Water for Elephants - Gruen
I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. I've heard lots of mentions of folks reading this book, and when I picked it up a few weeks ago at B&N the sales woman even said she hoped to get it read before long as it was "all the buzz".
It's not a bad book, it's just not a particularly great book in my mind, either.
Water for Elephants tells the story of a man looking back over his life and how he fell into his job working for the circus. I've always been more frightened than amused by the circus and this novel points out all the reasons why flaunting the bizarre and making famous those better left in obscurity have kept circuses from becoming truly legitimate professions in our culture.
Like carnies, the characters in the novel seem to be weak minded, easily manipulated and overpowered, as the masses that attend the circus themselves. The plot line was nothing unusual - an unexpected turn of events forces a young man to make a sudden and drastic break from the life he had been living. Through his journeys on this new path, he meets proportedly unique characters who teach through bad experiences more often than good. There is romance, so familiar to most novels (a love that cannot be expressed for various reasons, yet in the end finds a way to become reality to the two main characters). There is violence and sex, neither one necessary in the depths the author presents.
Water for Elephants is an easy read. Unique enough in subject matter only because of the circus angle, the rest of the novel's outline easy to pick out and predict. The characters are truly forgettable, even if certain portions of the story stand out for some time later, they are truly only episodic of circus life and not contributary to the plot or character development.
An interesting novel, but a forgettable one. Not one I would really recommend.
It's not a bad book, it's just not a particularly great book in my mind, either.
Water for Elephants tells the story of a man looking back over his life and how he fell into his job working for the circus. I've always been more frightened than amused by the circus and this novel points out all the reasons why flaunting the bizarre and making famous those better left in obscurity have kept circuses from becoming truly legitimate professions in our culture.
Like carnies, the characters in the novel seem to be weak minded, easily manipulated and overpowered, as the masses that attend the circus themselves. The plot line was nothing unusual - an unexpected turn of events forces a young man to make a sudden and drastic break from the life he had been living. Through his journeys on this new path, he meets proportedly unique characters who teach through bad experiences more often than good. There is romance, so familiar to most novels (a love that cannot be expressed for various reasons, yet in the end finds a way to become reality to the two main characters). There is violence and sex, neither one necessary in the depths the author presents.
Water for Elephants is an easy read. Unique enough in subject matter only because of the circus angle, the rest of the novel's outline easy to pick out and predict. The characters are truly forgettable, even if certain portions of the story stand out for some time later, they are truly only episodic of circus life and not contributary to the plot or character development.
An interesting novel, but a forgettable one. Not one I would really recommend.
Comments