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Argh... I am three years late to this party! Typical of me. I've been too busy raising kids to read books. But I never forgot this title because it sounded so good and I was not disappointed. Movie comes out in mere days and that motivated me to get reading! Is there anyone out there who wants to discuss it again/still?! Hopefully the movie will generate new interest. Hey... should I be posted this as a new thread altogether?
For what it's worth, here's my essay... a labour of love:
Easiest book to read in a long time. Finished it minutes ago and needed to talk about it so hear I am! Vivid, suspenseful, exciting, unique story. All the circus lingo was a bit confusing but it lent an authenticity to the story... made me feel I'd landed right in the middle of behind-the-scenes at a 1930's train circus.
Weaknesses for me included not enough description of the characters and the circus acts themselves. I craved animal stories. I needed to know more about Marlena to understand why Jacob loved her so much. The love triangle felt too Sophie's Choice to me... as a result I even predicted the paranoid schizophrenia reveal at the end. There could have been more details about Uncle Al's evil ways and August and Marlena's relationship. Seems to me that the circus itself would have been an utter thrill to Jacob. Descriptions of his actual feelings about the experience are limited. Did he never get to sit in the audience and watch the show? Even the elderly Jacob does not describe the current show to us! It's a bit too behind the scenes in that regard.
Conjured up my own childhood circus nostalgia at the same time as it confirmed for me that circuses should be outlawed for the sake of the animals. I swear I felt every blow of the bull hook myself. I wish Rosie'd stood up for herself earlier on and I also wish others had tackled August everytime he hurt her. It spoke loudly to society's maddening social hierarchy and all the unfortunate tolerance that happens within it. Googling Ringling revealed to me that the tradition of animal abuse and neglect continues to this day.
Kinko/Walter warming slowly to Jacob seemed realistic to me. If someone caught you masturbating wouldn't you want them eliminated from the planet?! LOL! How many of us have invaded the territory, say, at a new job when we have to invade the cubical next to new coworker? Coldness slowly melts over time as they realize we are not jerks. And Walter and Jacob's space was very limited and intimate and Kinko'd probably been terrorized by other humans his whole life. His close attachment to his dog is a testament to that. I've known abused people who worship their dogs at an elevated level... lucky dogs. Not surprising that Jacob's cure of Queenie's diarrhea wins Walter over. The love between Walter and Queenie was beautiful to behold. I instantly loved him when he thought she was lost.
Uncle Al's death... it never even occurred to me to question who did it! Everyone hated him! The red-lighted workers probably did it, of course. The entire disaster scene and Al and August's deaths were such a fitting end to this epic story of their evilness.
I wonder if Camel would have actually preferred to be redlighted off the tressle over being forced to live with his family he was uncomfortable with, rotting away as shell of his younger self!? His ending reminded me of the movie "Grumpy Old Men" where Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau characters mutter to themselves, "Lucky Bastard" when they hear of a quick, painless death. Camel's end-of-life existance was disturbing and truly tragic.
Alpha8207 made reference to disliking all the sexual references throughout the book. I found them a bit distracting but not in a bad way. I got used to it and in fact, like gemkeeper, I found them to be a reminder of real life. The description of the color of the dead horses' genitals, for example, was strangely touching to me. Nothing is more vulnerable than an animal in the care of humans. Never are we more vulnerable than when our private parts are exposed. I found it raw, real and strangely touching, not to mention honest, that Sara Gruen mentioned them. We would all notice them in that situation, wouldn't we? Black genitals on a pure white horse. Gruen just went one step further and mentioned them. It brought an extra sadness to the death for me and I thought it was not at all inappropriate.
lolagranola... you are funny missing the part about the dead horse's genitals. It was when one of Marlena's white horses died after Jacob tried doctoring it for its bad hoof. And I agree with you, older teens would eat this book up, no problem, and benefit from it greatly.
Rosie deserved more face time. She was magical. I wish Gruen had focused more on the love affair between Rosie and Jacob. Their meeting was ultra touching. (I had that experience with a baby *** once. If she'd fit in my purse she'd be living in my backyard as we speak.) Rosie was never dumb... in English or in Polish. Maybe she just knew immediately that August was not worth listening to.
The nursing home was appropriately sad. The fact that old Jacob flees with the circus made me shout out loud with joy. I expected him to die in his sleep a la the movie Titanic. Lots of parallels with Jacob's story and "Rose" of Titanic's story, actually.
I found the fact that Jacob and Marlena go home with their own menagerie of animals a bit far-fetched but I loved it nonetheless. I loved how Bobo bonded with Jacob. Some animals really stand out... they're just more evolved and emotional than their counterparts sometimes. Why Bobo? Why not ALL the chimps, you know? Cool.
Regarding the out-of-date lines used in the book... were they truly out of date? Often I have thought that same thing in movies and then gone on to learn that, no, those phrases have been around a lot longer than we realize. Every generation thinks it's invented things like that.
Great book. Great discussion. I enjoyed everyone's comments so much and look forward to a new wave of interest in this discussion because of the movie.
Now I've seen the movie. I went alone because I wanted to see it so badly I didn't want to wait for a babysitter to be arranged. So hard to judge a movie when it's made from a book you really liked. Since I JUST read the book and it was so fresh in my mind, it hardly made the movie seem unique. But I guess that's a good sign of the book being mirrored quite well in the movie, right? My husband saw it, too, and had not read the book. He gave the movie an A-. He rarely rates movies that high.
Reese Witherspoon was a great Marlena. (She has such beautiful eyes!) That Twilight kid was quite good, too. The August character was sufficiently evil. Rosie was the way I pictured her. I wished the movie was longer and captured more book details but overall I think they did quite an excellent job of doing the book justice and recreating the era. I wonder if we'll see this movie at the next Oscars.
You might want to start a thread on the movie forum. You probably won't get many answers about it on this forum. (It would take a lot for me to see the film version of this book. The book was just so beautifully written.)
I haven't read WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. However the storyline reminds me of a book I read close to sixty years ago about a young boy traveling with a circus. Toby Tyler was the name of the young boy and since I was only six or seven when I read it I am sure it was written more for youngsters than adults. It wasn't as good as PETER PAN but I liked it.
I haven't read WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. However the storyline reminds me of a book I read close to sixty years ago about a young boy traveling with a circus. Toby Tyler was the name of the young boy and since I was only six or seven when I read it I am sure it was written more for youngsters than adults. It wasn't as good as PETER PAN but I liked it.
GL2
It happened at the world's fair is the book you are referring to with toby tyler. Yes I am quite up in years too but do remember it happened at the world's fair quite well .
I loved this one! It was definitely one of those 'can't put it down' books & I read it in about 3 days. After I finished reading, I couldn't find a single negative thing to say about it b/c there's a little bit of everything -- love, action, drama, suspense, history.
Definitely consider this one of the best books I've ever read.
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b/c there's a little bit of everything -- love, action, drama, suspense, history.
