Water for Elephants

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and a couple of required Lit readings may have warmed me up to read the unread books stacked on my bedside table, which is starting to bother me because of clutter: stacks of books and magazines occupy the most space making me wonder where to put my glasses and hair elastics when I'm about to sleep. De-cluttering, I found Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, the paperback I bought last May, and decided to read it finally.

I bought the book mainly because of the numerous critical acclaims on its front and back cover, I didn't care what it was all about. Maybe that's why I waited a full season before finally reading it. But after reading it now, I wonder why I waited too long. I am now in love with the book: such a unique fairy tale love story.

It is set around the 1930s, telling the story of a one-exam-shy-away-from-being-a-Cornell- educated veterinarian. Fate brought him to a circus train and he falls in love with Marlena, one of the circus' performers. Their love was too adorable for me despite it being in a very precarious situation and their story was such a page turner with a lot of surprises, I would have read it in a day if not for my squeezing of tasks in between. 

Throughout the story, you get introduced into this culture of train circuses, elephants, love and murder during the Depression era. It helped that some of the chapters showed real picture archives, so you get an idea of what it was really like. The story too, was told through a stream of memories from Jacob's point of view. The words were clear and real, I sometimes throw a chuckle in between and it was really  suspenseful until the end, you'd be surprised in the final pages. 

Anyway, I don't review a book unless I liked it. So I recommend you read it too, or I guess you may have already read it since it was published in 2006. But whatever, this was engrossing.