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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I enjoyed the first part of this book - Eddie's coming of age. The middle part was very, very slow and the ending tied everything together. It was no World According To Garp, one of my all time favorite books. But Irvings storytelling skill is still there. It is just that he tends to overdo it and and drag a minor event to unnecessary length. He also spent too much time explaining the characters when he should have let the story speak for itself.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my favorite John Irving book, but he's a great story teller and this held my attention to the very end.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
john irving is kind of a sicko but he really does write some great books.
What a hate read. My friend recommended I read some John Irving, so I chose this book because I lived in Amsterdam, and part of the book takes place there. I wanted to rage-quit this book SO MANY TIMES but for some fucking reason I held out until the very end. John Irving does not know how to write women characters. He barely knows how to write period. Every other word is fucking italics which gives the impression that he has VOICE IMMODULATION DISORDER like that Will Ferrell character.
Anyway, the scenes involving Amsterdam's Red Light District are extremely regressive in the way they portray sex workers, his main character does shit a normal woman would NEVER do, and even when writing from the perspective of a woman (poorly) he can barely hide his obvious misogyny.
What a terrible fucking book.
Anyway, the scenes involving Amsterdam's Red Light District are extremely regressive in the way they portray sex workers, his main character does shit a normal woman would NEVER do, and even when writing from the perspective of a woman (poorly) he can barely hide his obvious misogyny.
What a terrible fucking book.
What a laugh--I don't read this guy forever, then tumble on him, and like him so much. All about a cast of characters living through the messiness of life. Some of it seems a stretch to me--young guy falling forever in love with woman significantly older than him, but what the heck. I guess it could happen, therefore it's fair fiction game. Ruth and Ted are married, but Ted is serial cheater. Then their teenage sons are killed tragically, and they create a new baby, Ruth, that doesn't quite work out as a replacement child. Ted is hardly scarred by the death of the boys (or else is able to compartmentalize the grief), but the wife, Marion, is devastated by it and afraid to even love the new child. Enter a 16-year-old writing assistant, and the story is off and running for the next 40 some odd years. One thing that I do appreciate about Irving is the humor that he manages to imbue his stories with--just when you think he's going down a really dark path, up comes a little karmic and humorous slap down.
This book sat on my shelf for a really long time, because the title is so uninviting and frumpy. I finally picked it up though and really liked it. It's definitely a book for "grown ups" (if you get my drift), but is otherwise an excellent story - well told and well written. It's one of the first books I've read in a long time that is artfully written in the way it uses literary devices, imagery, themes, self-commentary and so on. It's a long and winding story, but captivating throughout, never predictable, and full of interesting and realistic characters. It seems to contain a little bit of every genre too - romance, memoir, mystery... I am looking forward to trying some more of Irving's novels.
Just couldn't get into it. Found myself skipping many pages at once hoping to get to something interesting. Finally I gave up.
of all the irving that i have read (and that is pretty darn close to all of it), this is my favorite.
the story is so incredibly epic, and the characters are so very real, described in such detail that i feel like i know them from having read the book.
superb.
the story is so incredibly epic, and the characters are so very real, described in such detail that i feel like i know them from having read the book.
superb.
DNF at 7%. This is one of those books that rambles on and on about everything and everyone the author can think of. Bored.