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Summary: Welcome Back, Mr. Irving!
Review: I have been a John Irving fan since I read "A Prayer for Owen Meany" when it first came out. To this day "Owen Meany" sits firmly at the top of my list of all-time favorite books of the 20th Century. It is said that the first book you read of an outstanding author will invariably be your favorite; and in my case, this theory holds true.After reading all of John Irving's other books over time, I anxiously await his new releases. Try as I may, I have not been able to make it through "A Son of the Circus", which I find to be is the least "Irving-esqe" of all of his novels. After years of waiting, I am happy to say that with "A Widow for One Year", John Irving is back and in rare form. The man who put the "fun" in "dysfunctional" has laid out [pun intended] a yarn that spans nearly forty years in the lives of Ruth Cole and Eddie O'Hare. I especially liked Part One of the book -- Eddie O'Hare's ! version of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation 1958" -- Irving-style! The tale of the "ineffectual lampshade" takes its place among such romps as Garp's mother encounter in the infirmary with the conveniently injured GI. While not my overall favorite of Irving's books, "Widow" is brimming with all things Irving -- From Ruth's father, the author of beloved children's stories with the penchant for painting nude portraits of young mothers; to Hannah, Ruth's sultry, sailor-tongued anti-self; to Ruth's biggest literary critic, the maniacal widow "for a lifetime". It is his characters that set Irving's novels apart. And on this score, "Widow" does not disappoint. Welcome Back, Mr. Irving!
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Summary: Outstanding - rich characters with poignant, real feelings
Review: This new Updike book is fantastic. His story starts with a 16 year old writers assistant, Eddie Ohare, who falls in love with, and eventually pursues an affair with, the writers wife. The book traces Ohares life, as well as the lives he intersects, with humor, feeling and compassion. I found myself laughing out loud and feeling the characters feelings deeply. If you even remotely like Irving, you will adore this book. Dave Cooper
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Summary: never want it to end
Review: I am amazed that this book is written by a man...it is so brilliantly sensitive to women. On the other hand, a woman would NEVER have written this book. Fascinating. A terrific summer read. Absorbing. I have the feeling that he prepared for this book fully and that it was completely formed in Irving's head before he started. Flaws? Perhaps, but all in all, the first one that comes close to Garp...but without the less mature weirdness.
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Summary: A solid new not-so-Irving kinda book.
Review: As John Irving is my favorite author, the wait for a new novel by him can seem like a long time. Thus, I couldn't wait to jump into his latest. But it didn't seem like the "typical" Irving novel to me. In fact, the main character Ruth, was the most "normal" central character in any of Irving's books...but I loved this book anyway. There are some classic Irving scenes...the attempted murder of Ruth's father, some twists in the plot in Amsterdam...and of course Ruth's first encounter with Eddie. Fans of Irving may not rank this up there with Garp and Meany...but give it a shot anyway...you'll enjoy it none-the-less.
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Summary: A story in need of an editor.
Review: I regret enriching the author by one penny in having purchased this book. After a splendid set-up, the reader chases the dream that the little girl will ever be reunited with her Mother. Personally I coudn't care less about Eddie and his sixty times. I'm sick of all the "breast" references. Did Irving have a bet with someone about how many times he could illustrate a breast fixation? Somewhere in this book lies a good, maybe a great! short story. The ham-handed coupling of Ted's children's books with Ruth's eventual life ( Amsterdam and the Moleman for instance) seemed amateur. I'm disgusted with the success of this book, but it reveals much about the free time available to many Americans.
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Summary: A good read..but a ho hum ending..too predictable for me.
Review: This book held my interest and considering that "A Widow For One Year" is quite a thick book it read at a good speed..not to many dragging chapters. It was a well written novel but I was a little disappointed at the ending which I had guessed chapters before! One of the better books I have read this summer, however!
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Summary: Wonderfully crafted tale; indelible characters and images
Review: Widow is the best John Irving book since The Cider House Rules, and in my opinion, ranks as one of his finest efforts to date. Irving always has a full, complex, and engaging tale to tell--a tale that may give the impression of being sprawling, overly broad, perhaps somewhat disjointed. His creative genius lies in the fact that he is always in complete control of his richly chaotic worlds, that every element he chooses to include in his tale is essential and integral, and he orchestrates these elements with such skill and subtlety (yes, subtlety), and with such a remarkable sense of dramatic arc that the reader is led to experience a literary crescendo of sorts, where characters, plot, language, memory, images, and seemingly disparate elements come together in a deeply satisfying, inevitable, and transcendent way. This tale of an extended "family" of writers is itself an example of the incredible gifts we as readers can receive from writers of imagination, ! intelligence, and heart.
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Summary: Betrayed by a lazy John
Review: I wish I had waited for the paperback so I could have wasted only seven bucks. A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules are two of the best pieces of new fiction I have read. A Widow for A Year, however, is a big disappointment. After the first part, this life story in three parts is simply a boring rehash of Irving's themes. Don't waste your time or money.
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Summary: Is John Irving really Ruth Cole?
Review: When I read Garp twenty years ago, I was completely blown away. For years it was my standard of excellence for novels. I found Irving's later books disappointing and gave up on him. The reviews for this book were so good that I decided to read him again - but this book did not live up to its promise. I think Ruth is a thinly disguised John Irving - check out the black t-shirt and black jeans Irving wears in his book jacket photo - Ruth's "signature" outfit. This might have been more interesting as a shorter, non-fiction work about what its like to be a best selling author. The parts of the book that describe the author's interactions with fans and detractors seemed very real. I found Irvings constant parenthetical remarks and forshadowings a bit annoying and they got in the way of the flow of the story. Only in certain sections (like Ruth's experiences in Amsterdam) did the story move forward in a compelling way. Most of the characters were a little to! o strange to be believable or sympathetic - Rooie was the only one for me that seemed to be the genuine article. This story could have been told more effectively in half the number of pages and with a few less plot contrivances.
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Summary: Entertaining enough to finish.
Review: This is my first John Irving book, though I have heard his work reviewed before. I thought the characters were somewhat like those in a Woody Allen movie. A little bizarre! It's worth reading;
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