A Widow for One Year

Rating:
Summary: A Mature and Touching Novel
Review: I am very surprised at the number of quite similar negative reviews. I would expect that many readers would find this slow going but rewarding. The disappointment and even hostility really baffle me. I think this book is among Irving's best and certainly his most mature novel. The characters are deep and unique without becoming the nearly cartoon creatures of some of the early novels. The story is deeply textured. The central notion of the walls with photos removed is haunting and moving. This is a different Irving, but the heritage is unmistakable.

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Summary: Irving is the master of the written word!!!
Review: What a piece of liturature. No author (DeLillo, etc.) pulls you into the story and it's characters lives like Irving. A modern masterpiece is no understatement. You do actually feel like your intruding on the characters personal lives while your reading. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Excellent, another of John Irving's comic tragedies!
Review: John Irving's tragic novels are the most emotionally moving stories mainly because one develops a deep caring for the characters. Widow for One Year is on par with The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Although it is not as intricate and powerful as Owen Meany, Widow entertains with its flawed characters, tragic developments, and strong stances on issues. John Irving is a writer of modern classics and this work stands with his better novels.

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Summary: This novel is classic Irving: I reccomend it highly
Review: If you like John Irving, you'll love his latest novel which contains the essential elements to any Irving story: characters you in whom you immediately invest; situtations, which although bizarre, seem plausible and believable. I came to this novel with high expectations -- A Prayer for Owen Meany was one of my favorites and I can still hear what I imagine to be Owen's voice in my head. However, my expectations were well met. I could not put this book down as I waited to see what would become of the main characters: Ruth and Eddie. Immediately after reading the last line, I wanted to begin the novel again. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys John Irving. Even those who aren't Irving fans will have a hard time resisting turning these pages which take us from Long Island, to New York City, to Amsterdam and Vermont.

Rating:
Summary: Not Irving's best.
Review: It' very hard to review a John Irving book and not mention his previous works. So I tried not to compare "A Widow for One Year" with his other books, and found it impossible. I have to admit to finding it slightly disappointing. Very well written, as ever, with good characters, but a couple of thing were missing . Firstly, descriptions. Of people and places. By the end of Owen Meany, I think I would have been able to pick him out of a crowd, and if I closed my eyes I could sketch you a picture of the house on Front Street. But not in "A Widow". I think he just had too many characters. Every time a new one was presented I expected them to be the one that would kill Ruth, (I now expect a major tragedy in every Irving novel and was almost disappointed that this didn't have one). It didn't have the extremes of comedy and tragedy, which make me laugh out loud and cry pathetically; again which is the tried and tested formula, which works for me. In all, I found Irving a little older, taking fewer literary risks and giving us the "happy ending" (Ruth and Marion, Ruth and Harry, Eddie and Marion) which just doesn't fit with Irving. Somethings should be left unresolved, leaving the reader wanting more from the book, wishing it wasn't finished and deciding the minimum amount of time that can elapse until it can be read again. I enjoyed it because it was Irving, but fingers crossed that his next tome will be like his older works. OWEN MEANY, WHERE ARE YOU?

Rating:
Summary: 608 pages in less than 48 hours--I couldn't put it down
Review: I've always enjoyed John Irving's work, but I've never before read 608 pages in a weekend (not even cramming for final exams). The characters are perfectly drawn--I found myself shaking my head at them for continuing their infuriating, yet endearing habits as if they were members of my OWN family. As always with Irving, I was laughing out loud (forgetting, of course, how startling that is to others!) as often as I was catching my breath with amazement at the tragedies the characters suffer. John Irving "does" women for the first time, too! Ruth is a complete person in and of herself, rather than a representation of all the emotional fulfillment the usual John Irving protagonist is seeking. The comic tragedy definitely contained echoes of *Owen Meany,* but I found myself more reminded of Greek tragedies and the process of discovery that each character must come to before the story is complete. A fabulous summer (or fall, or winter...) read! Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A tribute to the strength of love in any family
Review: The believable characters and the depths of grief and love are portrayed in this book better than most I have read before this. John Irving has a unique slant on the human condition and a depth of understanding for the intricate dynamics in any family--disfunctional or not. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and missed its characters when I finished it.

Rating:
Summary: True Irving!
Review: John Irving's wit can rarely be adequately described without seeming morbid, but those who are GARP fans (as I am) will enjoy his latest effort. It includes many of the Garpian details for which the author is known. At the core of this novel is a boy's enduring love of an older woman with whom he had an affair in the summer of '58. Distraught by the deaths of her two teenaged sons in a car crash five years before, the woman is drawn to this boy with an intensity lasting only six weeks. She then disappears leaving the boy, her four-year-old daughter Ruth, and her estranged husband; she takes only her clothing and the hundreds of photographs of her dead sons with her. Thirty-seven years pass before the boy (now a man, of course) sees her again. Revolving around this core is Ruth, the abandoned daughter, who grows up to become a world-renowned novelist. It is her profession which leads her back to Eddie the boy-now-a-man who has become a writer himself, though not on a par with Ruth. These two characters share the void created by the departed woman, who is (and this is my only complaint) also a writer. The story, like some forms of modern art, uses empty space to make a statement. The absence of this woman makes itself felt far more acutely than the presence of Ruth's father--an author of children's books (ho-hum)--who dies before his ex-wife is discovered again. Other than the writer, writer, writer, (writer!) business, I very much enjoyed this book and would include it with the author's better works.

Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing book and a tedious read.
Review: This book is over-long and sloppily written. There are far too many parenthetical explanations of extraneous material or observations already made plain to the reader, distracting from what might otherwise have been great scenes, some of which could have made excellent short stories. I was disappointed -- only great determination kept me reading to the end. Sorry, John. Maybe I missed the point. Were you trying to write a pornographic soap opera, or what?

Rating:
Summary: disappointing; not up to the Irving standard
Review: As a long-time John Irving fan, I have been looking forward to this book for two years (since "Piggy Sneed" came out.)"Widow" started well and I liked the first portion very much. Then, as I read on, my interest and enjoyment declined steadily to the chaotic ending which seemed desperately improvised to me. One problem I had from the start was that I didn't like the character,Ruth. As a precocious 4-year old, she was a brat and I couldn't stand her overweening self-preoccupation as an adult. As a writer, if the sample chapter she read at the Y is a fair example, Ruth is surely second rate. The other thing about the book that bothered me was Irving's inexhaustable preoccupation with sex. I realize he has always been obsessed with the subject but this time, he went too far for my taste. The whole Amsterdam scene was a disaster for me. I hated miserable womanizer,Ted and felt sorry for poor fellow-Exonian Eddie. Irving gave us only a glimpse of the most attractive character, Marion. Sorry, John. Better luck next time.