It has been a little while since I read Water for Elephants, but I glanced at it on my bookshelf this morning and just couldn’t resist writing about it.
The book starts off as a tale from an old man, Jacob.  He’s in a nursing home and is slowly loosing the plot.  Loosing it enough that when he dreams, he relives his past – and narrates this great story. His mind brings him back to the days when he was twenty-three years old – during the depression.  He’s going through a quarter life crisis and is about to write his University Exams to become a veterinarian.  One evening he has a mental breakdown and promptly leaves school and jumps on a passing train.

Unknown to Jacob, the train belongs to a circus and so his life begins within the trials and tribulations of a circus worker. (Carny?) The story has love, adventure and more.

Jacob finds a place tending the circus animals, including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. He also comes to know Marlena, the star of the equestrian act—and wife of August, a charismatic but cruel animal trainer. Caught between his love for Marlena and his need to belong in the crazy family of travelling performers, Jacob is freed only by a murderous secret that will bring the big top down.

The meaning of the title? As well said by Wikipedia “In the beginning of the novel, Jacob mocks another resident of thenursing home who claims to have worked in the circus and carried water for the elephants. We are led to believe that this is a popular, but untrue, claim.”

I’ve just checked and apparently the book is going t be made into a movie next year (that’s the first I’ve heard of that!)
Be sure to read it before it goes onto film.  It’s a great novel and not too difficult either.

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