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A review by debsd
A Widow For One Year by John Irving
4.0
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!