Gruen, Sara: *1969
Water for Elephants, 2006 - Information about the Book
- General Information
- Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student, is close to graduating when a terrible tragedy forces him to leave school. With nowhere else to go, he hops on a passing train and finds it belongs to a traveling circus. Jacob takes a job as an animal caretaker and meets Marlena, a beautiful circus performer. Their shared compassion for a special elephant named Rosie leads to love, but August, Marlena's cruel husband, stands in their way.
The story takes place during the depression of the 1930s. Since jobs were almost impossible to find, those who were employed kept their jobs under what conditions ever. - Information from Wikipedia
- Information from Encyclopedia
- Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student, is close to graduating when a terrible tragedy forces him to leave school. With nowhere else to go, he hops on a passing train and finds it belongs to a traveling circus. Jacob takes a job as an animal caretaker and meets Marlena, a beautiful circus performer. Their shared compassion for a special elephant named Rosie leads to love, but August, Marlena's cruel husband, stands in their way.
- Facts
- Articles
- 15 Years Later: "In comparison to the popular young adult fantasy novels of the time, this story depicted real individuals with real-life problems set during actual historical events." Alicia Aldridge; May 24, 2021
- Trunk Show: "Gruen's prose is merely serviceable, and she hurtles through cataclysmic events, overstuffing her whiplash narrative with drama." The New York Times; June 4, 2006
- Reading: "Water for Elephants" : "The novel starts off with a bang and effortlessly flows from chapter to chapter, even those that transition from the 1930s to when Jacob is recalling his experiences as a 93-year-old in a nursing home." The Review; April 18, 2014
- What Was Sara Gruen's Inspiration To Write "Water For Elephants"?
- Sara Gruen talks about Water For Elephants
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 - Audio (3:32)
Review by Veronique de Turenne. "Sarah Gruen sets her story among the freaks and geeks and captive animals of a traveling circus during the Great Depression. It's a good move." NPR Radio; July 5, 2006 - Big Time for a Novel Set Under the Big Top: "Ms. Gruen, a mother of three, said that as a result of the earnings from “Water for Elephants” and the new advance, she and her husband were buying a home where they can house two horses, along with a menagerie of four cats, two dogs and three goats." New York Times; July 11, 2007
- "Water for Elephants" and the Spectacle of Good and Evil: "It is not accidental that Gruen sets the episodes in the past during the Great Depression. The crash of 1929 demonstrated a failure of empathy at the sociopolitical level." Pychology Today; August 14, 2020
- Author
- Interview with Luan Gaines: "I knew shamefully little about the Great Depression when I began researching, and what I learned was heartbreaking. It was a terrible, catastrophic time." 2006
- Interview with Jordan E. Rosenfeld. About Gruen's writing in general: "Despite the demands of her writing career and family life, Gruen is generous with her time, and cheerful to the point where you might call her an optimist." April 22, 2008