The Cider House Rules

by John Irving, John Irving

Paperback

English language

Published Dec. 14, 2000 by Thorndike Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-7862-2675-7
OCLC Number:: 44674077

(44 reviews)

Homer Wells had been raised from birth in the boys' division of the orphanage at St. Cloud's, Maine. Now a young man, he was the protege of Dr. Wilbur Larch, the orphanage physician and director. Dr. Larch provides care and comfort to the troubled mothers who seek his help, either by delivering and taking in their unwanted babies or by performing illegal abortions. Meticulously trained in medicine by Dr. Larch, Homer assists in the former, but draws the line at the latter. Then a young man brings his beautiful fiancee to Dr. Larch for an abortion, and everything about the couple beckons Homer to the wide world outside the orphanage--a world whose complexities will variously challenge, confound, and confirm the lessons he learned at St. Cloud's. --back cover

28 editions

lukethelibrarian reviewed The Cider House Rules by John Irving

2022 #FReadom read 12/20

5 stars

John Irving's The Cider House Rules was the 12th book in my 2022 #FReadom project to read books removed or threatened in Texas libraries and schools. After it appeared on the Krause list, North East ISD recommended its removal in favor of something more "updated."

I'll reserve judgment until I've read the proposed replacement, but the moral wrestling with the causes and effects of pregnancy, orphans and abortion are no more out-of-date in Irving's novel than in the Dickens and Brontë novels that were its orphans' bedtime stories.