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Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.
The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan
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Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 521X7W0005HB
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. this book is brand new. Seller Inventory # ABE-1657844796382
Book Description Softcover. Condition: new. Over 10,000,000 copies in print worldwide#1 New York Times BestsellerA Los Angeles Times BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA Newsday Favorite Book of 2006A USA Today BestsellerA Major Motion Picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph WaltzJacob Janowskis luck had run out--orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was the Great Depression and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. There he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but brutal animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this group of misfits was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival. Seller Inventory # DADAX1565125606
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Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781565125605
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9781565125605
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. this book is brand new. Seller Inventory # ABE-1683156810420
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Water for Elephants 0.85. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9781565125605
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. #1 New York Times Best Seller Stated First Paperback Edition. Seller Inventory # ABE-1240429614