Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)

I rate this novel a 3.5 out of 5
Water for Elephants is a perfectly woven story about a geriatric man and an account of his life as a "carnie" 70 years before.

The story itself is comparable to a Circus experience. Gruen creates tension and anticipation on nearly every page, the story is rife with plot surprises, character twists, and ready entertainment, all combined with a varied spectrum of emotions--pleasant or otherwise--lurking at the corners of the pages. Like a Circus, nothing was quite what it seemed at first, but better than a circus' dazzle and show, the experience only got better the longer I read. Gruen's writing style was so fluid that I couldn't put it down (there really wasn't a place to push pause and close the book), so I stayed up until the last page at 2:00 a.m. then went to sleep deeply satisfied.

WARNING: As far as I can remember, there were two tasteless scenes in the book. My suggestion would be to just SKIP them (hopefully you'll recognize the trouble spots when you read into them) because nothing important happens during them and they're pretty lurid.

But aside from those moments, I loved this story--the beginning to the end--and I'd highly recommend it to anyone that likes laughs, surprises, or just something that departs from mainstream, every day literature.