Scan barcode
adamgifford777's review against another edition
4.0
This is the best book John Irving has written since Son of a Circus.
sejpot's review against another edition
This book has such demeaning and objectifying descriptions of women. Completely unnecessary, the story can be told without constantly mentioning how women are always unconsciously saying they want sex.
roseleaf24's review against another edition
3.0
I have a hard time summing up my thoughts about this book. I didn't exactly enjoy it, though I found it harder to put down the further I got into it. It was almost magical realism, but not enough that I found it easy to quit as I usually do with that genre. It instilled enough curiosity and frustration to keep me reading.
libwinnie's review against another edition
2.0
Juan Diego revisits his past while traveling across the world to fulfill the dying wish of a man from his childhood. During his travels he becomes involved with a mysterious mother and daughter. Though the writing and the characters are classic John Irving, the plot leaves much to be desired and ultimately falls completely flat. From another author, I most likely would have given this book a higher rating, but John Irving is just so much better than this.
knittyreader's review against another edition
1.0
I know John Irving from 'A Prayer for Owen Meany', which I liked a lot, so I was kind of bouncing around happily when I got to review 'Avenue of Mysteries'. Once I had started, I wasn't bouncing happily anymore.
What to say? I did not get past 25% of the book. I will lower my reading challenge outcome accordingly by the way, but I did want to have a go at grading and reviewing this book here, and it cannot be done withoud Goodreads adding it to the list of read books. Anyway ...
Irving manages to write this whole book around sex. He should have listened to himself, when he wrote that it had been enough talk about sex, but he didn't. I did not completely dislike the parts about the main character's childhood, but even there it was about sex a lot of time.
I tried to keep the things in mind I learned in Literature-classes. The 'sex isn't about sex, unless it's pornography'-parts ('Avenue of Mysteries' seems to get pretty close to pornography though). The 'someone travelling is on a quest'-part (I have a slight idea what the quest might be, and no wish to find out more). The 'heart-disease has something to do with emotions'-part (well, yes, someone like MC will have quite some heartsore from his past, no doubt). I have to admit, when I grab my books to decipher symbols just to try to get through a book, it is not a good sign.
The characters were not likeable, none of them. Okay, I did like Edward and brother Pepe in a way, although seen the way the story went I am quite afraid to admit so - since I did not get myself to drag on any further, I have no idea if they might not do some nasty things, being a priest and all. I dunno, the whole story was vile, all characters were vile, so I grew to expect vile things. I just didn't want to read any further, that's all I know for now.
I received a free copy through Netglley in return for an honest review.
What to say? I did not get past 25% of the book. I will lower my reading challenge outcome accordingly by the way, but I did want to have a go at grading and reviewing this book here, and it cannot be done withoud Goodreads adding it to the list of read books. Anyway ...
Irving manages to write this whole book around sex. He should have listened to himself, when he wrote that it had been enough talk about sex, but he didn't. I did not completely dislike the parts about the main character's childhood, but even there it was about sex a lot of time.
I tried to keep the things in mind I learned in Literature-classes. The 'sex isn't about sex, unless it's pornography'-parts ('Avenue of Mysteries' seems to get pretty close to pornography though). The 'someone travelling is on a quest'-part (I have a slight idea what the quest might be, and no wish to find out more). The 'heart-disease has something to do with emotions'-part (well, yes, someone like MC will have quite some heartsore from his past, no doubt). I have to admit, when I grab my books to decipher symbols just to try to get through a book, it is not a good sign.
The characters were not likeable, none of them. Okay, I did like Edward and brother Pepe in a way, although seen the way the story went I am quite afraid to admit so - since I did not get myself to drag on any further, I have no idea if they might not do some nasty things, being a priest and all. I dunno, the whole story was vile, all characters were vile, so I grew to expect vile things. I just didn't want to read any further, that's all I know for now.
I received a free copy through Netglley in return for an honest review.
tlctbr's review against another edition
3.0
This took me forever to finish. Although I enjoyed parts of the story, the whole thing felt a little too much like recycled material from all his other books. I wanted to love it, but the whole thing was just... meh.
swicksy's review against another edition
2.0
At this stage in his career, John Irving can pretty much do anything he wants. When you have books like THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP or A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY on your CV (not to mention that Oscar for THE CIDER HOUSE RULES), well most authors would probably be happy with just one of those.
Irving's later novels have not captured the brilliance of his earlier work (although the first half of UNTIL I FIND YOU comes very close). While containing many of the themes of his other books (conflicts with religion and sex, strong/dominating female mother-figure characters, children that are extraordinary), AVENUE OF MYSTERIES feels like more of an experiment than a novel. Again though, at this point for Irving, why not?
It reads like a stream of consciousness, going backwards and forwards in time without much warning as an author travels to the Philippines and finds a strange connection with a pair of very sexually alluring women, and thanks to beta-blockers remembers his troubled past as a poor child (a "dump kid" who reads....basically he grew up near a dump but taught himself to read so the book frequently refers to him as the "dump kid reader"). There are the aforementioned women who seem to be following the protagonist wherever he goes throughout Asia, a young girl who can read minds but can only be understood by her brother because of a throat malady, a priest who gives up his vows to marry a transvestite and the broken nose from the statue of a holy figure just to name a few of the things that the protagonist encounters throughout his life.
It's a bit of a challenge to stay focused, but the writing compelled me to keep reading and the more I think about it after, the more appreciated this book. Does that make me want to give it more than 2 stars, nope. I would add 1/2 star if Goodreads allowed it, but feel that my reaction is more worthy of the lower 2 than rounding up to 3 stars.
If you love Irving's writing, you're more than likely to read this anyway (as you should). Otherwise the casual reader might not be as taken with it as those who have read and loved Irving's previous work.
Irving's later novels have not captured the brilliance of his earlier work (although the first half of UNTIL I FIND YOU comes very close). While containing many of the themes of his other books (conflicts with religion and sex, strong/dominating female mother-figure characters, children that are extraordinary), AVENUE OF MYSTERIES feels like more of an experiment than a novel. Again though, at this point for Irving, why not?
It reads like a stream of consciousness, going backwards and forwards in time without much warning as an author travels to the Philippines and finds a strange connection with a pair of very sexually alluring women, and thanks to beta-blockers remembers his troubled past as a poor child (a "dump kid" who reads....basically he grew up near a dump but taught himself to read so the book frequently refers to him as the "dump kid reader"). There are the aforementioned women who seem to be following the protagonist wherever he goes throughout Asia, a young girl who can read minds but can only be understood by her brother because of a throat malady, a priest who gives up his vows to marry a transvestite and the broken nose from the statue of a holy figure just to name a few of the things that the protagonist encounters throughout his life.
It's a bit of a challenge to stay focused, but the writing compelled me to keep reading and the more I think about it after, the more appreciated this book. Does that make me want to give it more than 2 stars, nope. I would add 1/2 star if Goodreads allowed it, but feel that my reaction is more worthy of the lower 2 than rounding up to 3 stars.
If you love Irving's writing, you're more than likely to read this anyway (as you should). Otherwise the casual reader might not be as taken with it as those who have read and loved Irving's previous work.
jetia13's review against another edition
3.0
John Irving: impressively unceasing in his dedication to his themes. This book hit some of the big ones: circus, statue of virgin mary, writing, vietnam war. Also, were there ghosts? Unclear. Truly a bizarre read. I'll never stop with his books until he does though.