The Elephant Stole the Show

Spoiler Alert!

     

   Sara Gruen's novel, Water for Elephants, begins with a who-dunnit murder mystery and ends with the fantastic conclusion to that cliff hanger.  For me Rosie was the true heroine of this novel.  I loved her personality.  I loved that she was smart and constantly out witted August and the rest of her handlers (I especially loved the case of the missing lemonade).   I loved that she only understood Polish.  The strength of this novel lay in Gruen's meticulous portrait of circus life, drawing a vivid picture of what went on behind the scenes and using circus jargon in a realistic way.  I liked the grittiness of the worker characters, like Camel, and the freaks, like Kinko.  She did a great job creating the realities of working during the Great Depression and the cruelties of life on a railroad circus, like red-lighting and going without pay.  For me, I think this book would almost make a better screenplay because what she writes about is such a visual experience.  Despite the fact that the movie looks like a typical Hollywood blockbuster, I am almost looking forward to seeing the circus come to life in a more visceral way.  

   Jacob's character was a naive, spineless and asinine boy.  He rarely stood up against August throughout the book, allowing both Marlena and Rosie to bear the brunt of his moods.  He was not a character I could believe in, he was weak.  In a protagonist I like someone I can admire and root for; I could not root for Jacob.  I was constantly hoping he would get red-lighted (oops).  The love story between him and Marlena felt flat and lifeless with no passion and no true risk.  As book reviewer, Elizabeth Judd, wrote: 

 

But Gruen's prose is merely serviceable, and she hurtles 

through cataclysmic events, overstuffing her whiplash narrative with drama 

(there's an animal stampede, two murders and countless fights). 

She also asserts a grand passion between Jacob and Marlena 

that's never convincingly demonstrated. 

 

   I loathed the ninety-year old Jacob even more.  I hated that she included this plot-twist in the book.  The way she turned carrying water for elephants into something common, that old men boast about constantly in his nursing home was outlandish and never explained.  It's the title of the book for God's sake!  I also thought the ending was really out there where he is allowed to join the circus again.  It seemed like she was grasping for a happy ending.

 

 

 

   Marlena's character was witless, immature and vacant.  There was no depth to her character.  She was inconsistent throughout the novel.   She was brave enough to run away with the circus, but not to stand up to August until she had another man there to save her.  She was a brillant performer with a sixth sense with horses and elephants, yet failed to protect any of her animals from harm (except at the very end when somehow they manage to save half the menagerie and make off with the most prized animals).

 

  All in all I really loved learning about the circus world through Sara Gruen's obvious research into circus life in the 1930's.  However, Katherine Dunn's, Geek Love,  is a more exciting tale of the weird and freakish side to a carnival -involving parents purposefully mutating their offspring to create their own freaks- and it's better written.  (Heather- do you remember having to read this wildly inappropriate book in Miss.Abrahm's class in high school?)  I also really really loved Rosie.  In the end, the characters felt too childish for me to really connect with their stories.  

 

  I'm looking forward to hearing what you all though about the book! And don't forget- you can still post about Little Bee once you've finished that one too!