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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
3,5*
Mir fällt es wirklich schwer diesem Buch nur 3,5 Sterne zu geben.
Es war mein erster John Irving und ich mochte den Schreibstil wirklich sehr, sehr gerne. Allerdings konnte mich die Geschichte nicht vollends begeistern.
Das war dennoch auf keinen Fall mein letzter Irving!
Mir fällt es wirklich schwer diesem Buch nur 3,5 Sterne zu geben.
Es war mein erster John Irving und ich mochte den Schreibstil wirklich sehr, sehr gerne. Allerdings konnte mich die Geschichte nicht vollends begeistern.
Das war dennoch auf keinen Fall mein letzter Irving!
Not my favorite John Irving book. I had its moments of insight, but I doubt I’ll think about it much once I put it on my shelf.
Also, a quick side-note: of the four John Irving books I’ve read so far (the other three being The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp, and A Prayer for Owen Meany) this one has the most weird sex stuff. If you’ve read any of those other books, you’ll know what a high bar John Irving has set for himself in the weird-sex-stuff department. Yeah. This one tops them.
Also, a quick side-note: of the four John Irving books I’ve read so far (the other three being The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp, and A Prayer for Owen Meany) this one has the most weird sex stuff. If you’ve read any of those other books, you’ll know what a high bar John Irving has set for himself in the weird-sex-stuff department. Yeah. This one tops them.
More complicated plot than I expected and a slower read (for me) than I prefer but a good story all in all. Wrapped up well.
I really like John Irving, and the first 100 or so pages of this book illustrate well what Irving is very good at. I really enjoyed this book at the beginning, it got slightly tedious somewhere in the middle for a while, but the ending was strong enough to redeem it.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"at four, Ruth was too young to ever remember Eddie or his penis with the greatest detail, but he would remember her. Thirty-six years later, when he was fifty-two and Ruth was forty, this ill-fated young man would fall in love with Ruth Cole. Yet not even then would he regret having fucked Ruth's mother. Alas, that would be Eddie's problem. This is Ruth's story" (3)
Ruth's story, and so much more.
Every time I cracked open the spine, read a paragraph or two, I was fully immersed in Irving's world. No characters are perfect, or perhaps even redeemable. There is taboo. There is discomfort. But there is heart and there is soul and there is love and there is gorgeous writing and there are details that keep coming back - whether it be something a character says once, and then again in thirty years, or whether it is a scar on a finger only visible through a ketchup-print magnified by a drinking glass.
This is without a doubt one of the best novels that I've read this year. It is a story told across decades between people that are so faulted that you are interchangeably perturbed by them and then rooting for them (to varying degrees). You get to know characters' backstories that then inform their motivation. The third-person omniscient lens allows you in and out of their minds, to develop this further.
What.
An.
Incredible.
Read.
I loved it every step of the way.
I also laughed a lot.
I also cringed and winced.
I just loved it.
Ruth's story, and so much more.
Every time I cracked open the spine, read a paragraph or two, I was fully immersed in Irving's world. No characters are perfect, or perhaps even redeemable. There is taboo. There is discomfort. But there is heart and there is soul and there is love and there is gorgeous writing and there are details that keep coming back - whether it be something a character says once, and then again in thirty years, or whether it is a scar on a finger only visible through a ketchup-print magnified by a drinking glass.
This is without a doubt one of the best novels that I've read this year. It is a story told across decades between people that are so faulted that you are interchangeably perturbed by them and then rooting for them (to varying degrees). You get to know characters' backstories that then inform their motivation. The third-person omniscient lens allows you in and out of their minds, to develop this further.
What.
An.
Incredible.
Read.
I loved it every step of the way.
I also laughed a lot.
I also cringed and winced.
I just loved it.
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I just finished reading this for the second time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was given it by a friend back in 1999 as I departed for Sochi, Russia. I read it whilst I was there and, if I remember correctly, it was my first John Irving novel. (I've since read The World According to Garp and The Fourth Hand).
The story is about a writer, who gets a job with a writer as a writer's assistant and falls in love with the writer's wife (who, later, becomes a writer). The husband and wife have a four-year-old daughter, Ruth, who... yep, you guessed it, becomes a writer. Ruth writes books about a writer.
But seriously though, it's a serious book about love and relationships. It's contains a lot of sadness but there's a thread of humour that runs throughout.
The way Irving deals with characters and their relationships really draws you in. I like his novels for reading on holiday as they're not that demanding but they draw you right in and, to use the cliché, are hard to put down. This book seems superficial on the surface, but really it's quite deep and it stays with you. I'm afflicted with a terrible memory (which is why I can enjoy rereading novels so much) but I did remember a few things about this book, particularly about how the two brothers were killed. (They die before the novel beings and their presence is felt throughout the entire first part).
I would highly recommend this for reading on the plane or bus or boat, or sat by the pool somewhere away from it all. But wherever, it's a great read.
The story is about a writer, who gets a job with a writer as a writer's assistant and falls in love with the writer's wife (who, later, becomes a writer). The husband and wife have a four-year-old daughter, Ruth, who... yep, you guessed it, becomes a writer. Ruth writes books about a writer.
But seriously though, it's a serious book about love and relationships. It's contains a lot of sadness but there's a thread of humour that runs throughout.
The way Irving deals with characters and their relationships really draws you in. I like his novels for reading on holiday as they're not that demanding but they draw you right in and, to use the cliché, are hard to put down. This book seems superficial on the surface, but really it's quite deep and it stays with you. I'm afflicted with a terrible memory (which is why I can enjoy rereading novels so much) but I did remember a few things about this book, particularly about how the two brothers were killed. (They die before the novel beings and their presence is felt throughout the entire first part).
I would highly recommend this for reading on the plane or bus or boat, or sat by the pool somewhere away from it all. But wherever, it's a great read.