I'm also still working out if I want a "formatted" review or just "free style" and since no one even knows this blog exists, I"m just going to go with straight out ramble on this one.
So yes, I am a few year behind on this one. In fact, I've owned this book for over a year and it has been on my to-read list for a couple of years as well. So, on a plane ride to Omaha, I finally got around to reading it. It actually started out slow, too slow for a plane ride (and subsequent 24 hour long car ride), so I finished it at home.
Enough rambling, onto the review.
As has been my experience with many historical fiction novels, Water for Elephants can be a bit slow and dull at times. I am also happy to report that there are also page-turner moments, and it is a pleasant mix of both. The story is a first person narrative of a person who is 90ish, and also 19ish (20ish? I forget). He goes back and forth between now and then, describing his days as a circus vet - now a nursing home resident.
There is love. There is blood. There is questionable treatment of animals. I will admit that I immediately wanted to watch Dumbo after finishing this book. Gruen also shares her "as inspired by" stories in the afterward, which was a neat touch.
Throughout the book are small photos of circus wagons and trains; elephants and their trainers; circus hullabaloos.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to others, as long as you have the self-discipline to push yourself through the bits of bore. It's not as bad as I am making it seem, I just didn't care for the nursing home portions. I mean, who really wanted to see the nursing home portions in The Notebook? Not the same story, but along the same line of emotions.
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