Water for Elephants and the Twilight SAGA

A double-review post today! I hope you all feel special...actually, I'm not sure if it technically counts as double since I'm actually discussing five books, but I'm lumping the Twilight saga together, so that counts as two, right?

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a former One Read of Columbia; written through the eyes Jacob Jankowski, an older man living in an assisted living facility, this novel tells the story of Jacob's experiences with a traveling circus in the early 1930s. Jacob hates living in the assisted living home and continually reminisces about his years with the circus; his memories make up the bulk of the book. When you think about a story about the circus, you would typically imagine the story to be rather funny, but this novel does not include one bit of cheesy stereotypical circus events. Gruen is able to draw the reader in by portraying the harsh and gritty lives of the circus performers and workers, allowing us to learn from completely different walks of life as they interconnect in the most unlikely of places. The novel in itself provides a sort of history lesson- one not typically taught in schools. The novel also forces the reader to think about getting older- not something I necessarily enjoy- but since the story is written as an older individual looking back on his life, this is a natural enough tendency for the reader. A major caveat however: since the author spares no details about the hard life with the circus, there are some fairly raunchy scenes within the pages. I would have whole-heartedly recommended this book if those scenes did not exist. As it is however, if you can get a censored copy of the novel, read and enjoy the story.


Okay, so here's the deal with the Twilight Saga. Yes, the word SAGA (in large, bold letters) is the only appropriate word to describe this series. Major, major drama. More drama than I remember there being in middle school- now that's saying something for sure because if any of you remember middle school... Also as I mentioned before, the books are not award-winning literature by any means, but they can become pretty addictive because of all the drama, which is probably the point.

Now let me clarify, I didn't really have any desire at all to read these books, but somehow I found myself reading Twilight, which is by far the most addictive and in my opinion, the best book of the series. Since it was part of a series, I had to read the next book (because I have this weird need to read complete series, not just one or two books). New Moon still had tons of drama, but for some reason, I didn't enjoy the storyline as much. By the third book of Eclipse, I was still reading the books almost straight through, but I felt the author was stretching too much. I honestly would have stopped, but I'd already invested so much time in the series that I just went ahead and read the concluding book. That one was even more of a stretch, but at the least some of the relationships 'normalized.'

Relationships normalized? What the heck does that mean? Well, the portrayal of relationships in these books is my main concern with them. Usually when young adult and even children's books containing magic and vampires and the like appear on the scene, many adults express concern over what our youth are reading; meddling with the supernatural, even though it may be fiction, can be dangerous. When vampires are the particular subject matter, most would assume that there is more sexual innuendos and discussions than what is appropriate for youth. In the Twilight Saga, there are some scenes dealing with sexual matters, though not as much as I would have expected. There are also some violent portrayals and imagery, but the most concerning aspect of these novels is the relationships between the main characters. Edward and Bella's relationship is in the deepest sense possessive and obsessive. The entire novel focuses on how they cannot live, cannot function without one another- that indeed, life is not worth living if they are not with the other one. This is not a healthy relationship, girls! Now, I know that I realize this and most adults are going to realize how unhealthy this relationship truly is...but do the young teenagers who are nothing short of obsessed with Edward realize and understand this concept? When what these young girls understand of love is what is seen on TV, in movies, and in books like these, no wonder these girls feel disappointed when they don't experience 'love' the way that Hollywood and the media portrays it. The interesting twist to this issue is that these young girls see what the media defines as 'love' as reality, and yet the content in the books and movies and television shows are often so sexually explicit that they begin to lose their innocence at such a young age. I pray that if I am ever a mother to daughters that I would be able to teach them about reality without forcing them to give up their most precious innocence.