Water for Elephants

By: Sara Gruen

Narrated by: David LeDoux, John Randolph Jones

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus.

Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus' animal trainer); and to Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant.

Beautifully written, with a luminous sense of time and place, Water for Elephants tells of love in a world in which love's a luxury few can afford.

©2006 Sara Gruen (P)2006 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award, Adult Fiction, 2007
• Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007

" Water for Elephants resembles stealth hits like The Giant's House, by Elizabeth McCracken, or The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, books that combine outrageously whimsical premises with crowd-pleasing romanticism. . . . With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale.” ( New York Times Book Review)

"Just like a circus, the magic of the story and the writing convince you to suspend your disbelief." ( Booklist)

"Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes, and freaks who populate her book." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great listen! Beautiful Story.

What did you love best about Water for Elephants?

I loved everything about this story. The narration shifts between old and young Jacob, the author's illustrations of life in 1931, circus life, and of course the lovable elephant who only understands Polish. This is great fiction and a charming love story. I am not typically into the sappy stuff and this story was definitely not over the top with that. It had the perfect amount of mystery, romance, history, and comedy.

Have you listened to any of David LeDoux and John Randolph Jones ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not heard these performers before but this listen was top-notch! This is the type of audio book that makes you want to downgrade your ratings of other performers on past books you have read because they are remarkable.

Outstanding!

The story on its own is enough to draw you in, but the narration really brought it to life.

Great voice actor but story gets boring

I started out loving it then got annoyed by Jacob towards the end. He was too desperate with Marlena and the love story seemed like it lacked depth. Too cheesy for my taste. It wasn't too difficult to finish because the voice actor did a good job. I think of I was reading it I would have lost interest before finishing it. Might still watch the movie for comparison.

Good, but not great

I think this book was good, but the suspense was highly lacking. If it hadn't been for the forward (which was a scene from the very end of the book), I'm not sure there would have been much interest on my part at all. The narrators were alright, but lacked good character voices. All in all though, I still enjoyed it. A fun little book.

This is a Great Book!

Loved the characters, story kept me wanting more. Listened to it all within 2 days!
I would highly recommend this book to anyone!

The only part I didn't like was that at first I couldn't make out what the older man narration was saying but I got used to it.

Great

Great read. Great reader. Tha's all you need to know. Read it.

So much more than expected

So great. But make sure you have some tissues handy. Strong emotions throughout. I recommend very highly.

loved it

loved it. good narration well written definitely keep in the library. remembering the circus of my childhood.

Water for the soul

What a moving story of love and and the desire to live. Fantastic narration made you feel that you experienced the lives of these wonderful characters.

This book ranks up there with Life of Pi and The time travellers wife.

interesting enough...

If your into the James Patterson feel-good, entertaining, but not-to-realistic type novels, then this is the book for you. I found it a bit silly but was still entertained enough to stick with it. It was enjoyable enough and the narration was pretty top notch.