This novel by Sara Gruen is a bestseller, which means lots of people have bought it, and lots of people have probably even read it. The author skillfully moves back and forth from the past and Jacob’s tenure as a circus vet during the Depression to the present, where he’s in his 90s and living in a nursing home. Gruen did extensive historical research on the American train circus and incorporated many of the incidents and procedures she found into the story. The main character is likable, and as a reader I cared about what happened to him, appreciating his love of animals in his youth and his humor and curmudgeonliness in old age.
But I found certain elements of the novel disappointing or unconvincing. Any character not described as a “working man” talks like a college graduate which, I would venture to guess, was not what most circus performers and management were during the Depression. The author’s descriptions are effective but spare–a current trend in fiction writing, I believe, in this age of dominant cinematography. Her narrative voice sounds much like that of many other contemporary authors, and does not distinguish itself (but neither do the others, usually). And the author shamelessly plucks a large chunk of plot from William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, with a debonair Jewish paranoid schizophrenic married to a beautiful Catholic girl, and a young, innocent non-Jewish man who joins the threesome. (Gotcha! Ms. Gruen. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Did you think we’re all too young to remember not only the novel but the movie? You know, the one with Kevin Kline and MERYL STREEP, for cryin’ out loud? Really.) Young Jacob falls in love with Marlena, is suspected by the jealous and volatile August of having an affair with her, and watches as the cuckolded husband smashes up the place like a mad bull elephant. Gruen only diverges from this plot when she gives it a happier ending than Sophie and Nathan’s. (Otherwise, she’s have had to give the book the title, Marlena’s Choice.) Had she not plagiarized her plot, I could have enjoyed it much more.
It’s a good book, but not a great book. When I wondered out loud to the Cap’n how such books become bestsellers, he reminded me that Dianetics was also a bestseller. That explains a lot.
To cleanse my palate, I have begun Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I don’t think I’ve ever read Rushdie before, but after about 20 pages, I’m already enamored of his style which is spare but beautifully lyrical, unique, and gives me the guilty, pleasurable feeling of reading children’s stories again. I find it commendable that Rushdie and Garcia Marquez, whose magical realism gives me a similar feeling, are considered swanky and sophisticated.
Ah, originality.
Shimshonit 
Ya, I thought Water for Elephants was just ok. Not amazing, not bad, just alright. Not clear why it became a bestseller, as there wasn’t anything extra special that stood out for me. (And I didn’t know about the similar plot lines!)
Rachel: That’s because you’re in her reading population that actually IS too young to remember Sophie’s Choice.
Just remember: the bestseller list is constituted not only of what the college graduates read.
I remember being in AP United States Government and Politics Class in 10th grade. At some point, we learned that approximately 25% of the United States citizenry had college degrees, and just about everyone in the class plotzed. Our teacher said, “You’re all dumbfounded, right?” It turns out that in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the college graduation rate is about 75%, and no one in the class realized how astronomically abnormal this was. Similarly, there was the exquisitely delicious time that people kept remarking, “Who on earth is going to vote for Bush; everyone will vote for Kerry!” After the elections, the teacher reminded us of what people had said before elections, and that in fact, half the nation had voted for Bush; it’s just that DC is a Democratic bubble. I’m reminded of Israeli/American oleh journalist Ze’ev Chafets pointing out – in a wonderful book on how the American media totally distorts and misunderstands Middle Eastern politics – when American pollsters determined that Begin had no popular support, because they forgot to poll anyone but English-speaking Israeli university students.
But I digress. Perhaps the bestseller list isn’t entirely representative of normative American behavior, since most Americans probably nary pick up a book – instead opting for “When buildings collapse!” and “When surgery goes wrong!” and “Fast animals, slow children” (not that such shows wouldn’t entertain me) – but nevertheless, realize that excluding those Americans who never read at all, the bestseller list includes those whose daily news is “Britney gains weight aboard alien craft!”