Book Review : Water For Elephants

Since the movie based on the book is coming out in a couple of months, I thought I would read the book beforehand in case I wanted to catch it in theaters.

The book is about an old man named Jacob Jankowski who is remembering his past in the Benzini Brothers circus and how he came to join them. He reflects on meeting Marlena, the beautiful performer, her hot-headed husband August, and the rest of the freaks and crew of the circus. He makes friends and enemies as the circus train rolls through towns and is there when one of the biggest accidents in circus history occurs. In his old age, he is trying to fight the nurses to give him real food in his assisted living home and staying away from lying old men that are trying to impress the ladies.

Without getting into any spoilers, it is a known fact that this is a love story, and a good one at that. The book kind of reminds me of The Notebook in the sense of the character being old and looking back on the days of his youth. If I hadn't know there was going to be a movie made on this book, I would have thought the book was perfect for that.

I definitely enjoyed the book and thought the writing was great. There was great character development and it was easy to imagine everything happening. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes a good love story.

Have you read the book? Do you plan on seeing the movie?