Review by avesmaria - The Cider House Rules

avesmaria 's review for:

The Cider House Rules by John Irving

3.5

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I grabbed this from a little free library after having finished my vacation read too early. I had seen the maudlin, sentimental, boring film adaptation, but I was desperate.
Luckily this book is nothing like the (somehow Oscar-winning) film. Although things do get pretty sentimental at the end and tied up in sort of a neat bow, plot-wise, the majority of the book is simultaneously epic, funny (really!), charming, and a thought-provoking look at the ideas of fate, wantedness, and family. Characters are complex, with the exception of Candy, whose interior life is never explored in the book, for reasons I couldn’t really understand except maybe that Irving basically treated her as an empty plot device instead of a full-fledged character.

I was flabbergasted that entire main characters, decades, pregnancies (!!! Homer’s own child!) had been excised from the film, causing it to have a literal abortion of character development and depth in comparison to the novel.

I won’t say this is fine literature, but it was certainly a good read.

Content Warnings