Water For Elephants Discussion

Welcome everyone. I am happy to be able to kick off the first book club discussion ever for our first book Water for Elephants!

I enjoyed the book and finished it about two days after I bought it, which, even though I am a fast reader, is definitely something.

I have never actually been to a circus but early on in reading the book, I got pulled into the crazy setting of the book. At first, it did seem a little strange to me that the main character would immediately think to drop out of school and hitch a ride with a travelling show, especially since parents just died, but upon reading further, it made sense as the circus was basically a home for the misplaced and exiled.

Kinko/Walter was sold to it as a young child because he was probably considered a freak to his mother.

August probably joined with them as a way to more easily mask his mental illness since being a temperamental artist would be more accepted there.

Marlena was added to the acts after she was disowned by her family.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but pretty much everyone associated with the circus seemed kind of like the scavenged and damaged animals Jacob described – trapped in virtual cages of circumstance.

Sure, as people they did have the free will to leave, but when it was pointed out to them that they could (at least in the cases of Marlena and Walter), they hesitated and held themselves back from escaping out of fear that the world outside of their captive lifestyle might be too hard or too cruel.

These kind of thoughts seemed to me like they were no doubt encouraged by the duplicitous Uncle Al. In the beginning, I was convinced that August was set up to be the villain because the story focused a lot on his poor relationships with Marlena and Rosie the Elephant, but as time went on, I became convinced that Al was much more sinister. He may have pretended that the show was a family, going so far as to adopt the moniker “Uncle,” but he manipulated everyone. He somehow convinced people to work for no money. He tried to convince Jacob to get Marlena back together with August after his violent outburst. By the time he’d redlighted Walter and Camel from the train, I was sick of him. Being outright dangerous is one thing because at least people know to avoid you, but putting on an “It’s all for the greater good” attitude with everyone while you do truly heinous things is, in my opinion, worse.

The big thing that I was wondering however when I finished the book was how much of it was supposed to be true. It’s often brought up in book discussions about whether or not the person telling the story is a reliable source and I found myself wondering whether or not old Jacob was reliable.

As much as I did like the story, I questioned parts of it for three reasons:

1) During the prologue, it seems unclear as to exactly who was August’s murderer. When I first read it, all the action was a bit disorienting and I thought that Marlena might have been responsible.

2) Pretty much right from the beginning he admits he has no idea what age he is which to me signaled that he was at the very least, forgetful.

3) At one point during the book, Jacob’s nursing home nurse, conveniently named Rosemary says “Sometimes when you get older […] things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it they’re a part of your history […]”

Perhaps this was not the author’s intention, but it did definitely leave me wondering if perhaps Marlena or Jacob had had a hand in the violent conclusion of things or, more towards the end, whether or not Jacob was actually running off to join the circus again. As he had been talking about his previous time in the circus as though it was one of the highlights in his life, it made me wonder whether or not the kindly circus man to take him on was actually doing so.

Could he have just been a byproduct of a disappointed elderly man’s dementia, or, taking it one step further, had Jacob died and this is what he was imagining as he shuffled off his mortal coil?

Anyway, these were my impressions of the book – what were yours? Did you like it? Did you feel attached to any particular character? What parts of it stood out in your mind? Did anyone else question the story of the narrator?

Comment below and we’ll get a dialogue going!

P.S. I will be checking back during the day to respond to comments to keep the discussion going, so you might want to keep tabs on the thread after you comment. Also, I will be putting up a poll for the book club’s next book either later today or early tomorrow.