A Widow for One Year

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful storytelling-slips slightly in the editing
Review: John Irving may be my favorite storyteller and he didn't 't disappoint me with A Widow for One Year. The book is divided into three chronological segments - 1958, 1990 and 1995. The earliest segment may be the best...comic, with great characters and descriptions. Irving carries on in the tradition of Dickens and Robertson Davies--plot comes first. And the plot of A Widow for One Year moves along, intertwining the lives of the characters throughout the book. I would've given this book a 10, but for a few (tiny) segments that I felt didn't carry through in the book - hints of character that didn't follow through. But these are minute complaints. I tore through the book in 2 evenings. A fabulous read.

Rating:
Summary: It was interesting and fun to read. It was a great book.
Review: I loved this book. I think I am going to enjoy every book that this writer will publish. It was interesting and my friends even read it. I told them to read it and they loved it as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Best Irving book since Garp
Review: I had a very hard time reading A Son of the Circus, thus when I saw this big thick book, my instincts were "oh no" Yet I was pleasantly suprised. The humor, the characters, the writers in the book not only make me want to read more, they also motivate me to write. Wonderful book, if you like Irving do not miss it!

Rating:
Summary: See for yourselves
Review: It's pointless for me to reveal parts of the plot, as well as go into deep analysis of the main characters. Read the book, you know it's good, it's of course a genuine Irving. At least it made ME feel like other writers' books seldom do. After four years, I had (almost) forgotten the impression his books make on me. This is perhaps the most characteristic feature of Irving's books; he touches something inside you, more presicely, he makes you want to read more. Thank you John! I'm an eager reader again.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not his best.
Review: As part of John Irving's novel is set in Amsterdam, the book was published in the Netherlands a month prior to the rest of the world. Threrefore, as a citizen of the Netherlands, I was already able to read it. The book tells the story of Ruth Cole, a writer (clearly modeled after Irving himself) and focuses on three important parts of her life. The first part, when she is four years old and her mother leaves her. The second part, when she is a famous author and marries her editor. And the third part, when she is a young widow and has a four year old son. The first part is by far the best and the most 'Irvingian'. After reading it, a picture hook will never be the same again. It also contains the best and most hilarious scene in the book where Ted Cole (Ruth's father) is chased by a spurned widow, who accidentally also almost kills her gardener who is trapped upside down in a privet. And it brilliantly describes the frustrated love life of Eddie, the boy who works for Ruth's father and becomes her mothers lover. For me the book could have ended just there and it would have been one of the best, together with The Cider House Rules and Son of the Circus. The second part starts rather slow and unlike the first part (and most of Irving's novels) is rather realistic. Irving magnificently describes how Ruth finally beats her father (to death) on the squash court. For me, the father-daughter-relationship is far more interesting and has much more depth to it than Ruth's obsession with her runaway mother. My spirit also lifted after the scene where the prostitute is murdered, expecting far-reaching consequences for the story. But I was disappointed. Being a witness to a murder would have given me much more worries than it apparently does Ruth. After that the story drags on to a happy ending. An interesting theme in the book is the apparent divide that exists between writers who can only write about their own experiences, and writers who make up their stories. In the book, the latter are considered the 'true' writers (also by Ruth who denies using real life characters in her books) and they are the most successful (Ruth and her father, as opposed to Eddie and Marion). Perhaps Irving made too much use of his own experience as a writer when he wrote this book. Real life, unfortunately, isn't always as absurd and humorous as an Irving novel should be.

Rating:
Summary: Irving continues his mastery
Review: You will not be disappointed with John Irving's new book. When I heard he had a new book getting ready for publication I requested a review copy (one of those perks you get when you work at a bookstore), and I quickly raced through the book, and I was not disappointed. Irving gives us his ususal mix of characters, the sexual situations and overcoming a harsh and unpredictable life. Sooner or later Irving will be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his fiction...this may give him a leg up on the competition this year.

Rating:
Summary: Irving returns to his previous level of excellence
Review: "Widow" is top-notch John Irving, complete with many colorful characters and a complex plot that somehow becomes well-integrated by the time the book ends. I'd rank it slightly below Ciderhouse, equal to Garp, and a notch above Owen Meaney. These comments come from a devoted, but not blind, Irving fan. I was terribly disappointed with A Son of the Circus and Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, and am glad to see he's back on track. Those who complain about his use of coincidence, descriptions of sex, etc., probably have not enjoyed any of his work to date. If you enjoyed Garp, don't miss this one!

Rating:
Summary: An Irving classic
Review: "A Widow for One Year" is a great example of Irving's abilities as a storyteller and crafter of characters. I found myself totally engrossed in the story of the Coles, a family marred by tragedy and dysfunction. As with most of Irving's novels, the characters are what draw you in. They are realistically drawn and very thoroughly fleshed-out, making it impossible not to care what happens to them. The excellent characterization also serves to make the large cast of the novel manageable.

The plot of the novel is equally wonderful. It's full of twists and turns, chance encounters, and coincidences. While these surprises are a lot fun, they do sometimes strain credibility. A willing suspension of disbelief is a must.

In addition to great characters and a fascinating story, this book is also worth reading for its discussion of writing. The majority of the characters are writers, and this provides Irving with an opportunity to voice his philosophy of writing. It's interesting to get a glimpse of Irving's thoughts about his craft and the process of writing.

While this book may not be the highest of high literature, it is nonetheless a well-written and engaging novel. It's also quite a fast read, so don't be put off by the length. This book is worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning depth of character, almost all the time
Review: The first thing that struck me about this book was the heart-stopping beauty of Marion, a central character near the beginning of the book. It's tough to get images that concrete in written words, but Irving handles it without strain. Its not just a physical description, its the way that the rest of the image is a bit darker, a bit fuzzier when Marion is in the picture, like Irving is using the depth of field in a photograph to highlight the subject, like her physical brilliance is so overwhelming that everything else is dimmed.

It's not that Marion's beauty is exactly central to the story, but the skill that Irving uses here seems to pop up all through the book. It's a carefully written book, in plain language, that competently and subtely handles overlapping undercurrents of the story. It feels like the characters drive their own actions, in their own voices, and intersect becuase they should, not because Irving is using them to move a plot forward. He's clearly writing on a different level than than anything I've read recently.

I thought this was most apparent in the first section, and less so as the story went on. In a way, the more external elements drove the plot, especially the mildly outlandish ones, the less jaw-dropping the book was for me.

There were a few bits that detracted from the flow for me, things that I think editors let Irving get away with because, well, he's Irving. He dwells an awful lot on a lead characters chest, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, and everyone is both a writer and a reader so voracious that they've all independently read every book relevant to the story. I left it at 5 stars, even with the flaws, because the good parts were so overpowering for me.

In all, the flaws as I saw them were not enough to detract from the elegance of the story. I put this book down only because I didn't want to take it all in at once, didn't want it to be over. Recommended without reservation.

Rating:
Summary: Anyone count the italicized words?
Review: I used to tell my students in English classes to use italics sparingly. Obviously, Irving has never learned that lesson. But that it the least of his problems with this novel. I bought the book because I liked "A Door in the Floor," but now I realize that I probably liked the movie because Jeff Bridges did such an outstanding job of acting. As for this book, the first part, the section covered in the movie, was worthwhile (if one could ignore the italics), but as soon as the book focuses on Ruth, I started disliking the book heartily. Not one of the chief characters is appealing or believeable. Eddie changes from the enterprising and attractive teenager he was in the first section of the book (about the best scene in that section is Eddie taking care of Ruth the day her mother deserts the family) to an impossibly stodgy and dull middle aged man. Ruth is abrasive and despite those breasts (which I, too, like many reviewers, got sick of reading about), an un-feminine and off-putting person. In addition to the unconvincing characters, there are totally unbelieveable and contrived scenes and episodes, the worst being the horrific one with Ruth in the prostitute's closet. I almost threw the book in the trash after that episode, but I doggedly kept reading, mildly curious to see if Marion would ever surface again. This book might well be one of the worst books I've ever plowed through, and I have been a fan of a select group of Mr. Irving's other books (Garp, Owen Meany, etc.) I doubt I'll attempt another one though. Oh, and horrors--if it's not bad enough to have to read the sadistic children's books that the character Ted writes and illustrates, books that are reproduced in the novel, I've just discovered that Irving had written a book called, yep, you guessed it, "A Sound Like Somebody Trying Not to Make a Sound." And is that the one about the moleman? Just reading about that "children's" book was enough to give me nightmares. Let's just hope that Irving next doesn't publish a book called "My Last Bad Boyfriend," the best-seller that author Ruth writes after the closet episode.