Water for Elephants

I don’t normally buy books, I prefer to check them out from the library before committing  money to something I may not like. with the exception of garage sales or used book stores. Last spring I found a copy of ‘The Girl who Played with Fire’ for about a dollar and snagged it. I hadn’t read any of the books, but had seen the videos at Blockbuster (yes, I know, way back in the pre-bankruptcy days). Ok, I’ll give it a shot.  You see, I do love to read, but I’m a tightwad at heart, to cough up $25, or even $15 is difficult for me.

I was at a sale a couple of wks ago and found a copy of ‘Water for Elephants’ and recognized that it had been a movie earlier this year.  I didn’t see the movie, it just didn’t look interesting to me. A book for $1, well, I’ll give that a go. If you’re like me and didn’t realize it was a book, you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you choose to read it.

Jacob Jankowski is nearly finished with vet school at Cornell when an unspeakable tragedy strikes his family. In one single second, his entire world, everything he’s always known, and thought has been yanked out from under him. All of his future plans, up in smoke.  He tries to carry on, but in a daze he walks away from what was his life and finds himself on a circus train.

Through dreams of his youth, you learn about his life on the circus train, as he’s getting through the days leading up to a visit from family and a trip to the circus that is in town and happens to set up right next door to his retirement home. It’s a dirty, gritty life on the train. And a rude awakening to realize he’s trapped in an old and decrepit body.

There is intrigue, tragedy, love, murder, and an elephant named Rosie. It was not what I was expecting, but I did find it very enjoyable and I wanted to keep reading it. I found it to be an easy read, unlike the ‘Tattoo’ series, which I enjoyed immensely, but they were a bit like slogging through hip deep mud the first 100 pages or so. Would I recommend it? Yes. If you’re looking for vampires, supernatural stories, or romance novels, you won’t find it here.

Have you seen the movie? Have you read the book? I’m curious to know how they compare.  I will watch it when it comes out on DVD.