A review by aneides
A Widow for One Year by John Irving

3.0

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.