Elephants Stampede into Readers’ Heart

Reading is a respectable hobby, and passionate readers are always looking for the next great book to get their hands on. Sara Gruen wrote a novel in 2006 titled “Water for Elephants,” and the reviews it received were phenomenal.

It takes place in 1931 and concerns a young man, Jacob Jankowski, who is twenty-three years old and who is going to school to become a veterinarian. His parents are randomly killed in a car accident one day. After fleeing from his grief, he runs off and literally joins the circus. Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth is obscure to say the least. Jacob, having failed to graduate because he never took his final exams, becomes the traveling circus’s vet.

As the circus travels the country, he meets numerous people—most importantly, Marlena, who is a part of the circus’s act and who trains the elephant. Jacob instantly falls in love with her. But this book is more than a love story. Actually, it is hardly even that.

The book switches from when Jacob is young to when he is old and sitting in a nursing home, remembering his past. He becomes bitter over the years, but that is apart of the book’s charm. Gruen’s witty storytelling makes the novel that much more gripping.

Actual pictures of Depression-era circus folk are included in the novel, and these photos provide rare insight into what the greatest show on earth looks like behind the scenes. Unfortunately, some of the pictures (as well as parts of the story) are for mature readers only. Consider yourself warned.

The most important part of the story is where it starts out in the prologue: The Disaster March. The Disaster March is the tune the band played when huge animals stampeded in 1931. This is a real historical event, and the actual Benzini Brothers’ traveling circus was involved.

A movie is coming out in April of 2011 based on Gruen’s novel and starring Robert Pattinson as Jacob, and Reese Witherspoon as Marlena. Do not immediately let Twilight’s biggest star diminish one’s anticipation of the movie. He should fit the character quite seamlessly.