Yes, yes, I am finally going to talk about Water for Elephants. But first:
There is someone, a person who uses internet explorer, who follows the link on my facebook and checks this blog about 5 times a week. I admit, I wonder who cares enough to consistently check this thing. I mean, my writing is far from phenomenal and you can't see how strikingly good-looking I am from behind a computer screen (har). So, uh, Hi. Who are you? Or you don't have to tell me. Jeez, I was just curious. Please don't get offended. Come back.
Damn, I'm weird.
But, yes, I appreciate the views and knowing that someone cares about this at least a little bit.
...........
So, I started to write this on the 14th and then saved it as a draft. I suck at updating this blog.
So now, 2 weeks after I started this blog and 7 weeks after I finished the Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, here it goes. I'm just going to bullet this, since I don't remember my exact thoughts enough to really write anything formal (because... you know... this blog is typically so formal). BAM:
*WFE was a NaNoWriMo novel, and at times, it does feel like one. Certain passages feel like word wars- parts where she just wanted to write and add fluff and get words down.
*I hate when people try to make this novel symbolic. It was written to entertain. The elephant is not a symbol of world peace or something. Gawd. (Note: I read this book for English class.)
*I thought that the portrayal of Jacob (main dude) was really good when he was young, but pretty awful when he was old. It was just terribly stereotypical (which is common of NaNoWriMo novels. This is not a good thing.) and not interesting to read.
*I overall thought that the old-Jacob parts were poorly written, but I like the premise. Once again, shifting time periods of characters between chapters is common for NaNoWriMo, as it's an easy way to up your word count and avoid writer's block (I should know, I did it this year). I thought that it worked well in this novel because it brought into question the validity of young Jacob's story. Old Jacob was... old. And forgetful. What if, the reader may wonder, the story he tells is mere fabrication? Or just a confused version of the truth. The passage in which the nurse Rosemary explains to old Jacob that sometimes old folks remember things wrong and appear to be lying strengthens this.
Also, I liked how the alternating chapters connected. How some part of the previous chapter would be immediately referenced in the next (Like when Young Jacob calls "Rosie" at the end of the chapter and old Jacob awakens to hearing "Rosemary." Or other, cleverer ones that I don't remember.)
But, like I said, other than those bits the old Jacob parts were poorly written, stereotypical, and annoying.
*It vaguely reminds me of the novel Kristina Horner wrote for NaNoWriMo last year. Not that I read it. It was just about carnivals. And it was a NaNo Novel. So yeah, similarity stops there.
*I thought that August was a little stereotypical too. But I didn't mind it as much.
*The chick annoyed me. Marlena. She just didn't seem very... deep. A little bit of a flat character.
*Young Jacob was awesome. I would like him irl.
*It was clear that Gruen did a lot of research, and I liked feeling like I was learning. Plus, I loved all of the Great Depression references. (as a proud member of Academic Decathlon)
*I am excited for the movie. I like Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson.
*Overall, it was a fun read, and a good book. Yay.
Total Book Count: 92 (Yeah... a lot to catch up on)
NonFic: 27 (29.3%)
No comments:
Post a Comment