Happy Monday y'all! Back to energy madness (not a great week for nuclear energy, eh?) and coming off a superlative weekend (wink, wink...). Just wrapping up this little number and moving on to the next jewel on my reading list which, did I mention, is bursting at the seams? My tiny apartment is so full of books I could probably be jailed for breaking some city fire ordinance! But I will persevere and share my precious space with the hundreds of chatty little roommates, as they will one day line the walls of my sprawling dream estate's rooms of built-in bookshelves. One of my more recent addition's was Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants," a depression-era novel about the life of Jacob Janowski, an ivy league-trained veterinarian who fled to join the circus. The story bounces between Jacob's present-day 93 year-old self, and his younger version working on the Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show on Earth (swap "Benzini Brothers" with "Smith Sisters" and you'd have a great title for some of the drunken aerobics videos my sister and I made a few years ago- neither here nor there). Jacob falls in love with Marlena, the beautiful horse trainer and wife of August, a sort of jekyll and hyde-type who is more evil than he is good. And you quickly realize the story is just that: a story. It goes by quickly and painlessly, even including a decent love triangle, but without real meaning or identifiable themes. Not to mention the title is never really explained (it is elluded to in a nursing home conversation, but is immediately forgotten and turns out to be quite arbitrary).
Overall, a cheap 'n cheerful read for a rainy afternoon, which was a perfect chaser to Tom Wolfe's bantering manifesto.
Have a lovely week enjoying the longer days! Sister and I are bussing up to NYC this weekend so I can run the New York Half Marathon and she can help me carb load at Mario Batali's newest Manhattan hot spot, "Lupa." Can't wait for some sister time, running through the city to the cheers of the crowd, and most of all, the pasta. xx
have a great time and good luck. kisses to kaycee as well! love you guys!
ReplyDeleteYou already know how much I adored Water! I'm so relieved that you enjoyed it as well, as I've been pushing it on everyone I know...perhaps even a random victim in the grocery store line. xoxo.
ReplyDeletePS. I also love that my fellow commenter knows how to spell Jessi properly.