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Summary: A Life-Changer
Review: "The Cider House Rules" is the best book I have ever read. The relationship between Dr. Larch and Homer is so amazing and works so well because it's real. Sometimes they hate each other, sometimes they can't get enough of each other. That's real...and powerful.
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Summary: What is isn't what always what's right
Review: I am reading TCHR for the 2nd time (before I see the movie) and I have been reawakened to the wonderfully layered characterizations and world of John Irving's Maine.This book is one of the most meaningful pieces of fiction I have ever read. Abortion (and its 'rightness or wrongness') is just a piece of the story. Even though I am for choice, I recommended the book to friend who is staunchly against abortion. We both loved it. The story is about the choices and rules we set for ourselves and how they, occasionally, conflict with the ones we actually follow. Most readers can identify at some level with this and feel sad and redeemed at the same time.
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Summary: Cider House Rules: Inside Out
Review: John Irving's work has tantalized my imagination for ten years. He knows his characters inside out. I enjoy knowing that his empathy with every character, his poignant- omniscient-inside-their-skin point of view will give me the trip that I yearn for. I lie down at night to sleep and hear "Good night, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England" and smell apples. No writer has ever affected me so deeply.
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Summary: not what i thought i was getting into...
Review: Cider House Rules was recommended to me by a Sociology professor as a good book on abortion. It wasn't until about 3 years later that I actually checked a rag-tag copy out of the Boston Public Library. I am a well-informed young woman (age 24) who, after considering all the facts I have studied, am proud to be anti-abortion. When I started this book, I found it to be a moving testimony to the tragedy of abortion. The doctor who performs them abuses inhalants, suggesting that he must distance himself from "the Lord's work," as he refers to abortions. How ironic, I thought, that he loves Homer so much, whom he could have easily scraped from the womb with his tools. I never thought Homer would get involved with abortion-- hadn't he thought about how lucky he was that his own mother had gone to St. Cloud's to give birth? At the end, Homer has replaced the Doctor. He does not abuse ether, but must take on a new, false identity to perform his duty as the new abortionist-- so he "loses himself" as well. I am not sorry I read this book. All the reviewers are correct when they say that Irving's style is fascinating and a real page-turner. And it is good to examine the causes that makes women seek abortions so that hopefully we can help them before they get to that desperate point. But my thoughts keep returning to the fetus Homer finds with its arms outstretched, as if beseeching Homer for help that it will not find. I wouldn't say don't read it-- but I do question weather abortion is the convenient, compassionate fix-it that this book seems to indicate.
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Summary: a book which makes you think
Review: Having been a reader of Irving for a long time, Cider House Rules srarted a real debate in me. He made the abortion issue at once heartrending, sad, and, strangely, very, very funny. Above all, I felt a compassion for the human spirit shining through all the way.It made me want to reach out to the poor women and comfort them. Homer is a very unlikely hero, but so lovable. What an amazing writer: I only hope the film does the book justice: the Garp film failed miserably. Read this book: it makes your previous prejudices about the abortion issue vanish like clouds before the sun.
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Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This was the 3rd John Irvine novel I read. After not being impressed by Garp, then enjoying the novelity of See Free the Bears, this novel got me into Irvings work. The book makes one think about some many things concerning life, and the decissions that we all make. The characters are well structured with the usual Irvine quirkiness, but unlike some of his other novels, he lets the plot come to the fore, not the characters. Find a beach (or a roof, find some time, sit back, enjoy (and think!)
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Summary: A masterpiece from the greatest writer in history.
Review: One of my best friends introduced me to Mr. John Irving's most heart-wrenching novel A Prayer for Owen Meany back in 1991. My friend died in January of this year, so now I say a prayer for him. I did not read any more of Mr. Irving's works until around 1997. Since then I have read all nine of his novels as well as his personal gift to his fans, Trying to save Piggy Sneed. I read Owen Meany again during my Irving marathon of reading, it is my favorite book of all time. My second favorite is The Cider House Rules, a beautiful tragedy. The relationship between Homer and Dr. Larch reminds me of mine with my father sometimes. Any Irving fan can relate with at least one of his characters in one of his comic/tragic novels. As a writer, I can only hope to create stories at least half as good as Mr. Irving's. My friend's brother and I will be seeing the movie version of Cider in December on opening night here in Atlanta. I expect a magnificent movie since Mr. Irving wrote the screenplay. If it is to be a six hour movie, I expect it will stick to the book even more than Garp and Hotel New Hampshire (unlike Owen Meany's Simon Birch-which was a good movie-but just didn't do the book justice). I hope Mr. Irving will write many more wonderful novels and that they will all be made into fantistic movies and that one day the world will understand the need for the human-kindness that Mr. John Irving feels so passionately. (Mr. Irving, please come to Atlanta for a book signing, I shall keep asking you.)
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Summary: A modern fairy tale that make you cry, laugh and sense
Review: I read John Irving's The Cider House Rules for the first time in 1994. I was totally swept off my feet and I couldn't stop reading. The sad thing is when you're coming closer to the end, and you know that the story is ended. I wanted it to go on and on. I've read the book several times now, and I just love it. I know that Lasse Hallström is making a movie of the manuscript, and I hope it will do the book justice. Of course Irving's other books are also very fascinating. I would like to mention his newest book Widow for one year, which I read with joy. Please Mr Irving - do never stop writing books! It would make my world less exciting.
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Summary: A decent book, but too long and too unfocused
Review: I agree with the reviewer below who said that the pace of this book slows down too much in the middle. It does. I enjoyed the first quarter and the last quarter of the book, but the middle 50% is a grind because it doesn't go anywhere, it just takes up space until the ending comes around. At times I felt like I was reading a Seinfeld episode -- a story about nothing -- without the humor. It also seemed to me that the author himself must have been sniffing a little ether while he wrote this book. The storyline shifts from one character to the next and from one place to another so fast it is hard to develop an interest in the plot. At times it seems that the author's "rules" include not devoting more than one paragraph to any one scene. This is the only Irving novel I have read and it is an OK book, but I don't think I will be reading any more of his works.
Rating:
Summary: It comes in third in my opinion.
Review: I'm an avid John Irving reader, putting him in the company of writers like Toni Morrison and Truman Capote. Owen Meany hooked me...drawing me to the Cider House Rules. And although the beginning had a little trouble drawing me in, it wasn't long before Homer Welles was breaking my heart along with Owen, the Berrys, and Garp. I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't a prolifer with some sort of twisted political agenda, preventing them from enjoying a good story.
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