On Friday i started reminiscing about the Fourth of July circus i used to go to every year when i was growing up. A coworker had just loaned me Water for Elephants telling me that i MUST read it, so i decided to give it a go. I found the beginning slightly off-putting; i generally dislike books with strong language, violence, or harsh situations, but the setting and the characters were so intriguing that i found i couldn't put it down. Sara Gruen has a powerful way of writing, drawing the readers firmly into the story, tangling them up with the characters' emotions and decisions. The book is set in two time periods, with an old man in modern day reminiscing about his time as a young man travelling with a circus. Both plot threads were engrossing, and i was impressed by the author's ability to shift between smoothly, still keeping me guessing and wanting to see more of each. By midway through the book, i had figured out the plot structure, and had pretty much predicted what the ending would be like, in both time lines. When i got to the end, neither one was as i had predicted. One left me with my mouth open in surprise, and the other with a smile on my face. The mark of a good book. Obviously, i had spent the book believing that Marlena had been the one with the iron stake in the first scene. We're set up to believe it, and i fell neatly into the trap, though reading back i can see how a more jaded reader might have realized the trick tha ...
Anytime
On Friday i started reminiscing about the Fourth of July circus i used to go to every year when i was growing up. A coworker had just loaned me Water for Elephants telling me that i MUST read it, so i decided to give it a go. I found the beginning slightly off-putting; i generally dislike books with strong language, violence, or harsh situations, but the setting and the characters were so intriguing that i found i couldn't put it down. Sara Gruen has a powerful way of writing, drawing the readers firmly into the story, tangling them up with the characters' emotions and decisions. The book is set in two time periods, with an old man in modern day reminiscing about his time as a young man travelling with a circus. Both plot threads were engrossing, and i was impressed by the author's ability to shift between smoothly, still keeping me guessing and wanting to see more of each. By midway through the book, i had figured out the plot structure, and had pretty much predicted what the ending would be like, in both time lines. When i got to the end, neither one was as i had predicted. One left me with my mouth open in surprise, and the other with a smile on my face. The mark of a good book. Obviously, i had spent the book believing that Marlena had been the one with the iron stake in the first scene. We're set up to believe it, and i fell neatly into the trap, though reading back i can see how a more jaded reader might have realized the trick tha ...