 |
|
Title: Water for Elephants (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers)
ISBN: 1594132003
Author:
Sara Gruen
Publicate Date: 2007-05-09
Publish: 2007-05-09
List Price: $13.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.05
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.16
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: skip it
Some parts are entertaining enough, but left me wanting more. Lacking in character development. Predictable with a thin story line. Skip it. Better stuff out there to read.
|
2: A MUST READ!
I loved this book. It was wonderfully written and I just couldn't put it down until it was finished. I can't wait for more from this authour!
|
3: Stongly recommended
When I first picked up this book, I really didn't know what to expect. However, I am very pleased that I did! The story's main character is Jacob, whose life takes a tragic turn. However, by the end of the story, it doens't appear so tragic, after all.
Jacob's story is told in alternating chapters, Jacob as a young, college-age man who after a terrible tragedy is left to fend for himself, emotionally and financially, and then, Jacob as a ninty year old man in a nursing home.
The story is rich in emotion, and circus history. As the chapters take you back and forth through time, you grow an attachment to the characters, even the less than likeable circus hands.
It is unique, and entertaining.
Overall, I would recommend this.
|
4: Enchanting
This is a gentle book that I found myself thinking about when I couldn't be reading it. Just as James Harriot could write about some pretty unseemly characters, there is compassion and understanding there so that you know the motivation and realize that the characters made the choices they did because they were the best choices available to them.(Excluding the method of Redlighting or throwing unwanted employees off of moving trains in the middle of the night!) I read it in three sittings. It struck me how well the author captured what it must be like to be old. She has the main character alternate between his present life in a nursing home and then flashes back to his circus days. A review above talked about how the main character was the only one with compassion; this isn't true; there is a dwarf and his dog that are amazing characters; Rosemary, one of the nurses at the home and numerous others who are exquisitely crafted. Rosie the elephant who smiles just made me smile throughout. This book will be with me for a very long time; I never reread books, but this one might just warrant another read. It is the kind of book that while reading, every once in a while you just have to pause and absorb the beauty of the writing and the way an idea has been conveyed. I've been recommending it to everyone I see, because again, it keeps creeping in to my thoughts. Someone recommended it to me because something in our conversation reminded her of it. It's that kind of book.
|
5: Loved this book
When I read the synopsis of this book I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. What a wonderful peek inside depression era circus life. I very much enjoyed this author's style of writing.
|
|
|
|
|
