A Widow for One Year

John Irving has a place in my heart as the first "real" author I read of my own volition when I was a kid. That place just got smaller. While I grew up, I'm wondering if Irving did and it makes me question my previous impression.

I made it a couple hundred pages in and had to stop. It was contrived, implausible, self-laudatory and patronizing. But even with all that, I still might have made it through the book. The unbearable part was the absurd, juvenile and just-plain-sexist depictions of women. The tropes he conjured from his fantasy world and attached names to should have been left there instead of being inflicted on paper undeserving of such a burden. Gives me the creeps just reflecting on it.

I'd forgotten how much I absolutely adore this book. This may be my favorite, but Garp and Owen Meany are also hard to beat. Such a fantastic story. Loved it!

This is mostly the story of four characters, Ted Cole, Marion Cole, their daughter Ruth Cole, and Eddie O'Hare, who's been hired as Ted's assistant/chauffeur as Ruth is 4 years old. The story happens at three different stages: when Ruth is 4, 36 and 41 years old, respectively. The first part is more Eddie's story, the last two are more Ruth's story. There's just enough improbability, it's rather funny, sometimes disturbing - it's not my favorite Irving (because that would be Cider House Rules, obviously), but it's still Irving. Weirdly enough, I had read this one a few years ago, a lot of details came back to me while I was reading, but the main story had completely eluded me.