Friday, July 28, 2006

2006 book 92

sara gruen's water for elephants
two thumbs up for this book! i loved it. it's about a 93-yeard-old man in a nursing home remembering 1931, the year he was 23 and came to work for a circus. it's a riveting story, and feels a little reminiscent of carnivale (the second season of which jsut cmae out on dvd), only without all the apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo. it does nail that 1930s dirty desperation though, as well as featuring really well-written characters. according to this interview, there's supposed to be a biblical overtone, but i didn't see much trace of it (and believe me, i looked!). still, it's an amazing story even without that layer, and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

3 comments:

jenny said...

yay! i have this book in my pile. now i'm pumped.

Alicia K. said...

i think you'll like it too.

by the way, thanks for all your recent reviews! i've added a few to my to-read list. :)

Alicia K. said...

i didn't even realize it was an algonquin book till i got to the last page and then looked on the inside back flap--and then i was extra excited about the book! they did a really good job with this one--i'm psyched it's on the nyt list.