Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a delightful read. The portrayals are vivid, and the story is very educative about the internal operations of circuses in the 1930s. On the flip side, some of the characters were not well developed, there were some illogical loopholes in the plot, and sensitive readers should beware of graphic scenes of animal abuse in the story.

Skillful Storytelling

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a rich, well-told story. Although a story about the circus, it depicts serious issues of life like grief, aging, poverty, mental illness, abuse, business malpractices, etc without seeming to try too hard.

However, the magnificence of the story is not palpable from the first page, I found myself struggling to read through the prologue and the first chapter but by the seventh chapter, I could not stop flipping the pages. And by the time I finished the story, I found a heightened respect for the author because of the way she succeeded in making readers mistake some details until the last few pages.

The technicalities of alternating between two eras in the novel deserve commendation and is a credit to the writer.

Endearing Animals

I think the animal characters are the best feature of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. The animals in the novel although silent, speak volumes in the way they show emotions of gratitude, mirth, grief, mischief, and vengeance.

Sara Gruen’s depiction makes the animals very similar to humans. Especially the character Rosie the elephant. The mischievous Rosie will make readers cry, laugh, smile, and yearn for a hug. Then we have Queenie the loyal dog, Bobo the clingy orangutan, and many impressive horses.

Characters

The human characters in the novel leave mixed feelings in a reader. The villains in the novel are ruthless and selfish, which is understandable because they are the villains. But the selfishness from the supposedly good character Jacob grates on one’s nerve. Jacob in his selfish desire to eliminate his own enemies takes away a weapon of defense from his friend Walter, whose association with Jacob brings nothing but danger and inconvenience.

Also, some of the female characters are quite dull, with nothing much to recommend them besides physical appearance. For instance, Marlena in the novel leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to depth and development. Although she knows that Uncle Al has a soft spot for her, she never uses it to her advantage to challenge the unethical practices in the Benzini Brothers circus.

Loopholes and Inaccuracies

Several loopholes reduce the realistic quality of the plot. For instance, how likely is it that a twenty-first century nursing home reports to the police that one of their housemates is missing without giving the police a photograph for identification?

Also, the behavior of the character August is not consistent with the symptoms of the mental illness he is said to have in the novel. He is said to have paranoid schizophrenia but acts more like one with a narcissistic disorder than one suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Also, schizophrenia was a relatively recent term in the 1930s setting where it is mentioned, and the term paranoid schizophrenia was not yet in use when it was mentioned in the novel, which makes that detail inaccurate.

Great Themes

Love is a theme we find in many novels, but Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen explored the theme of love from both the typical romantic love and from the unusual dimension of love between humans and animals. It also explores themes like aging and shows us how the pursuit of happiness has no age limit.