Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I had a lot of expectations for this book. It is apparently a popular read; When I checked it out at the library the librarian even commented on it. However, I found it did not quite live up to its expectations. It definitely wasn't a bad book, but I didn't think it was great either. It's about a guy who is studying to be a vet at Cornell in the early 192os, during Prohibition. His parents tragically die so he packs up all of his things, leaves his exit exams and joins the circus as their vet. He inevitably falls in love with a woman, who is of course married. The book tells the story from Jacob's (the main character) point-of-view as a young man and as a 93 year old. I didn't really feel that the book had a strong plot or driving force to finish. Throughout the book there is a lot of animal abuse which was hard for me to handle. My overall rating of this book on a scale from 1 to 5 would be a 2.