Review of Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

*Water for Elephants* by Sara Gruen (2006). Published by Algonquin Books.

The first time I had read Water for Elephants was when I was in high school. I remember I had watched the Robert Pattinson version of the movie, which I thought at the time was just okay, and then I decided to sit down and try to read the novel.

Well, as a burned out high school kid who was ruined by my English classes, it didn’t happen until I was in college.

I owned a copy of the book I had found at a local Goodwill, and when I was in my dorm, rotting away and deciding what to do with my life, I read the book.

I recently decided to revisit the book when I was hearing about a potential Broadway show coming out of the woodwork. It was based on this book, and although I knew I wasn’t going to be seeing it, as it didn’t interest me at all, I decided anyways to revisit the book after all of these years.

And I will say, it’s always interesting revisiting books with an older perspective, especially considering by that point you’ve seen more of the world and what it has to offer with its people and emotions.

Here’s my review!

The story of finding love and drama while running away to a circus.

Our main character in this novel is Jacob Jankowski, and we begin with the modern day. He’s now in a nursing home, as he’s in his nineties, and life’s pretty mundane within the four walls he’s stuck within.

His kids visit on the weekends, but Jacob isn’t too happy with the life he has in the nursing home. One day, a circus appears right outside the windows of the home, and he begins talking about his time as a young man working at the circus.

When he was twenty-three, Jacob was preparing for final exams at Cornell when he’s summoned into a room and informed that his parents died in a car accident.

His career had hinged working at his father’s practice, and with his father’s death, he learns their home was mortgaged so they could afford tuition, and the practice will no longer become his.

Jacob leaves Cornell behind, despite about being able to graduate, and jumps on a train in the middle of the night.

Turns out the train he jumped onto belonged to the circus, and he isn’t thrown off. Instead, he’s brought into the folds of the circus, and his hired as a vet once the owner realizes Jacob has the education he has.

There’s someone working at the circus who’s deeply abusive to the animals within his care, and Jacob starts falling for the guy’s wife: Marlena. The guy, known as August, starts to realize what’s up, and he hits the both of them for what he suspects.

Marlena leaves August not long after that, and August threatens them all, saying he has to stay married to his wife or he’ll expose people so they get pushed off of the train.

It’s also revealed he has schizophrenia. When Jacob goes to see Marlena, they have sex in her hotel room, and they decide to be together. She returns to the circus, but refuses to be near August at all, and she realizes soon that she is pregnant.

Jacob decides to kill August in the middle of the night, but instead decides to just leave a knife on his pillow to threaten him. When he returns back to his room, he realizes Camel and Walter, the two men he was helping out, were kicked off of the train and he was supposed to be gone too.

But this isn’t the end—the workers kicked out eventually come back and let out of the animals, causing a stampede. The elephant abused by August kills him, and the circus is shut down. The owner is found dead, and Marlena and Jacob take the animals with them, joining Ringling. They then settle in Chicago.

Back in the present day, we learn they married and have five kids.

Marlena died several years before, and Jacob’s kids are going to take him to the circus. There, he meets the manager, and asks to sell tickets and stay with this circus.

The manager agrees, and Jacob feels like he’s found the place he belongs at.

Overall Thoughts

This book is such a unique love story with an angle that isn’t often seen in novels, and I thought it was pretty compelling because of that.

Sure, it’s a bit standard and more leaning to bestseller tropes throughout, but I thought this was entertaining and that I was glad I reread it.

There’s a lot of merit when it comes to building entire worlds in novels, as it’s not easy at all, and I thought Gruen did an excellent job of fleshing out all of their characters, their problems, and their motivations.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.