Book Thoughts--Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

Do you know how difficult it is to run and cry at the same time? Good books do that do me. And this was a good book. 

Brilliant, actually.

That's the best way to describe it. The words themselves, the characterization, the anticipation. It's brilliant.

Water for Elephants: A Novelby Sara Gruen is the story of Jacob Jankowski at twenty-three and at ninety (or ninety-three). At twenty-three, he ran away and joined the circus after his parents were killed in an accident. He had been studying to be a vet and was all but final exams. In the circus, Jacob encounters brutality, unexpected kindness, and love. At ninety (or ninety-three), Jacob's in a nursing home.

The story fits well with Resurrection with it's themes of dignity, redemption, and anticipation. Twenty-three-year-old Jacob's Resurrection scene spread the resurrection and transformation to others. The Jacob in the end of the book is different from the Jacob in the beginning, and his transformation allows him to step in and fight for others. He may not always succeed in the way he desires, but he hands resurrection to others.

It's a story about dignity. Gruen frames the story so that you are hit by the fact that this old man, left to drool over Jello his last few years, is the twenty-three-year-old Jacob in the circus. These stories aren't just stories. They're stories of people we've forgotten about. It made me remember sitting at tea with my grandmother listening to her stories. I wish I'd written them down.

It's about the dignity of the outcasts. In Depression-era America, especially on a circus, midgets, drunks, and the bottom-of-the-barrell working class were the outcasts. They weren't "needed" in society. They were easily disposed of. Because of this, Jacob becomes a Christ-figure restoring the dignity of a midget and a drunk, fighting for the oppressed, both human and animal. 

Gruen's strongest point, I think, is her ability to build anticipation. One scene captures it: Grady has (bad) news for Jacob. In waiting for Grady to spill it, Jacob notices the two drops of grease leaking from Grady's hamburger. Brilliance in these little details. The reader (namely, me) wants to shake Grady by the shoulders and scream at him to tell already! 

It's also about what Gruen doesn't write, where she holds back. I think as writers, sometimes we think we have to fill in every detail. For example, in a fight scene, Gruen doesn't give a blow-by-blow. Rather, she focuses on the confusion of the protag (Jacob), his swirling thoughts, a moment of pain here or there, his inability to stop hitting. Rather than observing the fight as you would a movie, you're caught up in the hero. I love this.

One more thought about anticipation (an appropos theme regarding Resurrection, I think, considering the Lent season anticipating Jesus' resurrection and the Christian life anticipating  our resurrection): I love how Gruen works back in the first scene. The first scene is a glimpse into the future. It's why ninety (or ninety-three)-year-old Jacob hasn't talked about his story. And when it fits back in, you feel it coming. Now it makes more sense. Now the tears flow.

I listened to this story on audio book (hence the running and crying). I'm an audio-learner (whatever the correct term is), so this method, listening to someone tell me a story, brings the story closer to my heart.