What readers think of Water for Elephants, plus links to write your own review.

My willing suspension of disbelief just kept slipping away while reading this book. I found the contemporary speech patterns of the main character to very annoying. In order for me to continue reading I had to move it out of 1932. Beyond that, I could not believe that a guy about to graduate from Cornell would walk out of the final and join a circus. Nope, not even dead parents would make anyone do that.

The melodrama at the end, beaten to a pulp and jumping from train to train while its moving - just too hard to believe. The only thing in the book that I could believe was that none of his children or grandchildren wanted to move the Jacob out of the nursing home and into their care.

Y----a----w----n. This book started out with an interesting premise but as it progressed I became confused. The confusion had nothing to do with the plot but centered on which section of the book that I I purchased the book, Had I purchased it in the new fiction section of the bookstore or the romantic novel section? My memory said new fiction but my common sense said it should have been in the latter with the steamy covered books.

This book was not a mind bender but a heart tugger. The bad guys (August, Uncle Al, the mean nurse and Blackie) were so easily determined to be without social redeeming qualities that even Lucifer would hate them. The bad guys are mean, crude, cheaters, abusers, and on and on and on. And the good guys (Jacob, the lovely Marlena, Walter and Rosie the elephant) are caring, smart, honest, pretty, abused and on and on and on.

While there are many bizarre moments the prize goes the surprise party for August. This scene wins for no other reason that the heroine wants Rosie the elephant to be at the party. Give me a break.

I am being kind with a poor rating. It is not a good book.

This book was recommended to me by my sister. I was in the need of something new and different and picked it up. A third of the way through the book I called my sister and asked her why she felt I needed to read something so dark and dismal. She said keep reading. I did. Maybe the story mellowed or I became desensitized, I'm still not sure.I became a magnet to the book. It is a fantastical, realistic, sleazy, horrific and loving story about our society. (Which hasn't changed much.) But it touched my heart for the love of humans and animals despite the cruelty. I loved it.

I initially did not like this book. I could barely handle the nursing home/assisted living chapters. That hit a personal note with me because that is where I have spent my career. However, I kept reading, as the circus history and love story not only intrigued me, but pulled me in. As the story progressed, I understood both the past scenes and the present. Getting old is not for sissies and I have never really read anything first person about the frustrations that the elderly think about or feel. As the book was getting near to the end, I could hardly stand waiting for it to end, as I figured it would just solidify my first impression. However, it changed or I changed. I loved it. It was beautiful. I saw the brilliance of it all. One of my favorite all time reads. Took me through someone's life young to old and changed me. I would recommend it to the young, the old, people in the health care field, people that want to know about circus life, people that want what they read to affect them long after the book is done. BRAVO

This book reads wonderfully. Ms. Gruen writes this story with 100% substance and no fluff. What surprised me the most was how she got into the male ego. She actually writes as if she knows what its like to be a man, its amazing how well she pulls it off. She must have studied the male ego because she hits it right on the head. She has recreated
a world long gone with perfect detail. She is selfless in telling the story by not overwriting or filling pages with worthless prose. Sara gets right to the point of drawing the circus in our minds and not wallowing in worthless information. A great ride, I wish that it would never end.

Upon leaving childhood I started to become disturbed by circuses and this book reiterated that thought for me. Though, I could practically smell all the old wonderful circus smells (and some not so wonderful smells!)

I loved all the characters, both human and animal! Okay, well not all the characters, I was rooting against the bad guys!

I also enjoyed the use of the narrator's flashback. So often we forget that our elderly are still people, they had a life, they had experiences, and they are more then mere children in aged bodies.

Truly a book to invoke memories and initiate new thoughts on our beliefs, behaviors and acceptance of others behaviors.