    4/5

    1,044 ratings741 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title fabulous and engaging, with a compelling and emotional tale. The book is well-written and immersive, making it hard to put down. However, some readers found the characters unlikable and the excessive use of 'righteous indignation' detracted from the story. Overall, it is a good sell for a wide audience, with a simple and pleasurable story set in a traveling circus during the great depression.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      good

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I'd heard so much about this book over the years, including raves from some of my favorite authors. A friend loaned her copy to me and I was eager to get into it. The story is great, but I can't rave about this book. I hate that I can't, because there's no real reason. I don't think it was all the hype, either. There was just something that kept me from really connecting with this book, even though I was engaged with the story and wanted to know what happened. Jacob, the main character, just didn't seem that real to me. I felt like I should have known him better, yet when he did certain things, I couldn't understand his reasoning for it. That being said, this is a good book, and the ending more than made up for anything I was feeling throughout the story.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Wow, this book absolutely blew me away. The characters and story are fresh, compelling, real and will be with me for the rest of my life.
    • 4/5
      Very satisfying story. The abuse was not too descriptive as to turn me off or ruin my day, and the resolution is complete and happy-making (I really like this word, coined by Scot Westerfeld of the Uglies trilogy). It was mostly a voyeuristic experience into what may have been the type of life lived by circus workers during the Great Depression, but I'm not sure how much of it was accurate. One thing I do take away from this novel is a new appreciation for the elderly, as the injustice they face in nursing homes (good ones, that is) became apparent when before I had not thought about such things. It's a complicated matter, and this book portrayed the ever-changing parent-child relationship dynamic in a new way. That is what I lay in bed pondering long after I closed the cover.

      I started listening to the audio version, and when I hit the midway point, I realized that the audio version is too slow-going. I wasn't in my car alone enough (it was certainly NOT appropriate for my 9-year-old to hear), so I read the last half to speed up my progress. I mention this because there are some definite benefits to each version. The audio version is read by two actors, and the one who narrates old Jacob is so excellent that I think it hooked me while I may not have been interested enough in the story at first to keep going with the print version. I highly recommend the cd because of this. The other narrator was not so great, and I often disagreed with his selected tone of voice for different lines. The printed book, on the other hand, includes some archived circus photos to complement the chapters that I felt enhanced the story. I feel fortunate to have experienced both formats.

      Thanks to Shannon & Bona for recommending the book to me!

    • 5/5
      Really fabulous story revolving around a Depression-era circus. It was obviously meticulously researched, with scads of interesting information. If there had been no plot, just the details would have made this a worthy read. Luckily, the plot was great, too. The love story felt a little under-developed, but the story-within-a-story was a choice that added plenty of depth to the main character. And even knowing that there was a twist at the end (and looking avidly for it) I was still surprised. Overall, well crafted and fully captivating.
    • 5/5
      When Water for Elephants was originally published, I added it to my reading list, but never got around to picking it up. Recently, when trailers for the movie popped up, I came to the prejudiced notion that it would be nothing but romantic tripe set amidst a semi-interesting backdrop of carnival life amidst Great Depression-era American landscape. I imagined something typical of Nicolas Sparks. Perhaps this was due Robert Pattison’s Twilight fame, or perhaps it was the film’s marketing (Pattinson entwined with Reese Witherspoon, elephant barely in sight). Regardless, I finally caved and eventually I realized that Water for Elephants was easily one of the best novels I’ve read this year.The romance is there, but doesn’t manage to surface in a major way until the last 25-30% of the book. When it does, it’s beautiful, moving, and not quite typical of recent novelists (maybe it is, but the storytelling makes it forgivable). The plot follows one Jacob Jankowski during two periods in his life-time: 1) as a ninety-something nursing home bound great-great-(great?)-grandfather and 2) as a young man tramping as a travelling circus’ veterinarian for three-and-a-half months.As a young man, Jacob, who is at the cusp of attaining a college degree, is subject to the tragic loss of his parents. When he hears the news, he ditches his final exams and abandons his dreams of taking over his father’s business, something now rendered impossible, thanks to New York’s legal system. At this point in Gruen’s story, I was almost convinced that the money I’d spent on Water for Elephants had been wasted. The story line seemed very stereotypical. I’d seen the riches-to-rags story before, and was convinced that I’d be seeing another riches-to-rags-to-riches story before the conclusion.It didn’t take long for the book to become downright thrilling—a page-turner of the best sort. Gruen layers this novel with a lot of fascinating aspects. Conventions readers might be well versed in are blended together, forming something brilliant. Topics for discussion are vast, and are handled extremely well. Gruen covers class warfare, racism, animal abuse, domestic abuse, elder abuse, workplace violence, Depression life, loss of virginity, murder, depression, love, and revenge. Given this array of subject matter, it’s impressive that Gruen blends everything together without writing something that feels rushed and stuffy.The breaks in the story, utilized in order to present the reader with elderly Jacob’s story, have a striking distance from the story he’s telling us. Several times I questioned whether he was making all of his past experiences up. However, as the story progresses, these breaks become more aligned with his story of circus life. Jacob is, for the most part, wheelchair bound while at the nursing home, and has nothing to look forward to, considering the amazing things he has seen in the past. The one thing he does have to look forward to is attending the circus that pulls up outside the nursing home. After that, he has nothing. Melancholy and fatalism set the stage for this time in Jacob’s life, and it’s hard to imagine anything good occurring to him after the circus tents are disassembled, especially considering his worsening mental state.When elderly Jacob is on stage, Gruen tackles the subject of how modern America treats their elderly. The presentation of Jacob’s younger life contrasts with how mundane, demeaning, and restricted his current state is. It’s hard to imagine a happy ending for the hero, and I won’t spoil whether Gruen delivers one.The icing on this book’s cake is the amount of research Gruen conducted. She strived for a long time to find contacts at travelling sideshows, eventually making them and gathering unique stories to include in the book. Jammed in Water for Elephants’ pages are stories about elephants pulling the stakes they are tied to out of the ground, stealing lemonade from vendors, and returning the stake to the ground as if nothing had happened. Whether these, or any of the other amusing stories have any validity doesn’t matter. What does matter is they are a true aspect of travelling circus lore.Balancing these possibly invalid stories are valid stories concerning the “Jamaica ginger paralysis”, a devastating disease that affected about one hundred thousands of Americans in the early 1930’s. The paralysis was the direct result of the drinking of ginger extract for its alcoholic content, in order to circumvent prohibition. The inclusion of the disease has an intensely personal effect on Jacob, but I will not reveal how.If you are like I was and have similar preconceived notions about reading Water for Elephants, toss them away and please read this book. This work does not even come close to resembling anything you’d find in Nicolas Sparks’ bibliography. This book might not seem out-of-the-ordinary at the start, but by the end of it, you’ll have something to talk about for a long time.
    • 4/5
      Saw the movie first and the book like everyone says is much better! Always enjoy reading about cities that are local (NY) and that I've seen. A great story about circus life and I liked the little facts she included thruout. Nice love story too by the way!
    • 2/5
      not sure why i read this book, really, except the title intrigued me, i suppose, and it seemed like something different to tweak me out of normalcy.

      except that it didn't. the premise is kind of interesting but the execution was a bit banal for me. i liked the beginning a lot, though, and had it continued in that vein i would have given this 3 stars instead of 2.

      don't get me wrong, the reading was easy and the story paced well but some things just didn't ring true for the time period- like the protagonist's and other characters's sensibilities about violence, in general, and domestic violence in particular.

      the author also seems woefully ignorant about what paranoid schizophrenics are like, particularly when their suspicions are SUBSTANTIATED by what the author wrote! a husband suspects his wife and another man of having an affair and becomes violent only after showing a lot of restraint and their not answering him when he begins accusing them of things. they HAVE been having an affair even though he is wrong about just how far it's gone. the author takes care to show us this love affair and then to show everyone's reaction to the husband's outburst as "he's crazy to have thought ANYTHING was going on! what a bastard!" but he was right to think what he did and, while his actions are not OK, they are understandable especially within the context of the time period and setting.

      it was at that point that i lost respect for the storyteller and the characters - who i was supposed to be rooting for.

      and their reaction to him being correct about having an affair? well, i don't want to spoil it but it was over-the-top and less than morally upright. in the end, i had to side with the husband.

      i also think that the resolution to the "problem" was a bit of a deus ex machina and a cop out by the author.

      i finished the book out of sheer curiosity and found it to be very pulpy and naive.
    • 4/5
      Water for Elephants was a fun read about life in the circus during the impoverished era of the 1930's. The story was easy to follow and quick to please but nothing spectacular. Anyone interested in a regular fast-paced story that is accessible for just about anyone would like this novel.Personally, my favorite parts of the story were the scenes featuring the main character as an old man reminiscing about times gone by. The author was very deft at capturing the personality of an older man who sees his life very much in the past. I wish more of the story featured these scenes in particular but I can understand why they were so few.I don't know if I will ever read another Sara Gruen novel again - nothing in the writing itself pleaded great skill - yet I would always be happy to recommend this one to other people.
    • 4/5
      audio cdI must say thata) this is probably something that I wouldn't normally have read (as my daughter put it, it's a "girly" book andb) "a" notwithstanding, I was really liking this one for the most part up until near to the end (re the last scene in the big top & Rosie) when I nearly wrenched the cd out of the car stereo - I felt a bit let down with what the author did there.Overall, though, I'm glad I read it, and I did enjoy it for the most part.In a nutshell (summary, no spoilers):Young Jacob Jankowski is studying to become a vet at Cornell, and all is well up until he receives word of his parents' death. Learning that the family vet practice he'd been planning on joining had been taken over by the bank, and that there was nothing left (this is during the Depression in the 1930s), Jacob goes a little nuts & can't sit for his final exams. He starts running and runs far enough to catch up with a train which he hops. He realizes he has jumped onto a circus train, that of the Benzini Brothers. He is telling the story in later life, in his early 90s, and that story and his present circumstances intertwine to fill out the book.It really is a good story; fresh, refreshing and the reader does tend to get caught up in it. There are some spots of dialog that I thought were too cliche and too obvious (especially among the roustabouts in the circus in their dealings with the performers and vice versa), but otherwise it was an interesting view of the Depression, of circus life, and of a man's struggle to find himself. It's also a fine comment of the meaning of family.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful, magical storytelling on Gruen's part. Not often does a female author write a male protagonist so well. She made me feel what Jacob felt, be it lust, loathing, or anguish.
    • 5/5
      At the end I laughed and cried all at once; it was a great book that I was unable to put down
    • 5/5
      Jacob Jankowski, an Ivy League veterinary student in the Great Depression era, suffers the loss of his parents, and decides not to sit his final exams. He jumps onto a train that turns out to be part of a traveling circus. The staff, upon finding out that he is so skilled with animals, hires him, and he immediately is thrown into the sparkling and frightning world of a circus. He meets "freaks," working men desperate for a paychecks, talented animals and beautiful performers. Jacob becomes part of their world, growing emotionally tied to those who are kind to him, and thus feels obligated to care for them when they are in need. This obligation is a beautiful tale of friendship and love with a fascinating backdrop. Outside of this touching story, the novel was painstakingly researched by the author, and gives lots of real information about the circuses of this time, including photographs. Many of the anecdotes in the story actually happened, among those a parade thrown for a just-deceased fat lady in "celebration of her life," where she was paraded through a town in an animal cage to drum up business, and an elephant who only understands Polish.
    • 5/5
      It was a book that as I read the final pages, I slowed waaaaay down to prolong the experience. I did not want this story to end. The writing is smooth and it weaves this amazing story of a young man about to take his final exams to become a veterinarian, when suddenly his parents are killed in a car accident. He finds out that his parents were over their heads in debt on their house and he’s homeless and without family. He takes off, desperate, and finds himself on board a circus train. He learns how to stay in the ringmaster’s good graces and he’s appalled by the abysmal treatment the circus animals receive. He falls in love with a circus performer and tip-toes around her frightening and moody husband. Best of all, he meets Rosie- a circus elephant who everyone thinks is stupid, but who really, just may be smarter than all of them put together. I have another book by this author and I think I might have to pick it up next because this book was just amazing. Amazing. Let me say it again, amazing. I want to read it again.
    • 3/5
      This book, while (positively) on a different subject matter, and easy to read and well written, did not connect with me. I am not sure if its because I'm not that interested in the circus trappings and goings on, the characters or something else, but it just never really grabbed my full attention. I found continuously I just didn't care what happened.
    • 2/5
      Just okay. Kind of sappy for my tastes. For a really good circus novel, read Geek Love.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this beautifully written story with an insight to the life on the circus in the early 1900s.
    • 5/5
      I am a huge fan of this book! It tells the story of a man who recently lost everything who runs away and joins the circus. He falls in love with the evil ringleader's wife. The author pays close attention to detail and did a wonderful job of portraying what life might have been like on the road in the circus. I enjoyed many of the characters, from Marlena to Jacob and Rosie to the midget roommate. It is a love story, but it's so much mire than that.
    • 5/5
      First Line: Only three people were left under the red and white awning of the grease joint: Grady, me, and the fry cook. Favorite Quote: "I'm ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." My thoughts: This is one of the best adult books I’ve read in a while. I was drawn into the story from the beginning. I loved reading about the circus, all of the great animals, even Rosie the elephant. The story takes place during the Depression. The main character Jacob falls in love with a woman which he cannot have. The book has a really great plot. I was so into the story and all the going-ons of the circus. This book was like having a back stage pass to the whole behind the scenes of the circus. We learn all about The Greatest Show On Earth!I haven’t really described much of what goes on in this book. But, let me just say this book is wonderful. I was so hooked to this book. So, if you considering this book go ahead and pick it up!Overall: Great read from beginning to end!
    • 3/5
      1930/1 and Jacob finds himself with a circus. Lucky for him he has vet training and makes himself amiable to the hardnosed animal boss and the ringleader. 93yr old Jacob tells his story of life with this circus as he awaits a trip from his nursing home to see a contemporary circus and deals with his aging body. It's no [book:Stone Angel] or [book:Life of Pi] though -- much more entertaining and less profound. It's about circus life during the Depression, about loyalty and friendship. And love, of course.

      A nice book, nothing profound or astounding, but very enjoyable and easy to read. Good for a weekend at the beach.
    • 4/5
      Jacob Jankowski is a 23 year old veterinary school student in the 1930's, a practice that has run in his family. He is six days away from the end of his school year and preparing to take his exams to graduate to join the family business. He is called out of class and is informed that both of his parents were killed in a automobile accident and that he must go immediately to the police station and identify his parents. He is immediately devastated and upon seeing their corpses is violently sick. He returns to his families home where he is confronted head on by the nothingness they left behind. His father had exhausted all of his money from paying for jacobs ivy league college tuition and the mortgage he took out to help pay it and from being a generous, compassionate person during a exrtemely tough economic climate. He finds out that all of his parents property including their practice will be turned over to the bank. He returns to school and finds his once comfortable place within his school has been replaced by unfamiliarity and dizzying blurs of friends from yesterday's past. He walks out during his exam and doesn't stop walking until his feet blister and hunger wrenches his stomach into knots. He is soon confronted by a train billowing his way, snapping out of his stupor he begins to chase after the train. He barely manages to get aboard in one piece and is immediately threatened with being returned to the ground he came from at a frightening speed. A stranger named camel comes to his rescue, saving him from being tossed from the train by Blackie a bouncer of sorts. Once on the train,his new friend camel realizes he is no bum but a college student. And Jacob realizes he has jumped in to the train of the Benzini brothers most spectacular show on earth.
    • 4/5
      A good story with lots of fascinating period details. The end was a little too neat, but still quite enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Jacob Jankowski does not complete his veterinary examinations, but he lands a job as a vet for a circus anyway. It alternates with the 93-year-old Jacob, now a resident of a nursing home that cares very little about its residents. He is looking forward to the arrival of a circus. There's a lot about relationships in the circus and the competitiveness between the circuses that haven't quite reached the level of Ringling Brothers. I was bothered by some of the profanity in the book and by some of the adulterous relationships.
    • 5/5
      This book made me cry several times. I don't think I'll ever eat an apple again without remembering to taste it. I'm ready to run away and join the circus.
    • 3/5
      I rounded down from 3.5 stars here. Story left a lot to be desired but really immersed you in the tale. Points taken away for the excessive jse of "righteous indignation."
    • 4/5
      The story was hard to put down for sure. It started with a young veterinarian, not quite graduated, jumping a train and finding himself on a circus train which went from town to town, setting up for one day, and then moving on. He gets hired on to work with the menagerie, and finds himself in an incredible and cruel world. I could not believe that circuses like this existed and found the cruelty to animals and to the human workers extremely depressing, but it made for a fascinating page-turner of a story.
    • 3/5
      Read it the weekend before we saw the movie at Jaume I, and the movie made apparent what was marvelous about the book. The framing story of Jacob as an old man in a nursing home made bits in the circus even more heartbreaking - when Camel and Walter got redlighted was the most apparent. The narrative was perfectly paced, but I did not underline a thing. Not a bad thing, just an observation.1st Jaume I CineForum
    • 5/5
      Great book couldn’t stop listening!
      Loved the narraters they made the story super engaging!
    • 4/5
      This book made me want to run away with the circus. Set in the US of the Great Depression, the story follows the wonderful, and not so wonderful characters that make up the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth as they travel by train entertaining many along the way.The story is narrated by Jacob Jankowski, both as he takes part in events surrounding the circus, as well as reminiscing as a ninety-something year old man. The good guys are easy to love and the bad guys are easy to hate. It is perfectly impossible not to fall in love with Rosie. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for elephants and Rosie doesn’t disappoint.This story has a little for everyone. A love story, circus freaks, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), and even a little bit of adventure and intrigue. I personally loved the scenes in which Jacob must carefully traverse the roof of the train, jumping between cars, all the way to his destination – any more information will spoil the story!Water for Elephants is a perfect summer read with an excellent story and an ending that leaves you feeling great.Oh, how I long for an elephant of my own!
    • 5/5
      I love it!