It's no secret that John Irving is one of my favorite authors. This is a tender love story between two very different people and the unusual circumstances that brought them together. Irving's humor shines through. I love this book.

Not one of his best books. I felt that he seemed to lose the interesting off the wall character that the book began with, in the second half. Almost like he ran out of interest in the characters and just finished the story off. It it unusual for his characters to be introduced and then not developed further and left up in the air at the end.

עוד ספר מעולה מעט ג'יון אירווינג

Really enjoyed this book. Irving’s way of answering hypotheticals through his writing is so interesting to me. “What would happen if an organ (or in this case hand) donor’s family demanded visitation after donation?” I won’t spoil, but I did love this story of love, loss, and redemption.

Weird

The premise of this novel is fantastic. The novel itself isn't. A painful thing to say, because John Irving is usually excellent.

While the writing is very good, the novel never lives up to the uniqueness of its concept. Instead, Irving populates this dark comedy with characters that are clichéd characterizations instead of characters themselves. I either hated them or could care less about them. Not one person in this novel possessed anything approaching dimensionality.

I'm so very glad that my time with this book is over.

It pains me, LITERALLY PAINS ME, to give a John Irving novel anything less than 4 stars. He is among my favorite living authors, and I typically wholeheartedly enjoy the stories he tells and the vivid characters he creates. But this one... well, it just fell flat for me. I could not relate to or care about any of the characters, the storyline was rather blah, and while I truly truly love him, Irving's writing STYLE and "voice" aren't visual music for me the way Nicole Krauss or Marianne Wiggins are so that couldn't save this book either. Put all that together, and I have to say that the book was just okay. Honestly, if it was written by someone other than J.I., I probably would have given it 3 stars, but John, I hold you to a higher standard.

Jak na Irvinga bardzo słabo. Byłaby to nawet najsłabsza z przeczytanych do tej pory przeze mnie książek tego pisarza, gdyby nie pewien zbiór opowiadań, który wypadł jeszcze gorzej. Jednak ogólnie nie jest tragicznie - całkiem nieźle się to czytało, głównie ze względu na niewątpliwy talent autora do ciekawego pisania o niczym i nieograniczoną pomysłowość w tworzeniu groteskowo-śmieszno-smutnych postaci i sytuacji. Objętościowo nieimponująca w porównaniu do "średniej autorskiej", i co za tym idzie, powoli zaczynam myśleć, że Irving jest przeciwieństwem twórców, którzy są mistrzami krótkich form, za to zupełnie nie radzą sobie z długimi. On chyba potrzebuje minimum pół tysiąca stron, żeby porządnie rozwinąć skrzydła.

Too quirky, the writing seem forced, and in general, a slapdash effort. I have enjoyed every other Irving book I've read - so this was a big disappointment. I understand he wrote this book while also writing "until I found you". It seemed like he had a somewhat formed idea for a book and threw a loose story around it with unlike able characters.

Bizarre, but surprisingly touching. Descriptions that just stick with you long after you read it.

Another winner from Irving. It has the magnificently real, full-fleshed out characters I've come to expect from him. It's not "A Prayer for Owen Meany" or "The World According to Garp" but it's well worth reading. Narration was good.

okay not much a review, I love Irving but couldn't finish this book. My review is based on that it is perfect for holding my coffee mug in the morning, every morning. So a very good book for that. The hand missing and weird relationship with the woman and then the traveling back and forth and whatnot? I will have to revisit this at a later time but for now there are way too many books to get through. The book will remain a prop for my beloved coffee until further notice.