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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I love John Irving and his novels. He has never disappointed me and this one was no exception. LOVED IT
I really enjoyed this book, it's such a full story of one character's life. Sometimes I think back on this book and think "wow, that was all in that one book?". I was pretty disappointed by the movie, because like most movies they were only able to tell about the first 50 pages or so of the book, and certainly didn't have time to really get into the depth of the characters.
I love John Irving's writing in general. This wasn't my favorite of his. His tangents were bigger and less compelling than in the other novels of his I've read. Worth reading overall.
not my favorite of his, a little predictable and the ending was not satisfying, still one of the goats, 3.5/5 stars
My second favorite Irving book, after Garp. I loved Ted's stories and how strong of a character Ruth is. The only real problem I have with the book is that Ruth tends not to wear a bra a lot of the time. I believe she's around a D-cup, and being a large C-cup, it is painful and uncomfortable to walk around without a bra. I can't really blame Irving for not knowing that because obviously he doesn't have breasts. However, noting that took me out of the spell of the book and was a bit distracting.
Not his best. Not his worst, either. It felt like research for Until I Find You. (Which I really enjoyed.)
The first Irving book I've actually read, although I did see the movies of Garp and Cider House Rules. It was more engrossing than I expected, although it was really too long for its content. I keep trying to find excuses to like it less than I did because I don't like to think of myself as a reader of this sort of fiction. I admit to a degree of snobbery. A lot of the story's events seemed rather predictable and although this may have been completely intentional, it was a little disappointing. I also felt there was something slightly foreign about the way the characters thought and the way the protagonist, Ruth, was written sounded like a female character written by a male author.
Hard to get into at first, and a bit of a downer for awhile, but this is well worth the trouble!! Ended up really getting rather attached to the characters -- typical well-written Irving.