Witwe für ein Jahr

by John Irving

Paperback, 761 pages

German language

Published Oct. 1, 2000 by Diogenes Verlag.

ISBN:: 978-3-257-23300-1

(16 reviews)

“One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking—it was coming from her parents’ bedroom.”

This sentence opens John Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year, a story of a family marked by tragedy. Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character—a “difficult” woman. By no means is she conventionally “nice,” but she will never be forgotten.

Ruth’s story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life. When we first meet her—on Long Island, in the summer of 1958—Ruth is only four.

The second window into Ruth’s life opens on the fall of 1990, when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason.

A Widow for One Year closes in …

“One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking—it was coming from her parents’ bedroom.”

Ruth’s story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life. When we first meet her—on Long Island, in the summer of 1958—Ruth is only four.

A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She’s about to fall in love for the first time.

Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing, A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief. ([source][1])

[1]: john-irving.com/a-widow-for-one-year/

24 editions

Scott reviewed A widow for one year by John Irving

Review of 'A widow for one year' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

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.

Gossamerchild reviewed A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Review of 'A Widow for One Year' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

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!

Balise reviewed A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Review of 'A Widow for One Year' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.