Rating: 
Summary: great and moving storytelling
Review: Irving is back in shape. I was somewhat dissapointed by "Son of the Circus" but loved "Widow for One Year". Character development is great. The story is told with a keen eye for details. The main plot and subplots are brought to an end in a satisfactory way. You always know what is coming but, when it does, it does not fail to surprise and move you. The book has some slow passages though. Overall, it is a great book to read. Beautifully written!
Rating: 
Summary: An accomplished writer who fell short this time.
Review: I must have missed something. I have regarded John Irving as the premier story teller of the last three decades. However, upon reading his current work, I feel cheated. A Widow for One Year seems to be the work of an ex-coach who knows the theory but has forgotten how to implement it. The tools are in place and, I must admit, the format initially fascinated me. However, as Ruth Cole tells us, fiction is not about remembering or "reporting" events but which parts of the life you choose to craft your story. We never really get to know Ruth and as the central figure we have a hard time believing in her. How does she feel about the events of her life? How have they shaped her writing? What happened after Marion left to shape Ruth's world view? Introspection is the cure for gigantic leaps in time. Mr. Irving would do well to re-examine characters such as Owen Meany and practice what he preaches rather then chop his way around a difficult format of a novel. At minimum a novel needs a pulse. That constant backbeat which keeps a reader so engrossed that minutes become hours and days remain the same. I don't believe even John Irving can bring a novel full circle in the last page of a story.
Rating:
Summary: He loves his characters
Review: I'm not going to summarize the plot, and if you haven't read this book yet, ignore those reviews that do. Irving should be enjoyed with little to no conceptions as to what will unfold in the story. Suffice to say, once again Irving has given us a collection of characters that he respects, and he has drawn them in an eloquent and endearing story. The first two acts are wonderful. The third act loses some of that luster, but it's still a wonderful read.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately, not one of Mr. Irving's best.
Review: I am a big fan of Mr. Irving's work, but this novel failed to live up to the standards set by his previous work. While it was entertaining in a Danielle Steelesque kind of way, Mr. Irving's choice to write this novel from a woman's point of view ruined the book for me. Ruth's character was not only difficult to sympathize with, but her thoughts and actions were so obviously written by a man. I usually look forward to reading any new novel by John Irving; however,I was truly disappointed in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best from the breast-obsessed!
Review: I can be a pretty big Irving fan, and while there was much that I thoroughly enjoyed about WIDOW, (haunting images, great stories within stories, characters worth empathizing with), I felt it petered out a bit with Ruth's experiences in Amsterdam (and especially how she reacted to them). But I could suspend that rather minor frustration, along with the cooincidences which occasionally approached absurdity, if not for his apparent breast obsession! I kept vowing, "One more reference to Ruth's pendulous (ugh!) breasts and I am shutting this book!" I am rarely intolerant, but they drove me to as much distraction as they do him, apparently. Nonetheless, I did not keep my vow, realizing of course that it would be cutting off my uh, nose, to spite my face and so I read on -- feeling woefully underdeveloped and fortunate at the same time. I was surprised no one else noted this in thier reviews...All told, though, a good solid read -- but it's no ...GARP or ...OWEN MEANY.
Rating: 
Summary: Wordy, colourless, and lacking in direction.
Review: I was so excited to hear that Irving was coming out with a new novel, that I couldn't wait to read it. I can't begin to describe my disappointment in this stupid story. Not only were the long, rambling narratives unrelated to what I'd thought was the main plot, but the timing was 'off' in some of the key action ploys. My feeling is that Irving tries to emulate Robertson Davies, but he shouldn't even try. If he sticks to his own style, as in such works as PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY, CIDER HOUSE RULES, and A SON OF CIRCUS, he'll be just fine. Just because an author is a big name doesn't mean he can write a good book EVERY time. I mourn the trees lost on the paper for this 'work'.
Rating:
Summary: Kodak Moments
Review: A John Irving book is like a bad car wreck -- and for this book, that's appropriate -- because you can't look away, you can't forget it, and you'll never be the same after you've experienced it. Unlike a terrible accident, though, you don't want this experience to end, even as you're rushing headlong to the conclusion at 3:00 a.m. when you have to be at work in three hours.The comparisons to "Garp" are inevitable. Twenty years later, Irving is telling much the same story: the terrifying numbness of losing a child (or the paralysis of anticipating such a loss), how what's lost can never be recovered and the haunted lives of the broken people who are left behind. The ghosts of Ruth Cole's dead brothers hang over everything in this book, making widows of anyone -- male and female -- close to them, whether in their brief lives or through the hundreds of photographs taken by Ruth's parents, Marion and Ted. Like the photographs, many of the characters here -- particularly Marion, Ted and Eddie, the young lover/surrogate son/writer's assistant -- are trapped behind glass, caught in a moment too too terrible or too wonderful to leave behind. Marion never recovers from the deaths of her boys. Ted -- who comes up with the idea to have the replacement child that becomes Ruth and later hatches the plot to put Eddie in Marion's bed -- is doomed to repeat himself as a chronic seducer of young mothers. Even his famous children's stories are repeats on the same themes, warmed- over, illustrated versions of stories he's made up for his own children. For Ted and Marion, there is only one story that matters, the one that begins and ends on a snowy road in Colorado. And for Eddie, the only story is Marion, always and forever. Only Ruth finally manages to break free of the frame fate has dealt her, but only after she has a death of her own to deal with. It's interesting that Ruth is asked by interviewers and readers searching for the autobiographical why there are no mothers in her books. For! Irving himself, there are often no fathers. There are father figures and stepfathers to be sure. They are mostly sympathetic characters, full of patience and love and understanding. In Ted, though, we get a look at a natural father, and a more flawed man can hardly be imagined. But despite his flaws, he can be begrudingly admired as a father. With "A Widow" Irving has hit another one out of the ballpark -- and like the deadly foulball smacked by one of his other unforgettable characters, we can only be awestruck by the power.
Rating:
Summary: strong metaphors return
Review: Upon finishing 'A Widow for one Year' this afternoon I'm aware of the world that I've left behind. I see this as Irving's best work since 'Cider House', my personal favorite. I admire his last work, 'A Son of the Circus' and appreciate Irving's courage to leave behind the safety of New England for New Dehli, but it is truly in his native landscape that Irving's world comes clearly in to focus. Amsterdam was also a nice escape from Vienna (the former I've visited the later, I've not) and the danger he courts in baring human sexuality using a strong female protagonist is amazing. I enjoy Irving's romps because they don't debase either sex anymore than they debase themselves. We can't escape the frailties of our gender, (as with the Eucadorian prostitutes, whatever we chose it to be). Somehow we must learn to navigate what live throws our way in spite of our ineptitude and limitations. Despite the fact that few readers could relate to the author lifestyle (or the supposition) that one family could generate so many disparate storytellers, the real story is how they manage their trials without taking their eyes off the road. Irving's characters are always so much more disciplined than myself, or anyone I know. The unflagging committment of these people to their eccentricenites becomes as instructive as it is comic.
Rating:
Summary: Unabashed praise and affection
Review: Besides having one of the best short stories I've read in awhile in The Red And Blue Air Mattress, John Irving's new novel contains a lot of the playfulness evident in The 158-pound Marriage, but laid aside in the last few; and not a bear to be found. The characters are drawn to one another in neediness that seems necessary and never cliché. I actually cheered at the end. And cried. And thought back on all the other Irving novels; he always walks that fine line with his deaths of children, sometimes dipping to maudlin sometimes almost tipping shamelessly into sentimentality. But he pulls it off again and again, no Wallendas in his family I'm sure. This novel reads well. I like the characters, even Hannah in her harshness can be very sympathetic. Eddie, though seen as sad and weak by most of the other people in the book, has that Owen Meany quality of hero. The last thirty pages or so were pure torture. I knew how I wanted the ending to be, but would Mr. Irving serve it up with the same flavors and gentleness? I didn't want to be born back ceaselessly to the past...Hurrah for John Irving! He laid a full table and sent the guests away satisfied. I would recommend this highly to his fans, and hope to initiate those who aren't familiar with this novel. And the children's story by Ted Cole, A Sound like someone Trying not to Make a Sound, superb!
Rating:
Summary: America's master storyteller in top form!
Review: When I reached the final paragraph of A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR all I could do was burst into tears. A perfect ending to a beautifully engaging story. A week after I finished it I got to see and hear John Irving read the "Masturbating Machine" chapter at the Rizzoli bookstore in Santa Monica, CA. To hear the creator of these wonderful words read them aloud was, to put it mildly, an incredible treat. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR is a treasure not unlike A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. The latter work being, without question, Irving's un-toppable masterpiece.
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