I just finished Water For Elephants by Sarah Gruen. I wasn't really interested in reading it, but I saw the trailer for the movie, which doesn't really look that good, and I thought I might as well read the book since I love reading books and then watching the movies.. Plus it reminded me of the circus phase I went through in middle school and thought it can't be that bad.
To sum it up, it was easy to read and hard to put down. I can't really explain this either. I know I liked it, but I really can't figure out why. Maybe I liked the setting, or the fast pace, or something. Something drew me in and I enjoyed reading it, I guess that's all there is to say about how I liked it.
However, reading the passages where the main character is a 90-something year old man in an old folks home were really upsetting to read. It did a great job of making me dread growing old, and value my youth. But mostly dread, and make me feel thoroughly depressed.
Also, I didn't really like the main character. Throughout the book he kept making increasingly worse decisions, and was incredibly impulsive and overprotective. I'm sure it was meant to come off as somehow "romantic" in an Edward Cullen kind of way (great casting for the movie right?), but I just see that type of character as insensible. I mean, he was in the Great Depression and had nothing going for him, and he's literally risking his life (and those of his friends and the poor animals he cared for) for some pretty girl because she's good with animals? I just didn't believe it, and it got really annoying.
I liked the ending though, and like I said, I somehow liked the book. I'm not sure whether I want to see the movie anymore though if it's just going to be more of that unemotional surface level lust filled romance with a cute elephant in the background charming everyone else who doesn't give a shit.
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