Water For Elephants Review

Imagine the day you always dreamt about when you were a child, the circus. The roasted peanuts, the popping of the popcorn, the red and white big top engulfing the skyline. You counted down the days until you could see the ferocious lions and majestic horses. Sara Gruen’s novel, Water for Elephants, brings you the surreal circus world that you never imagined. You are first introduced to Jacob Jankowski, a promising young man just shy of getting his degree as a veterinarian at Cornell University. He soon learns of his parent’s death and becomes emotionally unstable. He leaves his chance of having a career of a lifetime and hops onto a random train that turns out to be the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Unwelcomed at first, and not to mention his low ranking, Jacob finds himself lost and confused. But soon enough, his extraordinary veterinarian skills secures him a high spot in the brutal hierarchy.

Gruen introduces you to a variety of characters, all with diverse personalities. From the oh-so confident Uncle Al, to the harsh midget, Walter. Not to mention the way Gruen’s writing connects you with the animals. A very important relationship develops throughout the story between August, Marlena, and Jacob. August and Marlena are two star performers in the show that happen to be married. Jacob is deeply attracted towards Marlena from the start, foreshadowing a brewing conflict between Jacob and August.

Gruen presents a writing style like no other. The story starts out with an event during the depression era when Jacob was in his 20s. It then goes forward to when Jacob is a bitter old man, locked behind the walls of a nursing home. Jacob repeats over and over again the same line, constantly reminding us of his old age, “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” These two stories interlock to provide for a feverish plot that will keep you hooked until the very last word.

Sarah Gruen

Water for Elephants is the definition of historical fiction. But do not let those two words scare you away. The history she provides is something much more different than the ones you’re used to in your World History Class. Gruen spent months on end researching the circus and all the aspects behind it, and it’s evident that it paid off. The history of the circus that she has is incredible, never would I have imagined that there would be so much more to a circus than a man sticking his head in a lion’s mouth. And if you thought the historical aspect couldn’t get any better, Gruen incorporates real pictures from old time circuses. With her extraordinary descriptions and engaging pictures, you really feel like you are in the heart of the “Most Spectacular Show on Earth.”

To be perfectly honest, it’s impossible to categorize this book as only Historical Fiction. There is love. There is comedy. There is sadness. Most authors have a hard time infusing all these different aspects into their stories, but Sara Gruen does an astonishing job. Every genre ties together to provide the reader a story that makes your heart twist and turn in every direction.

With everything good, there has to be something bad. With all the circus description you can imagine there has to be a lot of circus lingo. Of course, Gruen is entitled to explain some of it to us. In this passage she describes the word kinker throughout dialogue, “…don’t you go calling them ‘kinkers’ to their faces, neither.’ ‘What do I call them?’ ‘Performers.’” But then there are sometimes when I found myself resorting to Google to find out what some of the terms meant.

In conclusion, I would give Water For Elephants 5/5 stars. After finishing the book, I had it on my mind for days. I wanted more. It is one of the most spectacular books I have ever read in my entire life. Gruen’s characterization and plot are so intriguing and interesting. You find yourself fully engaged in everything going on, you start to feel what the characters are feeling. Jacob is happy, so you’re happy. Jacob is depressed, so you’re depressed. If you were able to only read one more book for the rest of your life, be sure to check out Water for Elephants.

My Top 5 Books

Truth In Memoir

In my opinion, for a book to be considered non-fiction it must be true. Sure you can stretch the truth on dialogue because you’re obviously not going to remember word for word what was said. But if you stretch the truth too far by saying you killed someone when really you only we’re deeply affected by the death, then you should just consider it fiction. When you add characters that never existed and events that never happened into a non-fiction story, you take away from the credibility and readers start wondering what really happened.

I think half-truths are okay if the author makes note of it. They should tell you that some events in the story are stretched out and not entirely true, so that they can avoid a situation like James Frey had. It would have been wise for James Frey to come out and say that his story was stretched in areas when he first published the book. He could have even said his story was more fiction-like but inspired by true events.

When it comes to labeling things between fiction and non-fiction, it only matters a little bit. The reader should know if what they are reading is either true or fake, but whether the book is good or not is the main point. I could care less if we didn’t distinguish between other genres like romance, mystery, and comedy because in reality, most stories contain a little bit of each. In the end, all that matters to me is if what I am reading is a good book.

Readicide

In some ways, I do think that schools are killing the love of reading. They force high school students to read challenging books that are irrelevant to this time period. I don’t believe that genre fiction is less “worthy” than literary fiction. Genre fiction can have just as much value and convey just as strong of a message as literary fiction, and being a “popular” read doesn’t take away from that. There are many popular books out there that can still have valuable lessons like classics do that actually pertain to this time period. When books are relevant to the time period we are in now, students enjoy them a lot more because they can actually relate to them. When we read books where we have to resort to SparkNotes for every single line, it takes away from the joy of reading. If schools wanted us to enjoy reading, then they shouldn’t flood us with books that confuse us on every page. I think that if schools switched to a 50/50 system where half the books we read are literary fiction and the other half are genre fiction, the love of reading would still be present for some students. For example, they could still keep Macbeth in the curriculum, but they could also add a more popular title like The Hunger Games. Schools should also add more independent reading projects. With this, students can pick a book that they are actually interested in and still do all of the reading analysis that the curriculum requires. For me, the love of reading has not been destroyed. Mostly because I find books that I love and read them in my free time. Not having a deadline or a mountain of packets to complete is what makes reading enjoyable to me.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Book Trailer

Adapting Your Book

Some challenges a filmmaker would have in adapting Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close would be to decide whose point of view to focus on. Throughout the book you switch between Oskar, Oskar’s Grandma, and then Oskar’s Grandpa. If I were to choose whose point of view to focus on I would choose Oskar’s because he has the most interesting story line. I would still include Oskar’s grandma in the story, but I would probably take out Oskar’s grandpa. The only time that you really see Oskar’s grandpa show up is in his letters and at a little part at the end. In my opinion, the movie could go without him being there.

One of the most important scenes that you cannot change in order for the adaption to work is when Oskar listens to the voicemails from his father on 9/11. In this scene you really see how much Oskar loves and misses his father and how much of a strong relationship they had. Another scene that is essential to keep is when Oskar finds the key. This is the whole reason for Oskar’s journey, and without it you have no plot. The third scene that is essential to keep is when he visits Abby Black’s house for the first time. Her and her ex-husband become an essential part in Oskar’s journey towards the end of the book, so having this introduction helps you to understand the plot better.

A part that would have to be cut in adapting the film is all the letter’s that Oskar’s grandpa writes. Since you would only be following Oskar’s story line, it would be too confusing to the audience to include a whole other story line. A few other parts that would have to be cut are some of the house’s Oskar visits on his journey. Since he doesn’t find any clues in many of the houses, some of them would have to be cut out in order to keep the story moving.

Book 1 Project, The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games takes place in Panem, the country that rose up out of what used to be North America. The Capitol, which most people despise because of their controlling behavior and the annual Hunger Games, is the center and controller of the country of Panem. The Capitol governs 12 districts that are each given a different role, like supplying coal that all the other districts and the Capitol can use.

My idea is that you have an actual replica of the country of Panem that is in The Hunger Games. The main purpose is that avid Hunger Games fans could come and visit a place where they can get the full Hunger Games experience. On page 18 in The Hunger Games Katniss describes Panem, “The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to it’s citizens. Then Came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated.” The “world” that would be created would be based off of this description.  The main area would consist of a large building that would be called the Capitol. Around the Capitol would be 12 smaller buildings that would each represent one of the 12 districts. In this set up, fans could travel to each district and the capitol and get to experience what it would be like to live in Panem.

 Each area would have different activities that would help to give guests the full out experience. For example, in the Capitol section you can have an area where you dress up in the extravagant outfits the Capitol people wore. You can also have the wonderful food that Katniss describes during her stay in the Capitol. On page 64 in The Hunger Games, Katniss describes how her food comes, “He presses a button on the side of the table. The top splits and from below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch.” With this concept a restaurant can be created that delivers your food in just this way. The guests will really feel like they are living in the high-tech world that Suzanne Collins created in The Hunger Games.

In each of the district areas there would be different things to do that reflect on that district’s purpose. For example, district 12’s main job is coal mining. So in the district 12 area there would be a ride/simulation that takes you down on an elevator into a mock coal mine. In the mock coal mine, there would be a 3D simulation ride that takes you throughout the coal mine and presents you with everyday coal mining problems. The coal mining aspect of District 12 is first introduced to us on page 4, “Our part of District 12, nicknamed the seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying the scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines on their sunken faces.” To make this scene come alive in the simulation you can have pictures of coal miners on the walls, or even have the operators of that area present themselves as the coal miners Katniss describes. In every district there would be activities that represent what the district’s purpose is.

This idea will work because fans will get to expand their experience and become even more obsessed with The Hunger Games. It will also promote The Hunger Games books and movies, because it will make people want to read the books and see the movies. We already know that creating a fictional world helps fans and guests to fall more in love with a book because of the success of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. They took the aspect of Harry Potter and turned it into a fan experience. With this fan experience, fans were able to still be engaged with Harry Potter even after the movies and books ended. With this same aspect applied to The Hunger Games, we can only hope that it has the same effect.