Just finished reading Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants, and it was a wonderful read. Much better than I expected, in fact. The author seemed to have thoroughly researched the way of life in the Depression Era, as well as the way of life living and working with a circus show that was mobile by train. The point of view of the book is entirely of the perspective of Jacob Jankowski, both as a young man with the circus and as a man of very advanced years reliving his pivotal early years. It's was very interesting to read both points of view, and the main character was easy to sympathize with, and some of the other characters, particularly Rosie, were quite easy to fall in love with.
The author also does very well with building the momentum and suspense to reach that penultimate moment when everything comes to a head, but she does't leave the readers hanging, and everything addressed for the reader by the last page. I had no wonderings about what happened to the characters immediately afterward, because such issues were neatly addressed following the climax, rather than simply ending there, as so many novels do. Because this novel contains the suspense that it does, I can't say I'd reread it over and over as I do ma ny other books, because it is no longer mysterious after the first reading. I would, however, recommend this wonderful novel to anyone that would like to live, for awhile, behind the scenes of a long-ago circus show, or just get lost in a great bestselling novel. From this very anonymous reader, Sara Gruen, two thumbs up!