Reading Report

Last week I read Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. For me the beginning was slow and I found the author's choice of alternating present day chapters with flashbacks chapters to be disruptive. The effect irritated me by yanking me out of the story. Yet I was intrigued enough to persist and was rewarded. By the time the story ended I wished that it was not over so soon.

After reading the book, I still have doubts about Ms. Gruen's choice of interspersing chapters from different time periods. From my perspective the story would have been more effective with a prologue from present day and an epilogue in the same time frame. The additional available words could be used to tell more of the adventure and love story in real time.