My first Irving. Lots of back story. I guess that’s what fiction is all about. Enjoyed the story very much. I look forward to more.

One of the great books Irving has ever written, this novel is basically two stories in one. A fairly accurate and well-done film version of the first part came out a few years ago entitled "A Door in the Floor". It was well cast with Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger and filmed on location on Long Island.
This is the story of a young girl born to two people whose lives were destroyed when their two young sons were killed while driving their parents home after a night of too much drink. The child is conceived after the twins death in an attempt to repair the marriage and remake the "family". It doesn't work. Mom is numb and never bonds with the child and the father, an artist, does bond, but his guilt and his wife's blame and indifference, fuels his need for escape and drink. The life of this girl is the first part of this immense book.
The second part (not in the film) is about her life as an adult: wrong men, wrong choices, guilt, escape and ultimately redemption and happiness.
A very long book. Could have been shorter and the plot turns and twists are often quite distracting. Nonetheless, one of my favorite Irving novels.

I absolutely loved this book! As always, absolutely fabulous character descriptions and development throughout.

I absolutely loved this book. I was slow to get into it - John Irving takes time to really build the characters and it is necessary but I am sometimes an impatient reader. The last half of the book I had a hard time putting down. The characters are so rich and at times funny and at times so heartbreaking that it made my chest hurt. I highly recommend this book - if you have read other books by John Irving like a Prayer for Owen Meaney, you will definitely like this book. I cant decide which one I liked more - I loved them both.

Ostatní Irvingovy knihy, které jsem četla, se mi líbily víc.
Moc mě nebaví číst o spisovatelství a ještě k tomu díla fiktivních spisovatelů. Tady těch spisovatelů bylo už nějak moc.
Jinak standardně dobré čtení. Přesto, žádnou postavu jsem si nijak zvlášť neoblíbila.

The portrait and history of Ruth Cole is among the very best Irving has written. I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who loves good storytelling and tragicomic, complex characters and happenings.

My 4-star "read" review is really a misnomer because I haven't really "read" this book. This is my third try at it and once again I am stopping at the same spot I stopped the other two times! I reread the first third of the book, which I enjoyed, got into the second third of the book, read about 50 pages and come to a grinding halt.

I'm really not sure what it is that is stopping me at this point but since it is the third time, I'm not sure I will try again. I returned it to the library and am at least taking another break. Maybe I will pick it up in a few months and instead of starting at the beginning again, I will pick up where I left off and continue on.

Irving sometimes irritates me and sometimes elates me. The second third of this book, for some reason, irritates me.....

My first Irving and it did not disappoint!

A good book by John Irving that had some excellent parts in it but, also, had some rather dull parts. The book is written in three sections that each feature different periods in the life of Ruth Cole. The first section takes place in 1958 when Ruth is four years old. She had two older brothers who both died before she was born and her parents had filled the house with framed pictures of the two boys. Her father was a well-known children's book writer who had hired a sixteen year old boy named Eddie to be an assistant. One day Ruth walked into her parents bedroom and found her mother having sex with Eddie. The second section takes place in 1990 and Ruth is now a successful novelist. After 32 years she meets Eddie again, at a book event, who is also a novelist. She had been single for all these years but finally marries her longtime boyfriend and has a child. The third section takes place in 1995 and Ruth's husband had died the year before making her a widow for a year. She ends up meeting another man and falls in love and Eddie meets up with Ruth's mother nearly forty years after their sexual affair.

Another winner from John Irving.

I listened to A Widow for One Year on Audio CD read by one of my favorite narrators, George Guidall.

It is a book about authors and their books and their lives. It spans 37 years in the lives of Ruth Cole and Eddie O'Hare.

Ruth is the protagonist. Her parents are Ted and Marion Cole. Eddie is hired by Ted to be his driver one summer (Ted is an alcoholic who has had his driver's license suspended). Eddie becomes one of the family.

This book is Irving's ninth novel, and, according to some, very intricately crafted. I did enjoy the story and its unfolding and its end. Some of the characters were to be disliked, but I loved Ruth, so putting up with the others was just part of the bargain.

At 500+ pages, it was still a quick read because it flowed so effortlessly.

4 stars

PS. Please let me know what YOUR favorite Irving book is. I have read A Prayer for Owen Meany and LOVED it. Probably no other Irving book as 'Owen' will be so beloved by me, but I am going to read at least 3 more of his books.

This is one of those 537-page books that, after you've read about 100 pages, you realize you've pretty much seen what the author's handing out and you don't care for it. This is a drag because there is so much more of it to go and only some misguided impulse to finish what you've started goads you stubbornly onward.

What's not to like? Well, here's some:

At times Irving writes with the grace of a ballet dancer and at others he lumbers along like a blindfolded football player looking for an exit. The word 'clumsy' comes to mind.

I found some of the things his characters said, and many of their actions, unlikely and unbelievable. (His main character chooses to build her workroom in the room where her father committed suicide after a fight with her. She can still smell carbon monoxide fumes (his chosen exit strategy) from the cars below. How...atmospheric. This is a good place to write a novel?)

The characters' interactions and lives also seem unreal. The knotted combinations of who is in love or having sex with whom, the main character finding lasting love after a couple of weeks of being with a guy after her continual failures with other men...just no, okay?

Also objectionable: the 'comic' parts that deteriorate into vaudeville slapstick...specifically the jilted adulteress gunning for her seducer with her car.

One thing that was interesting was a convoluted device that had characters commenting and reflecting on how much or little novel writing contains autobiographical vs. imaginative content. At times this was like looking in a mirror and seeing yourself holding a mirror and looking back.

Even so, I will unhesitatingly jilt John himself. I hope he doesn't have a Lincoln!

I started to give this four stars but, the more I thought about it, well, here's five stars.

A fifth star (from me) means there has to be something timeless about the story, passages that express moments of what I think of as universal connection and deep understanding. My heart either seems to slow down or speed up and I sometimes close my eyes and feeling a welling up of emotion inside. I suppose if I were willing to spend the time on this review I could express myself better, but here I sit in a coffee shop in Hood River, Oregon, and my husband is waiting for me to get off the computer.

Anyway, there were moments like that in this novel. Along with everything else I give four stars for: plot, dialog, sentence structure, intriguing and realistic characters, etc., etc. Plus, if one is a writer, the thoughts in the writer character's head re her development of a novel are especially fascinating.

I could not imagine how a sixteen year-old boy would stay in love with a woman he fell in love with when she was thirty-six. John Irving made me believe it, and I was thrilled by the ending.

Now I'm off to find another one of his books.