A Widow for One Year

Rating:
Summary: Well written but to long.
Review: I have besides from A Widow for One Year read A Prayer For Owen Meany. I found the last one batter, but I see many similaritys. For example Irvings way to create caracters and make them original. What I like about this book is that the caracters are so down to earth and I like the diffrenses between Ruth and Hannah, their different personalitys. I totaly love the ending, when Ruths mother appeares and I love the thing she said to Ruth in the end.

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for next tape !!
Review: This is my first experience with a book on tape and I'm very happy to have chosen this one - the history/relationships/love/mystery work illustrating Irving's ability to tell us a great story. Love it !

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I've read only one other John Irving book, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and couldn't get into his other books. I thoroughly enjoyed Widow because the Ruth character was a strong and unique woman. However, I thought some parts were too dramatic, for example, Marion's complete obsession of the photographs, but for the most part the book was great.

Rating:
Summary: Only for die-hard Irving fans
Review: As a huge fan of JI, I was disappointed in this book. It's not a bad book, but it's not Irving. It didn't grip me as much as the others, wasn't was funny, and the characters weren't a memorable.

Rating:
Summary: Why is this a best-seller?
Review: I really do not understand. I enjoyed The World According to Garp, I tolerated his other books, but A Widow... just bored me to death. I gave up reading it about 2/3 the way through, and I have never in my life stopped reading a book. Fellow readers--this one is not worth the time or effort.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Touching, Thoroughly Engrossing
Review: From the first page, John Irving's new book is nearly impossible to put down, as Irving whizzes through a brisk and marvelously laid out plot. With his flowing prose and his intriguing characters, Irving has created a masterful novel full of gripping surprises and overwhelming emotions. Amazing!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book!
Review: I can only say that I was very impressed with the author's ability to weave such a tale with so many multi faceted characters. I would compare him to Fitzgerald in his talent, and must say that I was riveted throughout the reading of this book. At times (when a story would begin within a story) I would be a bit put off by being led away from the current plot, but it never failed that I was yet again riveted into another plot. This is a very well written piece, and I encourage anyone who appreciates literature to read it!

Rating:
Summary: Boring, waste of time reading. Depravity. Much too long.
Review: I found this book to be boring, and a waste of my time. Irving overdoes the sex thing. There was no real substance to the book, and went off in too many different directions. Much too long and drawnout. Could have been effectively said in half the pages.Disappointing reading and a waste of my money.

Rating:
Summary: Creativity that could only come from Irving
Review: This brilliant book is about the life of Ruth Cole and the many characters who fill her existence. It is a story about a marriage, which produces Ruth, which is as tragic as one can imagine, but given Irving's talent, still funny at times. All of the main characters of this book are writers, and like some of Irving's other novels, the fiction within the fiction, is a brilliant psychological dance of the mind, both for us and for the characters who are also writers. For those who feel frustrated about how Irving's characters in this book often do down right despicable things, this is simply part of the book and the world according to Irving. People are horribly flawed, and make terrible errors, but we love them anyway. John Irving looks at the world in shades of grey, and sorry doctor Laura, but all people make bad mistakes, and sometimes there are no choices that are clearly right. My only complaint with the book is that the ending is a bit trite.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Enlightening
Review: I read this book while recovering from a clinical depression, and subsequently felt that it somehow helped. One of all the things I cherish in life is the fact that I learned to read. To suspend my disbeliefs, to be entertained and to be enlightened. Irving always has engaging, eccentric characters with many flaws involved in dysfunctional relationships. This book is no exception. In my opinion, it is Irving's best book, alongside my other favorite The Hotel New Hampshire. I guess I'll have to pick up that copy of Son of the Circus that's been lying around and get busy.