Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I picked this up because I've enjoyed several of Irving's other novels; having read it, I'm looking forward to my next one. This is a long novel and not especially fast-paced, but I was engaged from the start and one of my favourite moments occurs right at the end - I was never disinterested.
Irving is very much a story-teller. He carefully builds the structure of his tales and it shows - but his characters are as strong as his stories, and neither suffers from the attention paid to the other. He combines plot and character in a way that I think few authors do. His characters come to life; they are never boring - even minor characters are given detail and context that makes them memorable. Many of his characters could be ridiculous, but they aren't - instead they engage the reader's sympathy. I can see parts of people I know in many of his characters, and parts of many of his characters in people I know.
I will continue to work my way through the Irving backlist!
Irving is very much a story-teller. He carefully builds the structure of his tales and it shows - but his characters are as strong as his stories, and neither suffers from the attention paid to the other. He combines plot and character in a way that I think few authors do. His characters come to life; they are never boring - even minor characters are given detail and context that makes them memorable. Many of his characters could be ridiculous, but they aren't - instead they engage the reader's sympathy. I can see parts of people I know in many of his characters, and parts of many of his characters in people I know.
I will continue to work my way through the Irving backlist!
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well... I wasn't blown away.
This book moseys and meanders. It took a long time for Irving to settle in on a main character, and by the time he did, I was whip-lashed since I'd been holding out for more info about a completely different one.
That being said, perhaps the unpredictability and wandering nature of the narrative is supposed to say something about the same qualities in real life. If so, it was pretty effective. We focus in on Ruth Cole, but only after getting an close up look at her parents' relationship to each other and to their deceased sons. Of course, these (hi)stories would have a great influence on the person Ruth would become, and perhaps upon a second reading I'd appreciate them more.
The erotic nature of the book was kinda...nyeh. In a post "Shades of Grey" world, I think this book scarcely rates. That being said, some of the language was a bit--ah--surprising.
Irving seems to have a great affinity for his male characters (Ted, Eddie, the Dutch policeman, Ruth's first husband). They may be irritating. They may even be immortal, selfish and cruel, but they are always kind of funny. Amusing. Friendly in a way.
Women, on the other hand, don't fare as well (Marion, Ruth, Hannah, every Cougar Eddie interacts with, and Ted's paramours, for that matter). They're cold, angry, hurt, wounded... They go through life with a chip on their shoulders that keeps them from connecting with others. I think the ultimate distancing factor, though, is that they lack the slapstick humor of the male characters. (Is this one of those "women can't be funny" biases?)
The parent/child dynamic is a hot mess in this book, and I suppose that's true for a lot of readers' lives as well. Still, it was pretty depressing. I think we are supposed to believe that the next generation will do better as Ruth dotes on her son, Graham, but it just didn't seem as believable as the neurotic fears, flaring anger and bitter resentment that Ruth has toward her own parents for the majority of the book.
I think the strongest section of the book was the part in which Ruth goes to Holland. It was odd, there's no doubt about it, but vivid and powerful. It also reveals a lot more about Ruth than most other parts of the novel do. Of course, it sometimes reads almost like an autobiography as we get Ruth's sense of what it is to be an author. This is the closest JI gets to understanding his character, and it's more like he's just writing about himself--perhaps in drag.
Still, the novel conveys a powerful message about how lives are intertwined and nested in surprising ways. The relationships that do serendipitously form can be powerfully supportive and meaningful, far more so than just the biological relations we are born with. Irving's romantic couples, whether married (Ruth with husband 1 and 2), friends (Ruth and Eddie and Hannah) or unrequited (for a while, anyway: Marion/Eddie) offer a safe harbor in a violent, punishing world.
A friend of mine asked if I would recommend this book... I dunno. Certainly if it's the only thing I had on hand I would, but there are a lot of better novels out there, and John Irving has written several of them. This just isn't his best.
This book moseys and meanders. It took a long time for Irving to settle in on a main character, and by the time he did, I was whip-lashed since I'd been holding out for more info about a completely different one.
That being said, perhaps the unpredictability and wandering nature of the narrative is supposed to say something about the same qualities in real life. If so, it was pretty effective. We focus in on Ruth Cole, but only after getting an close up look at her parents' relationship to each other and to their deceased sons. Of course, these (hi)stories would have a great influence on the person Ruth would become, and perhaps upon a second reading I'd appreciate them more.
The erotic nature of the book was kinda...nyeh. In a post "Shades of Grey" world, I think this book scarcely rates. That being said, some of the language was a bit--ah--surprising.
Irving seems to have a great affinity for his male characters (Ted, Eddie, the Dutch policeman, Ruth's first husband). They may be irritating. They may even be immortal, selfish and cruel, but they are always kind of funny. Amusing. Friendly in a way.
Women, on the other hand, don't fare as well (Marion, Ruth, Hannah, every Cougar Eddie interacts with, and Ted's paramours, for that matter). They're cold, angry, hurt, wounded... They go through life with a chip on their shoulders that keeps them from connecting with others. I think the ultimate distancing factor, though, is that they lack the slapstick humor of the male characters. (Is this one of those "women can't be funny" biases?)
The parent/child dynamic is a hot mess in this book, and I suppose that's true for a lot of readers' lives as well. Still, it was pretty depressing. I think we are supposed to believe that the next generation will do better as Ruth dotes on her son, Graham, but it just didn't seem as believable as the neurotic fears, flaring anger and bitter resentment that Ruth has toward her own parents for the majority of the book.
I think the strongest section of the book was the part in which Ruth goes to Holland. It was odd, there's no doubt about it, but vivid and powerful. It also reveals a lot more about Ruth than most other parts of the novel do. Of course, it sometimes reads almost like an autobiography as we get Ruth's sense of what it is to be an author. This is the closest JI gets to understanding his character, and it's more like he's just writing about himself--perhaps in drag.
Still, the novel conveys a powerful message about how lives are intertwined and nested in surprising ways. The relationships that do serendipitously form can be powerfully supportive and meaningful, far more so than just the biological relations we are born with. Irving's romantic couples, whether married (Ruth with husband 1 and 2), friends (Ruth and Eddie and Hannah) or unrequited (for a while, anyway: Marion/Eddie) offer a safe harbor in a violent, punishing world.
A friend of mine asked if I would recommend this book... I dunno. Certainly if it's the only thing I had on hand I would, but there are a lot of better novels out there, and John Irving has written several of them. This just isn't his best.
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12663512
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12663512
another engrossing read. I would have thought I'd be sick of to topics of prostitution and sex but when you write as good as Irving you can write about anything (and he includes mose everything in his novels) and make it so entertaining.
Thoroughly enjoyed the relationships and themes explored in this book.
My favorite lines include:
"He used to say that darkness was his favorite color."
"If nakedness - I mean the feeling of nakedness - is what a nude must convey, there is no nakedness that compares to what is feels like to be naked in front of someone for the first time."
"After all, no one but Ted could have comprehended and respected the eternity of her sorrow."
"Brave means that you accept what happens to you - you just try to make the best of it."
""Don't forget - it's you she's really leaving," Eddie told him. "I guess she knew you pretty well."
"Well enough to judge me, you mean? Oh, certainly!" Ted agreed. His drink was already more than half gone. He kept sucking on the ice cubes and spitting them back into the glass; then he'd drink a little more. "But she's leaving you too, isn't she, Eddie?""
"He was never "I" or "me" or "myself"; he was always only "Ted" - or "he" or "him" or "himself". He was merely a supporting character in a story about other, more important people."
"Eddie had even called Marion "the sexual beginning and the sexual peak" of his life."
"There is a splinter of ice in the heart of a writer."
"When she'd made up her mind about somebody, it was the height of boredom to wait for the man to seduce her."
"Horace Walpole once wrote: "The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." But the real world is tragic to those who think and feel; it is only comic to those who've been lucky."
"You're the biggest secret I know...The only way I know what's going on with you is the only way everyone else knows it. I just have to wait and read your next book."
My favorite lines include:
"He used to say that darkness was his favorite color."
"If nakedness - I mean the feeling of nakedness - is what a nude must convey, there is no nakedness that compares to what is feels like to be naked in front of someone for the first time."
"After all, no one but Ted could have comprehended and respected the eternity of her sorrow."
"Brave means that you accept what happens to you - you just try to make the best of it."
""Don't forget - it's you she's really leaving," Eddie told him. "I guess she knew you pretty well."
"Well enough to judge me, you mean? Oh, certainly!" Ted agreed. His drink was already more than half gone. He kept sucking on the ice cubes and spitting them back into the glass; then he'd drink a little more. "But she's leaving you too, isn't she, Eddie?""
"He was never "I" or "me" or "myself"; he was always only "Ted" - or "he" or "him" or "himself". He was merely a supporting character in a story about other, more important people."
"Eddie had even called Marion "the sexual beginning and the sexual peak" of his life."
"There is a splinter of ice in the heart of a writer."
"When she'd made up her mind about somebody, it was the height of boredom to wait for the man to seduce her."
"Horace Walpole once wrote: "The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." But the real world is tragic to those who think and feel; it is only comic to those who've been lucky."
"You're the biggest secret I know...The only way I know what's going on with you is the only way everyone else knows it. I just have to wait and read your next book."
What I remember most about this book it never to turn the steering wheel until after the light turns green.
It was good, but I think I'm getting tired of John Irving and his themes. Tragedy, whores, Amsterdam, strange affairs... I think the only thing that was missing was the bear. At least he decided to take on a female perspective, and that was a plus.
Didn't like this one. The past/present narratives felt really disjointed. And Irving relies way too heavily on italics. There was at least one use of italics on every page, often more like three or four!
I can't decide whether my favorite novel of all time is "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "A Prayer for Owen Meany." So I decided I would read all novels by both authors. Harper Lee is is easy (though I haven't gotten around to Go Set A Watchman, yet.) John Irving not so much. So I have been working through two or three Irving novels a year. I had to take a break after the last one I read (Until I Find You), though--it nearly put me off of the Irving project for good. A Widow For One Year is better--there are flashes of the insight into human nature (simul iustus et peccator, saint & sinner, total depravity & created in God's image) that I see in the best of Irving's writing. But Irving also clearly has issues with women--his female characters are mostly unbelievable or transparent or built around one characteristic--and his fixation on certain twisted forms of sexuality make him hard to take at times. This is not A Prayer for Owen Meany. But it isn't Until I Find You, either. I didn't get much out of it, but your mileage might vary.