BRAVO BRAVO BRAVISSIMO!

Turbūt ne veltui Sidro Namų Taisykles taupiau, kaip paskutinę turimą Irvingo knygą savo lentynoje. Nes - o, vaikyti, kaip buvo gerai! Tik jums linkiu nieko nelaukti - imti, imti ir skaityti, ypač jei mėgstat šį autorių, tai Sidro Namų Taisyklės - išvis creme de la creme, na pati pati! Net romano vertėja yra sakiusi, kad jai - tai pati geriausia autoriaus knyga. Ir (kol kas) negaliu nesutikti, nors, atrodė, kad ir Garpomanijos virusą juk buvau pasigavus.

Taigi, pasikartosiu, jei mėgstat Irvingą - ir ši neabejotinai patiks, kaip ir kitose autoriaus knygose, galime pastebėti atsikartojančius motyvus, autoriaus braižą. Ypatingai tą sugebėjimą nupiešti pasaulį vaiko akimis: ne tą naivų, ne tą šabloninį neišmanėlio, nepatyrusio žmogaus vaizdinį, bet tą tokį savitą, kitokio vaiko pasaulį. Su visiškai atvirkščia, nei mums įprasta pasulėžiūra, neklišiniu mąstymu, o dar, o dar visa ta ironija - visada laiku ir visada vietoj. Na neturiu kur prikibti, net puslapių skaičius, kurį drąsiai būtų galima sumažinti, man buvo pats tas, nes tiesiog - tiesiog taip gera buvo gyventi kartu su Homeru, su Larču ir su Melonija, su visais tais šarmingais, ryškiais ir beprotiškai realistiškais Irvingo personažais.

Na o nepaisant autoriaus meistriškumo kurti tokius literatūrinius paveikslus - ne mažiau įdomi ir nepatogi buvo ir knygos tema, ar tiksliau siužetas, neatsiejamas nuo amžino klausimo - kada vaisius motinos įsčiose yra žmogus? Ir net jei jums atrodo, kad atsakymą žinote, ši istorija tikrai privers susimąstyti apie visus savo „niekada“, privers suabejoti savo įsitikinimais ir nuostatomis. Nes šis romanas - provokuoja. Ši istorija - provokuoja geraja prasme, ir čia nerasite atsakymų, nes čia nėra teisių ir klystančių veikėjų, čia yra tik žmonės, gyvi, tikri, visokie žmonės su visokiais jų gyvenimų nutikimais.

Ryški, beprotiška, šarminga, drąsi - viena geriausių šiemet skaitytų!

2022: DNF 1/4
Póki co nie mam do niej serca, a brzmi jak coś co mogę pokochać.

2025: To świetny przykład, że czasami trzeba poczekać, aby to docenić. 4,25/5

In our daily life we’re constantly confronted with rules, conventions, and arrangements; a lot of them are formal (laws or coded regulations), but most are informal. It is a very important part of the process of growing up to get to know these rules and learn to cope with them. It is also a never ending job, because the rules constantly change, as there is a lot of contradiction between them, but especially as people tend to disregard the rules and live their own lives. Even more, it is almost impossible not to break or “bend" any rule, and sometimes a life is built upon the decision to deliberately go against the rules.

In essence, this is what this novel is about. ‘The rules of the cider house’ are the admonitions that are listed on a paper, in the house of the black pickers in an apple-orchard in the American state Maine. The illiterate men do not understand the list, but follow their own set of rules and cope with their difficult situation; for example: “a little violence between them is acceptable, but not so much that authorities have to come in”. It takes a while for the main character of the novel, Homer Wells, to become aware of this situation. Homer grew up in an orphanage, run by the unruly doctor Larch. Larch is specialized in deliveries and abortions, combining this “Work of the Lord” with a growing ether-addiction. He trains his favorite orphan Homer to do deliveries and he becomes a surrogate father for him; though Homer refuses to do abortions because for him fetuses have souls, he does not contest the right of women to a free choice; in other words, he’s wrestling with the rules and making his own choices.

After some twists and turns Homer ends up in the Maine orchard, gets entangled in a kind of love triangle and as a result has a son; in these human relations also there’s a lot of wrestling with the rules (although here Homer prefers to “wait and see”). But in the end, Homer succeeds in making his own choices, developing his own set of rules.

I had some trouble getting through the first third of the novel because Irving only very slowly puts the pieces of the puzzle on the table, but after that moment the story and the main characters captivate you and never let you go. I was happy that the classic Irving-ingredients (bears and other circus-elements, sudden events that change the whole setting) were not included; only the iconic doctor Larch and the violent orphan Melony introduce some absurd-hilaric elements. In this sense, this novel is far more homogeneous than Irvings other books; and consequently, this gives the message (about the rules) more power. A special note deserves Irvings militant view on the question of abortion: the author does not conceal his pro-choice-stand, although he describes the medical interventions with such detail that it could shock some readers. But, even here he leaves room for other points of view.

On top of that there is the ever present wisdom, the very mild, tolerant way to judge people’s actions, the comical situations… Typical Irving, I guess. I really loved to read this novel.

Original rating (2007): 4* / Rating now: 3.5* -> Average: 3.75*

I first started The Cider House Rules on honeymoon. Thirteen years on, I remembered the orphanage and cider farm settings, the dynamic between Doctor Wilbur Larch and his protégé, Homer Wells, and Homer’s love for his best friend’s girl, Candy. I also remembered that this is a Trojan horse of a novel: it advocates, not very subtly, for abortion rights through pictures of women in desperate situations. Luckily, by the time I first read it I was no longer slavishly devoted to the American Religious Right. But this time I felt that even readers who consider themselves pro-choice might agree Irving over-eggs his argument. My memory of the 1999 film version is clearer. It severely condenses the book’s 40 years or so of action, cutting subplots and allowing Tobey Maguire and Charlize Theron to play the leads all the way through. A shorter timeframe also more neatly draws a line between Rose Rose’s experience and Homer’s change of heart about offering abortions.

I had a strong preference for the scenes set at St. Cloud’s orphanage in Maine. Dr. Larch is celibate and addicted to ether – all a result of his first sexual encounter with a prostitute. He has an ironclad conviction that he is doing the Lord’s work for the pregnant women who get off the train at St. Cloud’s, whether they come for an abortion or to leave a live baby behind. Homer Wells is the one orphan who never finds an adoptive home; he stays on and becomes Larch’s trainee in obstetrics, but vows that he won’t perform abortions. As a young adult, Homer is pulled away from the orphanage by his puppy love for Wally and Candy, a couple-in-trouble who come up from his family’s apple farm. Homer thinks he’ll go back with his new friends for a month or two, but instead he stays at Ocean View orchard for decades, his relationship with Candy changing when Wally goes off to war and comes back disabled.

I had forgotten the bizarre scenario Larch has to set up for the orphanage’s board of trustees to accept his chosen successor, and the far-fetched family situation Homer, Candy and Wally end up in. The orchard sections could feel endless, so I always thrilled to mentions of what was happening for Dr. Larch and the nurses back at St. Cloud’s. The Dickensian influence – lots of minor characters and threads tying up nicely by the end; quirks of speech and behavior – has generally been the aspect I like the most about Irving’s work, and while I loved the explicit references to David Copperfield here (a few kids get their names from it, it’s read aloud to the boy orphans every night, and its opening question about whether the protagonist will be the hero of his own life or not applies to Homer, too), I did find the novel awfully baggy this time. I even put in a slip of paper where I felt that things started to drift: page 450.

One further note to make about the film: it, rather unforgivably, eliminates Melony, a larger-than-life character and necessary counterpart to the book’s multiple passive females. She’s the de facto head of the girl orphans, as Homer is for the boys, and initiates Homer into sex. But her feelings for him are more of hero worship than of romantic love, and when he breaks his promise and leaves St. Cloud’s without her, she sets off to hunt him down. Her odyssey, delivered in parallel, is nearly as important as Homer’s (see what I/Irving did there?).

While I loved the medical history material and Dr. Larch’s moral fiber, this time I found Homer a little insipid and annoying (he answers nearly every question with “Right”), and the plot somewhat slack and obvious. In my memory this is probably #3 out of the Irving novels I’ve read, below A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp – both of which I’d also like to reread to see if they’ve retained their power.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.