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This book is about faith and its opposite, doubt. It’s about people who look for something outside themselves to give themselves faith, in a higher power, in others, in themselves.
Of the John Irving books I’ve read, it’s probably the most fully realized. At times, critics have called Irving’s writing Dickensian and for once that description holds water. The story and the thematic elements mesh well. The amount of quirkiness apparent in Irving’s earlier novels has been reduced. No matter what Victorian social ill Dickens was trying to skewer, he always did so with ample dollops of humor. Likewise, Irving has written a darkly humorous novel that at times (the first half or so) is laugh out loud funny. Stifling belly laughs while riding public transportation is not easy.
The only issue would be with the narrator, a second rate protagonist, who pales in interest next to the title character. But then, that’s probably the point and that approach worked for Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (see Nick Carraway).
Of the John Irving books I’ve read, it’s probably the most fully realized. At times, critics have called Irving’s writing Dickensian and for once that description holds water. The story and the thematic elements mesh well. The amount of quirkiness apparent in Irving’s earlier novels has been reduced. No matter what Victorian social ill Dickens was trying to skewer, he always did so with ample dollops of humor. Likewise, Irving has written a darkly humorous novel that at times (the first half or so) is laugh out loud funny. Stifling belly laughs while riding public transportation is not easy.
The only issue would be with the narrator, a second rate protagonist, who pales in interest next to the title character. But then, that’s probably the point and that approach worked for Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (see Nick Carraway).
