Rating: 
Summary: REPETITIVE WRITING MARS INTERESTING PREMISE
Review: THIS STORY STARTED OUT WONDERFULLY WITH STRONG CHARACTERIZATIONS AND GREAT DETAILS. THEN IRVING WEARS OUT THE READER WITH INCESSENAT ITALICS (AT LEAST 5 ON EVERY PAGE!) AND AFTER THE FIRST TWO THIRDS OF THE NOVEL IT DRAGGED ON AND ON. HIS EDITOR IS OBVIOUSLY AFRAID TO TELL IRVING THAT HIS BOOK WAS 200 PAGES TOO LONG.
Rating: 
Summary: a change of pace from Irving
Review: A Widow For One Year is different to all Irving's previous novels in that it is a easy character study more than a rollicking character development. The pace of the novel is never rushed, and the lack of highly comic situations noticeable, however the author keeps us interested because he gets us to feel for his characters - even those we don't particularly like. Each character can seduce and repell the reader, which means they are pretty close to real. I was disappointed by Irving's last book, A Son of the Circus as it tried to do too much and yet did not do enough, however, with this one I feel he has returned with a different type of story for us - we just have decide whather we are prepared to accept him in this manner.
Rating:
Summary: Contrived plot, no characters to identify with,
Review: I have enjoyed John Irving since he wrote Garp. Some books failed to live up to that quality, but this one hits the bottom. The plot is too contrived, rediculous ending and although I love Irving's Dickens like characters and humor they are missing here. Only the pictures of the dead boys live up to Irving's usual inventive twists. His writing is fluid so I enjoyed the book for a while although I thought the premise of a woman who had just lost her two sons would bed a boy of the same age who looks like her son. Typically a man's idea! And why would Ruth and Hannah be friends, but then we don't really know any of these people who care about what happens to them.
Rating:
Summary: All the parts of a novel
Review: Quirky characters, nice coincidences, rising action, falling action, some keen ironies. Sure, they're all there. But in the end, perhaps "A Widow for One Year" is a cautionary tale about thematics, for at times it seems more "smart essay" than good novel. Yes, the fact/fiction, novel/autobiography line blurs for the writerly characters--but it's at best a hackneyed point, one rehashed after reading too many lit. crit. essays, I suppose. Yes, the endless repetitions in the plot allow the story to meld on itself--but again, pretty hackneyed, lit. crit. stuff. The novel that then remains, after the "smart" stuff collapses in its own obviousness (I won't even mention the banal moral at the end of "sometimes, time stands still"), is a rather threadbare plot combining very, very easy resolutions ("I love you, Marion"--this, after almost forty years of abandonment) with quippy, quirky incidents, none of which is strong enough to give the novel either cohesion or force. Yes, there are, of course, some pristine "Irving" moments--that well-known irony that overreaches and yet remains very funny and insightful--but the various pieces of a novel, even one from a so-called big novelist, do not a novel make.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Read
Review: What an enjoyable book and an entertaining read. I had never read Irving before (as a post baby boomer) and I will try some of his earlier works now. I particularly enjoyed his charachter development and how each of the main charachters have points in the book where they are the focus--it really enables you to get close to them and understand the texture of their lives.My only complaint is, at the end, when some of the main charachters begin to find happiness, it's all through someone else's impressions and interpretation. I loved the last sentence in the book--it was just a piece of brilliant writing--but somehow, I felt unfulfilled because there probably should have been a little more.
Rating:
Summary: Overly ambitious plot with underdeveloped character
Review: The ambitious plot to span three different stages of a writer's development in a humourous and engaging way could have worked. Unfortunately, Irving's style of writing and farcical story led to a meandering of waffle during the reading of which this reader managed to complete 2 other far more engaging books. It was impossible to empathise with any of Irving's characters and each chapter left a who cares feeling in this reader's head. Very disappointing, but I know a lot of people who loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Many substories support the main plot.
Review: The story in this book is made up of several short books by the author characters John Irving creates. Each author-character's books are read out(at least in part)to the reader. Each story written by the characters enhances the overall plot of a woman's struggle to overcome loss and the effect that abandonment has on so many people. Twisted humor, but intriguing characters.
Rating: 
Summary: classic irving
Review: A Widow for One Year is in a class with Owen Meany (which turned me on to Robertson Davies) and "Garp". Though slow to start, I was quickly absorbed and compelled toward the ending. The characters are highly developed to the point of the reader feeling somewhat a voyeur to some of the painful, awkward and realistically personal moments that are shared. As always in reading Irving, pay close attention to early details as there are recurring themes and ironic significance when you least expect them.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining and pleasurable read. Four and Half Stars?
Review: One of the many aspects of John Irving's writing that attracts me is his off the cuff humor and somewhat cynical view of the world. The virtual impossibilty of the plot is not a distraction, but a pleasant and entertaining escape. And while I don't know anyone who has suffered as much as Ruth, I also don't know anyone who has had such an interesting and exciting life. Ruth and Eddie and Eddie and Marion and the countless other relationships one encounters throughout the novel keep up the pace and provide a window not into individual people but more so into people as a whole. This is a book that offers readers a glimpse of the life we might have lived, the life we are glad we didn't live and, most importantly, the life we never could have lived; because it provides a story and characters that are too perfect, yet broken, to be real. But it is not the believability of the characters for which one reads an Irving novel (if so, noone would have been able to finish Owen Meany), but the humanity, both good and bad, with which he depicts his characters. Give Irving a chance, don't expect deep meanings, sit back, relax and read an entertaining story told by one of today's best storytellers.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Irving, rich in characters and complex relationships
Review: Past themes emerge in this novel--foreign prostitutes, unconventional relationships, althletic protagonist, prep school--but once into the story, the reader won't mind. Again, a book full of colorful characters who lead unusual lives. Irving's writing makes it easy to picture the absurd and tragic events, which will make the reader laugh out loud and ache with sympathy.
|
