Water for Elephants **1/2

Author - Gruen, Sara

Published 2006 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill/Workman Publishing

This is a best seller, which I normally try to stay away from. I tend to stay away from them not because I don't think that they would be good, but because I like to find out what else is out there besides the mainstream fare. What are the alternatives? Besides, many mainstream/best seller books are bad. Though certainly not all of them. As it is, I had to read this for a book discussion.

It's a story about a young man about to graduate from veterinarian school, when the bottom falls out from under him and he finds himself alone and hopeless. So he joins the circus. And, with out giving up the story, there's a love interest and of course an obstacle to said love interest. There is also discussion of circus politics and perhaps most interestingly, a discussion of how circuses operated during The Great Depression. This last theme shows the circus to be a gritty, violent place.

Another interesting theme is the author's concern for the animals' welfare. A large part of the narrative is based on how the animals are treated. After all, the protagonist is a veterinarian and his love interest is one of the performers who work with the animals.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it in a time span of 3 or 4 days (which is quick for me with all my other obligations - kids, work, hobbies etc.) So why was this book not rated higher? Remember, if you look at the ratings definitions, 2 stars is a good book and 3 stars is an excellent book. So 2 1/2 stars is not a bad rating. To reach the upper echelons of 4 stars, I feel that a book has to have more substance or more significance to reach masterpiece status. While this is a thoroughly enjoyable read, I have to ask myself what are the underlying important themes from which the reader can ponder and come to his/her own conclusions? Where are the lessons to be learned for the reader and society? Where is the philosophy? There might be some of that, but if it is there, it's so subtle and delicate that I was not able to discern any but the ones I have described above. In other words, the profundity of the book is limited, and a large profoundness is what is needed to be a masterpiece (in my opinion).

It should be interesting to see what topics of discussion come up in our book discussion. Perhaps I'll revisit this book after the discussion to see if there are any topics of conversation that I hadn't thought of.