Water for Elephants Review
What does a book expert think: Get a comprehensive overview of the reception and review of Water for Elephants.
Article written by Onyekachi Osuji
B.A. in Public Administration and certified in Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction)
Water for Elephants is a 2006 novel by Canadian-American writer Sara Gruen which follows a character Jacob Jankowski, an old man in his nineties who lives in an old people’s nursing home, as he reminisces on the days of his youth as a member of a traveling circus in 1930s USA. One of the strong themes of the novel is Animal Rights.
Key Facts about Water for Elephants
- Title: Water for Elephants
- Author: Sara Gruen
- Publication Date: May 26, 2006
- Genre: Historical Romance
- Number of Pages: 345
- Setting: 1930s and Early 2000s USA
- Climax: The Disaster March where the animals let loose and run wild during a performance
- Protagonist: Jacob Jankowski
- Antagonist: August Rosenbluth
- Point-of-view: First-person Perspective
Sara Gruen and Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants is Sara Gruen’s third novel. It won her several awards and nominations, including the 2007 BookBrowse Award for Most Popular Book and a 2006 Quill Award nomination for General Fiction.
Sara Gruen said the idea to write Water for Elephants came from reading an article in the Chicago Tribune about Edward J. Kelty, a photographer who followed traveling circuses around America in the 1920s and ‘30s. Gruen worked as a tech writer for two years while nursing ambitions of writing novels, and so when she was laid off as a tech writer, with her husband’s encouragement, she began writing novels.
Water for Elephants manuscript was rejected by Avon Publishers, who published Gruen’s first two novels—Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. Therefore, she sourced for other publishers and found Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, which published Water for Elephants in May 2006.
For a novel so detailed about the circus, it is amazing that the author Sara Gruen had never been to a circus before writing Water for Elephants. The vivid portrayals of the circus were based on research and discoveries she made after she had decided to write a novel about the circus.
Water for Elephants is the best-known Sara Gruen’s five published novels and is currently the highlight of her fame as a novelist.
Books Related to Water for Elephants
If you enjoy novels like Water for Elephants set in depression-era America, then To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee comes recommended. To Kill a Mockingbird is seen through the character Scout, an intelligent little girl whose widowed father teaches values in a racist and cruel society. Both novels although very different in plot lines, are set in the same era and also touched on the themes of the cruelty of harming innocent animals, economic hardships, and social stratification.
Another related book is At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen. At the Water’s Edge is about a man Ellis who goes on a quest to hunt down a creature to win his father’s approval. He goes on the quest with his wife Maddie and socialite friend Hank. At their place of camping, Maddie is often alone while Ellis and Hank go hunting. Alone, Maddie begins to make discoveries about creatures and begins to see them differently. Both Water for Elephants and At the Water’s Edge are historical novels by the same author depicting two categories of humans— the humans who love and protect animals, and the humans who exploit and endanger animals.
The Lasting Impact of Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen became a New York Times Bestselling Novel and received critical acclaim and awards after it was published.
It got more popular with its 2011 film adaptation produced by Flashpoint Entertainment and Fox 2000 Pictures. The movie adaptation, also titled Water for Elephants, was directed by Francis Lawrence and starred screen favorites like Robert Pattinson as young Jacob, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena, Christoph Waltz as August, and Hal Halbrook as old Jacob.
A musical based on the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is set to premiere at the Atlanta Alliance Theatre in the summer of 2023. The musical titled same as the novel is directed by Jessica Stone and the cast includes Cameron Adams, Sabastian Arcelus, Alex Branton, Stan Brown, Paul Castree, Bill Irwin, and many other stars. There was a sneak peek presentation of the musical in New York City on June 27 and 28, 2022.
The novel is also cited as one of the successes of the National Novel Writing Month as it is one of the most popular novels to be produced from the annual writing event.
Also, the novel is one of the fictional pieces used as a reference for discussions on the tragic incident of the Jamaica Ginger Extract ”Jake” paralysis that happened in the 1920s and ’30s. The incident was a case of permanent and temporary paralysis that happened to thousands of people as a result of consuming an alcoholic beverage adulterated with a toxic substance that caused paralysis. In Water for Elephants, one of the major characters Camel becomes one of such victims.
Water for Elephants is a relatively recent novel, first published in the year 2006, therefore one cannot talk about its lasting impact in certain terms. However, given its popularity that led to its translation into over forty languages, its growing influence in pop culture, and its theme of Animal Rights, a movement that gets increasingly relevant in discourses across the planet, it is very likely to have an impressive lasting impact
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About Onyekachi Osuji
B.A. in Public Administration and certified in Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction)