Until I find you

a novel

824 pages

English language

Published April 8, 2005 by Random House.

ISBN:
978-1-4000-6383-3
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OCLC Number:
58431902

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4 stars (1 review)

Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns -- his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead -- has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or "scratcher."Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England -- including, tellingly, a girls' school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women -- from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda's, with whom he first appears on …

3 editions

Review of 'Until I find you' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

One thing I like about John Irving is that even though his protagonists are male, he seriously considers the women in his stories. Women are always more than objects, even when they are not The Subject.

This time, Jack Burns is the protagonist, but at first, his mother's life is front and center. Alice Stronach is so heartbroken and angry after William Burns leaves her that it distorts her personality. At times, I wasn't sure if she loved William, Jack, both, or neither. And by the way--Jack bears an uncanny resemblance to William.

Jack is only four years old at the beginning of this novel, so it goes without saying that what he thinks he remembers and knows about his parents is inaccurate. And this will be the meat of the plot: eventually, Jack seeks out people from his past and uncovers the facts about what really happened all those …

Subjects

  • Actors -- Fiction.
  • Tattoo artists -- Fiction.
  • Missing persons -- Fiction.
  • Fathers and sons -- Fiction.