Water for Elephants

Animal lovers, Water For Elephants will break your heart.

Set during the 1930s Depression, the novel takes you to the the gritty side of a struggling circus. The bosses are cruel, the performers are exploited and the workers are sad and broken. But belief in the circus illusion still survives and the characters have their decent sides too.

The circus animals show the complexities of their characters as well. They can be vicious, like the hungry big cats or like Queenie, the clown-dwarf's companion. They are capable of mischievousness, loyalty, sadness and love. Like humans, they are emotional beings.

But the most tender moments are Rosie's, the Polish elephant. The author gets me right here when she describes a big tear welling in Rosie's eye after the circus trainer throws a lit cigarette in her mouth.

Throws a lit cigarette in her mouth!

It makes me shudder. Poor Rosie suffers her share of beatings too. I almost had to stop reading.

But this is a story of hope and perseverance and readers who persevere to the end are rewarded as are Jacob and Marlena.

Jacob, the hero and circus veterinarian, falls in love with Marlena, a performer who unwisely married the circus trainer. They band together against her husband's cruelty. Besides sleeping together, they are guilty of some pretty awful dialog. The dialog is awkward throughout the book but that is my only real criticism.