The story in this novel is told as a series of memories by a ninetythree year old man called jacob jankowski. Here he says that hes overflowing, bursting with love. Character profile for jacob jankowski from water for. She wrote the book as part of national novel writing month. Jacob jankowski is in his 90s and the movie starts with him looking. Water for elephants is a fascinating read, filled with danger, acts of evil, overwhelming kindness, and enduring love. Water for elephants by sara gruen when jacob jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits the benzini brothers most spectacular show on earth a secondrate travelling circus struggling to survive during the great depression, making one. In water for elephants, jacob jankowski is invited to join marlena and august for dinner in their railway car. It has an energy and spirit like the feeling under a big top when the show is about to begin. Times, publishers weekly, san francisco chronicle, and washington post lists a usa today and wall street journal best seller an american book association indiebound best seller. When jacob jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a secondrate circus struggling to. At the beginning of water for elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it.
Jacob jankowski, a veterinary student at cornell, discovers that his parents have been killed in a car accident. Jacobs story begins at cornell university where he is studying to come. Water for elephants is told in the first person but from two different perspectives jacob jankowski at 23 years of age and again, at 93 years old. The plot is also told in memories of the main character, jacob jankowski.
On the morning of his senior veterinary science exams at cornell, jacob jankowski is called out of the room by the dean. Winner of the 2007 bookbrowse diamond award for most popular book. Sara gruen has written an utterly transporting novel richly full of the stuff of life. I loved water for elephants stephen king you are so immersed in circus life that you are blinded by the thrilling, fatal dazzle of sequins and sawdust the telegraph an imaginative modern fairy story, teeming with eccentric characters the times the great depression 1929 when jacob jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps. The setting of the story changes throughout the book. Jacob jankowski is a well educated college almost graduate. Apr 22, 2011 weve probably all seen a movie and wished it were 40 minutes shorter or read a book and thought, damn, this really could have been condensed and lost nothing.
This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of water for elephants by sara gruen. With robert pattinson, reese witherspoon, christoph waltz, paul schneider. The story starts off with ninetythree year old jacob jankowski recounting his life as a young man training at cornell to be a veterinarian. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 335 pages and is available in paperback format. The circus train only had a limited amount of water on board, and elephants can drink 100300 litres per day approximately 2680 gallons. Jacob jankowski has appeared in the following books. Jacob jankowski robert pattinson jacob is a 23 year old young man who must leave his studies, as a cornell university veterinary student, after losing both of his parents in a car accident. But when he seen that the circus was in town, he hobbled to the window to see the circus tent.
To emphasize this, the whole book is written in the present tense. Times, publishers weekly, san francisco chronicle, and washington post lists. When jacob jankowski, parents dead and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a secondrate circus struggling to survive during the great depression, making onenight stands in town after endless town. Water for elephants is the first adult novel ive read and it certainly didnt disappoint. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused.
Orphaned and penniless at the height of the depression, jacob jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing trainand inadvertently runs away with the circus. Together, jacob and marlena strive to protect and save rosie. Mar 01, 2011 orphaned and penniless at the height of the depression, jacob jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing trainand inadvertently runs away with the circus. In this captivating depressionera melodrama, impetuous veterinary student jacob jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when hes transfixed by angelic married performer marlena. A novel of starcrossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When jacob jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a secondrate circus struggling to survive during the great depression, making onenight stands in town after endless town. Jacob jankowski, a veterinary student at cornell, discovers that his.
Aug 28, 2012 water for elephants is a treat for the reader, a chronicle of an adventure that permanently alters the life of one twentyoneyearold veterinary school dropout. It is at about this time when he finds out that his parents have. So begins water for elephants, sara gruens darkly beautiful tale about the characters who inhabit the lessthangreatest show on earth. As the memories begin to unfold, jacob begins as a young man studying for his final exams at cornell university. The circus man water for elephants by sara gruen is a fascinating and captivating novel told from the point of view of jacob jankowski, a veterinarian who jumps aboard a traveling circus during the depression in the 1930s. Water for elephants is a historical novel by sara gruen, written as part of national novel writing month. Water for elephants book jefferson county public library. The story is told as a series of memories by jacob jankowski, a 93yearold man who lives in a nursing home. Pdf water for elephants download full pdf book download. Although it is only april, i predict that water for elephants by sara gruen will be one of the best books i read this year. Several times in the book jacob compares the idea of love rising up in himself to a wave. The first edition of the novel was published in may 26th 2006, and was written by sara gruen. Water for elephants is a story that has it all warmth, humour, poignancy and passion.
Pdf water for elephants book by sara gruen free download. Water for elephants begins violently and then veers into weirder terrain. Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. Water for elephants begins dark and violent as it braces readers for the tumultuous circus atmosphere during the terrible years of the great depression. Its where your interests connect you with your people. Oct 21, 2009 water for elephants is the first adult novel ive read and it certainly didnt disappoint. To pay for his tuition, his parents had to take out a morgage on the house, causing him to have no home. Its been there awhile, biding its time and growing closer with each revolution 1. Water for elephants is the new york times bestselling debut novel by sara gruen. Water for elephants book by sara gruen thriftbooks.
Sara gruen mines fertile territory in water for elephants. Set in the 1930s, a former veterinary student takes a job in a travelling circus and falls in love with the ringmasters wife. May 26, 2006 water for elephants, 2007, sara gruen water for elephants is a historical novel by sara gruen, written as part of national novel writing month. Jacob jankowski is the main character of water for elephants. The circus, the great depression, a complex elephant, equally complex love, the mists and twists of memory articulated in the utterly winning voice of a very old man whos seen it all. His life wasnt always like this, however, because jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twentyone. With lines of startling beauty, haunting and evocative scenes and finelydrawn characters who dance off the page, readers can dip in and out of the novel, immersing themselves in jacobs memories. Jacob jankowski from water for elephants charactour. Jacob is ninetythree year old and is looking back on his adventures in life while he spends his days in a nursing home. Jacob served as a veterinarian for the benzini bros circus, and was in love with the beautiful and talented marlena. The book explains the chosen memories of jacob jankowski and his time spent in the benzini brothers most spectacular show on earth.
Sara gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian jacob jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period. Water for elephants is told in the first person but from two different perspectivesjacob jankowski at. August sees their attraction and attempts to get jacob redlighted, which means to be thrown of the moving train at midnight. Jacob jankowski jacob jankowski is the narrator of the novel, and senior in college whose ready to explore the world and find where he belongs.
Jacob jankowski is the main character in the book, water for elephants. Sep 07, 2016 together, jacob and marlena strive to protect and save rosie. Earlier in the book, when the older jacob is given drugs in the nursing home, he describes the sensation of unconsciousness in a strikingly similar way. From the back cover blurb orphaned, penniless, jacob jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and that instant, transforms his future. An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of starcrossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of riding lessons. The main characters of this fiction, historical story are jacob jankowski, rosemary. The book, water for elephants, starts off in the present day, in a nursing home where the main character, jacob jankowski, lives. The story starts off with the main character, jacob, in an assisted living home.
The novel has received high praise from numerous critics, and has. While he was at dinner, one of the new comers to the nursing home was saying how he gave water to the elephants. An american book association indiebound best seller. Free download or read online water for elephants pdf epub book. To ask other readers questions about water for elephants, please sign up. Water for elephants, 2007, sara gruen water for elephants is a historical novel by sara gruen, written as part of national novel writing month. Jacobs story begins at cornell university where he is studying to come a vet. Water for elephants movie tiein by sara gruen, paperback. In the beginning of the novel, jacob mocks another resident of the nursing home who claims to have worked in the circus and carried water for the elephants.
The water for elephants community note includes chapterbychapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Jacob is eager to experience the world as an adult and is ready to take whatever the world can offer him in adulthood. Its from this nursing home that jacob tells his story, like he is looking back at all the adventures at the circus. Water for elephants is the story of jacobs life with this circus. Water for elephants is told by and about jacob jankowski, a cranky but likable 90 year old or perhaps 93 man who resides in an assisted living center. Jacob is working overtime as the narrator of water for elephants. Water for elephants is a book about memories, aging, and nostalgia. Gruen transports us into the world of a thirdrate traveling circus during the great depression. Water for elephants is a story about an elderly man, jacob, who recalls an adventure in his younger years. Its almost like love is a physical thing that he can feel moving through his body. Winner of the 2007 bookbrowse award for most popular book.
When jacob jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train. The story maintains its momentum by alternating between the past and the present as jacob recalls the circumstances under which he found himself traveling with the benzini brothers circus. His parents, on his final day of his cornell academy of veteranary science exams, get killed. Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside jacob jankowskis ninetysomethingyear old. He had run from them as he was taking them having found out that both of his parents had died in a car crash the night before. Out of desperation and grief over his loss he jumps onto a train that happens to. Jul 12, 2007 water for elephants begins violently and then veers into weirder terrain. As a young man, jacob jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the benzini.
Water for elephants is a treat for the reader, a chronicle of an adventure that permanently alters the life of one twentyoneyearold veterinary school dropout. Water for elephants is a historical novel by sara gruen, written as part of national novel writing. In water for elephants, the story is told through jacob jankowski at two different parts in his life. Water for elephants resembles stealth hits like the giants house, by elizabeth. Water for elephants book surrey libraries bibliocommons. Weve probably all seen a movie and wished it were 40 minutes shorter or read a book and thought, damn, this really could have been condensed and lost. Jacob jankowski, who is currently ninety or ninetytwo, tells the story of how he left his ivy league training as a vet and ran away after his parents died. Younger jacob and older jacob each gets to have his say. Then gruen shifts readers attention away from the eerie circus to introduce the ninety or ninetythree year old protagonist, jacob jankowski. Water for elephants is a book that can be read and reread, recommended and handed off between friends. We thought you might enjoy cooking a variation on this meal and possibly serving it to your book club sometime, so we have come up with a menu that is slightly less elaborate, and perhaps less filling than the one described in the. Jacob had went to school at ithaca college and had finished everything, except his final exams. By morning, hes landed a job with the flying squadron of the.
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