Vele jaren geleden maakte ik een korte Irving-periode door, waarin ik zijn twee bekendste boeken 'The World according to Garp' en 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' las. Fantastische boeken (vooral het laatste is me bijgebleven) en voldoende om John Irving in de categorie 'absoluut te lezen' te plaatsen.

Ik keek er dus echt naar uit om deze Cider House Rules te lezen, en mijn verwachtingen waren hoog, misschien wat te hoog.
Want eigenlijk vond ik het hoofdpersonage van dit boek maar vlak en zelfs wat saai, evenals zijn grote liefde. Ik begreep hen beiden ook niet zo goed. Gelukkig waren er nog Dr. Larch en Melony die zorgden voor wat originaliteit, maar zij zijn niet de personages waarrond dit boek draait.

Maar hé, Irving blijft Irving, met zijn personages met een hoek af, hun levensverhalen en de soms absurde situaties. Sowieso is het goed leesvoer. Maar in mijn herinnering waren die twee eerder gelezen boeken toch beter.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

По-перше, мені здається, потрібно бути досить сміливим автором, щоб у 1985 році писати про право жінок на аборт, гомосексуальність, наркотичну залежність та кілька інших гострих тем. Те, як сміливо це зробив Джон Ірвінг, мене вразило!

Цікавинка з біографії автора: його батьки розлучилися ще до його народження, тому Ірвінг ніколи не бачив свого біологічного батька. Той був пілотом у ВПС США під час Другої світової війни, був збитий у небі над Бірмою, але вижив. Утім, він так і не повернувся до сім’ї. Сам Джон дізнався про військове минуле батька лише у 1981 році.

По-друге, я обожнюю романи-епопеї, бо вони охоплюють різні аспекти життя та емоцій героїв. А герої тут дуже колоритні — кожному автор приділив належну увагу. Хоча книга спочатку читалася досить важко, я ніби боролася з течією, намагаючись зрозуміти, чому персонажі приймали ті чи інші рішення. Але фінал залишив глибокий відбиток у серці, і за це я сміливо ставлю 5!

P.S. Прочитано двічі, український переклад — чудовий!

"I have made an orphan; his name is Homer Wells and he will belong to St. Cloud’s forever.”

John Irving knows how to write a story. He knows which words to use to start a movie playing in the reader's mind as soon as their eyes take in the first sentence. 

Perhaps that's why several of his books have been made into movies, because someone read it, saw the movie play out, and thought, Damn, this book is a good movie!

I have not seen "The Cider House Rules" movie, not the one with Charlize Theron and Tobey Maguire anyway. I saw the better (no doubt) version, the original, the one in the pages of this book.
 
And ya know what? It is a good movie!

I didn't love it as much as A Prayer for Owen Meany and it could have been about 200 pages shorter, and Mr Irving should have referred to the lesbian couple as each other's partner instead of their "friend" {wink, wink}.

But I still really enjoyed it. I loved the characters, except for the ones you're meant not to love, and they and their stories will stay with me for a long time.

If you're an Irving fan, or a fan of books with a remarkable and unforgettable cast of characters and a layered story that spans decades, you don't want to miss this one.



Cheers, John Irving. Until we meet again..... in The Fourth Hand.

I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I am VERY Pro-Life and was very skeptical before about picking it up...although I love John Irving as an author. He is excellent at character development and his stories are so multifaceted that you are never disappointed. This is certainly true here in this novel. My surprisingly favorite character was Melony. She was hauntingly creepy, pathetically adorable and demanding of your attention although not a primary character. I loved how Irving intertwined her story into the theme of the book. There was a parallel running between Dr. Larch and Homer that Irving carved brilliantly. Although somewhat expected, the ending was tragic and sad. I found myself torn with my own personal feelings about the love triangle of Wally, Candy and Homer. One always wants the orphan to find his/her riches or personal happiness. This novel reminds us that sometimes even the underdog doesn't win although he plays a damn good game. All in all, this was a wonderful read. Hats off to Irving once again for a rich and delectable story...

I was all over the place with this book. I think every star was represented. But all things considered, I think three stars is all it was for me.

The beginning was the worst part. The author seemed to have a pubescent obsession with a certain piece of male anatomy. This word was so overused in the first 20% of the book that I started keeping track and even before I hit the 20% mark, I had lost count. I am not exaggerating. He continued to use this word throughout the whole entire book,(causing much eye rolling) but thankfully he did so without the zest used in the beginning. I started this book yesterday, and when I put it down, I could not fathom why on earth anyone would turn this into a movie.

No doubt, the writing of John Irving was absolutely beautiful. His descriptive style was rich and detailed. I just wish he used his talent to describe some good things, but this was truly a most depressing book. Nothing good happens. It is sadness followed by more sadness. There are very few books that I can actually walk away from, and since I was half way home with this book, I continued reading the next day.

As far as the characters go, they were very well drawn. John Irving brought them to life in such a vivid way. I liked Homer and Wilbur and the nurses at the hospital. By the middle I was hooked, mostly because of the characters and their development.

I loved the writing style. That part was a definite 5 stars for me. But I can't say I liked the story nearly as much.

Ļoti lēna, nobriedusi grāmata, un nekāda LIELĀ action tur nebūs pat par spīti tam, ka 20.gadsimta sākums ir ļoti trauksmains vēstures laiks (bet kurš gan nav, ne?). Dabas ritums, ētikas un morāles dilemmas, sieviešu tiesības, ārstu tiesības un izvēles, likumi un dubultmorāle.

Plašāk blogā: http://lalksne.blogspot.com/2020/10/d...

Maine 1920's - 1950's.

St. Cloud's Maine is a little burg with a paper mill and an orphanage. The paper mill closes down and the orphanage is all that is left. Dr. Larch runs the orphanage and feels that he is 'of use' because he helps women either bear their child and leave it at the orphanage or give them a safe abortion.

Homer Wells is one of the orphans. 4 attempts are made to adopt him. None work out so he comes back to the orphanage to stay. Larch trains him to be a midwife. Homer can deliver a baby, but does not believe in performing an abortion himself. He believes in choice,though, which is quite ironic.

Most of the action takes place in St Cloud's, but 15 years of the action takes place at the Ocean View Orchards in Heart's Haven Maine. The Worthingtons own the Orchards. Wally is their son who loves the local beauty, Candy Kendall. Candy becomes pregnant and they find their way to St Cloud's. There they meet Homer and Homer leaves the orphanage to go to work at the Orchard.

Another major character is Melony. She too is an orphan. She exacts a promise from Homer to never leave her at the orphanage alone. She cares for Homer but the feelings are not returned. He obviously breaks his promise.

The themes of this book are quite compelling. The major theme of The Cider House Rules is that individuals define their own rules by which to act and live despite societal dictates. In the case of this novel, these rules contextualize the difficult issue of abortion.

John Irving has written so many GREAT novels with well-drawn characters and thought provoking themes. The Cider House Rules is obviously one of his best.

5 stars

I libri di Irving per me sono speciali, bellissime storie con personaggi un po' strampalati che ti fanno anche riflettere.

I loved this book; it is thoughtful, intense and moving with some very humourous moments. The characters are real, flawed, believeable and Irving makes you care about them. The pro-life, pro-choice debate is well handled as are the other hefty topics like being in love with two people, family, betrayal, the nature of home and belonging and the brutality of life.
There are graphic scenes in it and in the middle of the book a couple of the minor characters disappear rather suddenly. These are however minor quibbles. I will certainly be reading more Irving; if his other books are this good then in the pantheon of American novelists he will be close to Philip Roth (for me that is saying a lot)
One of the minor characters Melony for me was the most haunting and the most honest and puts the whole book in perspective at the end.

Well, after two long and somewhat tedious months, I have managed to push myself through to the other side, and I'm ecstatic to say, I have finally finished The Cider House Rules. This was a massive disappointment to say the least, and as always, I'll explain why.

This book has many positive and glowing reviews, but for me on a personal level, it did absolutely nothing for my pleasure as a reader, or, my mental health. ( I wanted to desperately give this book away)

The Cider House Rules could have been 200 pages less, and I still wouldn't have enjoyed it any better. The actual narrative was long-winded, tiring, and for the most part, consisted of pretty pointless descriptions that contributed nothing to the plot. The characters were skeletal in description, and I felt terribly distant from them. There was a complete lack of tension and whenever anything even remotely exciting happened, it was extremely anticlimatic. It got to the excruciating point, of me just not caring. And really, characters called Angel and Candy, do more than just make me shudder.

Something else I noticed with Irving, which wasn't immediately apparent, is his rather odd obsession with women and their weight. This obviously doesn't sit well with me, and to be honest, who the hell cares how much a woman weighs? It obviously matters a great deal to Irving.

There was no real structure to Irving's writing, and apart from the obvious medical terminology, his style was simple, and unsatisfying, and it appeared as though some sentences were strangely cut short at times.

For a book primarily based on adoption and abortion, I honestly expected to have a winner here, but unfortunately, I'm left with a terribly bitter taste in my mouth, and a dislike for Irving.

My favourite John Irving novel. Very interesting likeable characters, lots of plot and some very entertaining moments.

One of the greatest Bildungsromane ever written. No need to summarise the plot, whoever hasn’t read the book will have seen the film or the play. Fantastic writing and story. “Good night you princes of Maine, you Kings of New England”!