March 2010:Water for Elephants:Sara Gruen

[Libra]

Discussion starts March 1st.

[Book Dork]

One of my favourite books! They're in the works of making a movie.

[mmyap]

I had a mixed reaction to this book. I'll withold comment until other have had a chance to read it.

I did want to say though, there is no way, no how I would go see this movie. Unless they cut out all the parts that make it "gritty." Which if they did, sort of defeats the purpose of making the movie in the first place.

[Justin91]

Still reading...

[Libra]

I am only 50 pages in and if it was any more boring I would be going backwards...

[dude]

I'm 170 pages in and if it keeps up like this, my review will not be favorable.

[dude]

Very amateurish book. Incredibly thin story and characters. The book moved way too fast and built up nothing. Virtually zero character development. Ridiculous ending. I'll elaborate later.

[Barbara Lane]

This book is on my top 25 ever books. so moving, fast pace, gripping, brilliant brilliant.
Quite a few people gave it a bad review because of the animal cruelty. But the author made this book fiction and it shouldn't be knocked for it. Definately worth a read. 6 star out of 5.

[jaybe]

I found it disappointing. When I finished I wondered why I has dragged myself though it.

[mmyap]

This book depressed the heck out of me. Between the animal cruelty, the human cruelty and then realities of becoming old, feeble and forgotten in a nursing home the book never gives you a break.

But I did finish it so it wasn't all bad. I do tend to like historical fiction and this was a slice of americana I had no previous exposure to. I did like the ending. =0)

[Barbara Lane]

mmyap
I smiled when I read your review. Hey we all like different types of books. I am listening to DEVIL'S CORNER by Lisa scottoline at the moment.

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS being old and feeble the parts in the nursing home I was interested in, My mother in law just died in a nursing home and i visit an aunty there also.
to Hear what is going on in their heads and their remembering about the past is interesting. I agree I wasn't keen on the ending but it didn't detract from the brilliance of the book at all. The animal cruelty was bad. But we all read murder mysteries and the decriptions of the murders and often a lot worse than what was in this book.
mmyap I enjoyed reading your comment and will happily read anymore of your reviews.
glad we have met. We don't have to agree but it great to meet more people that love books!!!

[dude]

Spoilers ahead....








First of all, stories written in first-person are too easily done wrong. It takes a special writer to make a very compelling story with lots of characters in first-person. It's hard to develop characters because the main character is in every scene and everything has to revolve around him/her. Water for Elephants fell victim to this right from the start.

It moved too fast as well. One minute he's in school and then just like that, his parents die and he's running off and randomly jumps a train that just happens to be a circus train. That's fine, but all that from the beginning could have been scrapped and had him explaining all of the factors that led to him to end up with the circus through interaction with another character. You know, a scene where he's opening up to someone (most likely the Marlena character) and telling his past. Either that or spend more that a few dozen pages on his life before the circus.

I would have liked it if he had "paid his dues" so to speak a little more before ascending to his higher position. Maybe more of an intense scene where he heals some animal or does it secretly or something. Not just diagnosing one of the horses as terminal and then poof!, you're in the good graces of the higher-ups. I wasn't convinced that he had done enough to earn August's trust and become that close to him. And what was with that scene when August introduced him to Uncle Al when Al went apeshit and smashed the glass cup on the floor? That was stupid and made no sense.

I also wasn't sold on Jacob's intense hatred towards August. Ok, August beat the elephant and wouldn't let him give the other animals water until after Al had made a deal. Animal cruelty has to be expected when talking about the circus in the 30s. Hell, animals in zoos in this day and age are treated poorly, let alone some second-rate circus eighty years ago. But trying to portray August as some kind of monster was a failure on the author's part. Sure, he might have been a jerk I guess and was rude to the people in the diner, but someone who deserved to die? And this was all before he hit Marlena. Sure, that's despicable, but let's remember the context here: this is the 1930s, women had only been allowed to vote for a handful of years and were still seen and regarded as baby-factories for the most part. Him hitting her (once, not every night or anything like that) didn't seem to warrant his portrayal of some vicious, evil person. A worthless asshole, sure. If he really was supposed to be a schizophrenic, then that was also a failure on the author's part. A laughable failure at that.

The romance between Jacob and Marlena was contrived and not genuine. There weren't enough instances where you could feel and sense the attraction growing between them. The idea I guess was to paint a picture of some evil, wife-beating and animal-beating monster who doesn't deserve his lovely innocent wife so the young, newcomer has to save her from him.

Camel and Walter getting thrown from the train was... eh whatever. I didn't care at that point. I just wanted the book to be over.

As for the chapters of Jacob as an old man in the nursing home... those were the only bright spots in the book, but for being 93 years old, he was quite alert and lucid in his speech I thought. The end... gah, give me a break. Yeah, some manager of a circus just happens to know of "one of the greatest circus disasters in history." How convenient. And he agrees to let Jacob stay with the circus knowing that he escaped from the nursing home and people are looking for him? He's 93. He needs constant assistance and near 24 hour care not to mention who knows how much medication. Sure, you can stay! No problem! Alrighty.

[meredithgreene]

Originally Posted by mmyap

I had a mixed reaction to this book. I'll withold comment until other have had a chance to read it.

I did want to say though, there is no way, no how I would go see this movie. Unless they cut out all the parts that make it "gritty." Which if they did, sort of defeats the purpose of making the movie in the first place.

Since when does Hollywood shy away from 'gritty'?

On a side note I found this bit o' rumor on the upcoming film: "A film adaption of the novel will begin production in June 2010 from 20th Century Fox and is directed by Francis Lawrence. The film is produced by Gil Netter, Erwin Stoff and Andrew Tennenbaum and is written by Richard LaGravenese. Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson have been cast, Christoph Waltz is also in talks to star." (courtesy of Wikipedia)

[meredithgreene]

Perhaps this is just me, but the beginning narrative reminded me very much of several of Jack London's stories in the tone of the reminiscing voice. Not that I minded; it felt pleasantly familiar. Once the memories got started however, I found it quite easy to watch the main develop through the narrative, which was not pressed upon me but was allowed to fall open like the pages of dairy. I keenly connected with his regretful agony over learning of his dad's self-destructive sacrifices for his own education.... but I don't know if it was quite plausible for have Jacob abandon everything his dad had worked for and not graduate; that one action seemed a bit unrealistic, but "necessary for the plot", but that is my own personal opinion. The other action I did not quite believe was the related but largely unsubstantiated romance between the protagonist and the horse whisperer, but I think someone else has already pointed this out. I concur. The ending seemed like something out of a Baron Munchhausen story, more dream than reality.

The "red-lighting" practice was to me a previously unheard-of atrocity, but even more horrifying when I did a bit of depression era Googling and found it was not all that uncommon for train-bound employers to do. How times have changed.

[Libra]

I thought I was never going to finish this book.After all the characters were introduced and the story started rolling on,I really enjoyed it.Everything about the circus life back then,the way they treated the animals was depressing and upsetting , also the human beings.The story going back and forth to the present and past made me continue reading it.

The ending I did not like,it was more "giving the readers a good ending" more than anything else.