I shouldn't be throwing semicolons around too often; and yet, after reading Irving, what do I find myself doing? semicolon, semicolon, SEMICOLON ; ; ; ; I'm not winking at you; those are semicolons.. now you know what I mean. Irving affects me in many ways -- the semicolons are just one example. (And yes, I know I'm probably not using them correctly -- you don't have to point that out. You really don't.)

More than a week after finishing, The Cider House Rules, it's still on my mind, still sneaking into my brain at different times in the day; still a part of me. Washing my face last night, talking to myself, "Just a light touch there with the wash cloth on the cheeks there, Benny, -- just like Dr. Larch with the Ether, light touch". And trust me, it's not just that: I feel like I know the characters. And I think about them randomly, periodically, throughout the day.

The novel takes place in the first half of the 20th century, in Maine. Most of this is at an orphanage hidden away in the remote town of St. Clouds; a former logging camp, now desolate, lifeless, and empty-feeling -- with its past of whores and ruffians still present in its aura. This is the perfect place for savior Dr. Larch’s orphanage, where he also performs abortions, which were illegal at the time. Larch was the only known abortion doctor in the area that didn't provide them in dangerous ways - Doc Larch performed them correctly and safely, with great respect and care for the female’s dignity and health. This is also where protagonist orphan, Homer Wells, spends his childhood and teen years; where he learns to become Dr. Larch's helper. He spent some interesting -- to say the least -- periods of time living with foster families as well, but finds that the St. Clouds orphanage is his real home.

And then, true to Homer's odd life, he ends up leaving the orphanage under unique circumstances. The story follows Homer into adulthood where he lives at “Ocean View Orchards”. During this time you get the feeling that Homer’s destiny is unfolding, but into what, you don’t know; you just know that it’s not going as planned. Homer also develops a powerful yet complex and taboo love; finds meaningful work; meets life changing people that are his new family, all while being away from his true father figure, Dr. Larch. There are a lot of interweaving storylines that result in humane, moral lessons that show through beautifully -- if not at the time, then at the end of the book, or after reflection.

More than anything, this book got me thinking about abortion. I thought about it hard: more in-depthly and more seriously than I ever had before. It became something other than an abstract concept to me; I felt for the women that needed them, and I felt for the boy who believed that it was murder. It humanized the issue for me, and solidified my formerly tepid belief in a woman's right to choose. It's pretty clear that Irving agrees with this (a woman's right to choose); a major part of the story is in fact, him making the pro choice point; but I could also see someone walking away from this with a pro life stance, or a more adamant belief in that stance. After all, young Homer was an orphan that liked his life and made positive contributions to the world, all of which wouldn't have happened if his mother hadn't chosen life. At the same time though, our story takes place when abortion was illegal, and you see Dr. Larch save lives, and the issue of choice itself is framed almost perfectly. The book made me realize the impact that an abortion, non-abortion, or botched abortion can have on someone's life. You have no choice but to have an opinion on it after reading this book, because you get hit with the weight of its seriousness.

The Cider House Rules has all the traits of a good Irving novel: the humane, odd, and likable characters with unusual life experiences; a storyline with moral undertones; profound scenes -- some zany and humorous -- others wise and touching. Don't get me wrong, this book isn't for everyone. It doesn’t take off right away -- someone with fast paced standards may even consider the whole first half slow. If you're adamantly pro-life, you probably won't find yourself enjoying this book -- abortion is too much of an ongoing issue. And abortion isn't the only weighty theme here: betrayal, war, morality, laws-and-rules, the soul, incest, family, death, violence against women; the list goes on.

Essentially, The Cider House Rules is about the many rules of life: some written, others not; some meant to be broken; some need to be created. It's about the concept of fate and how our decisions affect both our own lives and the lives of others -- whether they are from playing by the rules, or not. An exchange from the book sums this up quite well:

“Every time you throw a snail off the dock,' Ray teased Homer Wells, 'you're making someone start his whole life over.'

'Maybe I'm doing him a favor,' said Homer Wells, the orphan."

This may not be John Irving's best novel, but of the four I've read, it's certainly his most important.

While The Cider House Rules is an undeniably well-written novel, I grew impatient with the lengthy narrative and the idle characters. It was hard for me to feel any sense of connection to the different characters, and I cared very little about Homer's life at Ocean View - I was always anxious to get back to St. Cloud's and the orphanage. For me, the real story was about the relationship between Dr. Larch and Homer Wells, and I lost interest in the story once Larch and Homer ceased to communicate.

Though Homer is the protagonist of the story, he remained inscrutable throughout the book. Except for his propensity to interject "right" into any conversation, and his longing for a family, I would not be able to describe any of Homer's other characteristics, his personality, or aspirations. Wally and Candy Worthington, the perfect golden gods, were so flat and dull that I usually couldn't wait for the story to shift away from them. The triangle between Wally, Candy, and Homer could have been interesting, but it is written without any tension between the characters. In fact, Irving completely skips over fifteen years of the trio's life together. I wish the story had skipped completely over Homer's life in Ocean View. Relationships were never explored to their potentials. Even Olive Worthington is so sensible that she never blames or stigmatizes Homer and Candy for their actions; Ray Kendall, who might have had an interesting paternal relationship with Homer (especially since parents are so scarce in this story), dies without confronting either Homer or Candy. In short, a love triangle which could have been an immense source of drama (to characters who actually reacted to events around them) became boring. It was so boring that fifteen years of potential strain was glossed over.

The one truly interesting character in the book (besides Dr. Larch) turned out to be the illustrious Melony, whom I hugely enjoyed reading. Melony may have been ridiculous, but she was a well fleshed-out, interesting character, whose life followed a reasonable yet interesting route. I was equally interested in the two nurses at the orphanage, who were only described briefly in the beginning of the novel. Yet these two characters - who have such strong presences in the lives of Dr. Larch and Homer - never have any face time of their own. I couldn't separate Angela from Edna, nor understand why Homer chose Angela as the namesake for his child. Even a few pages on either of the nurses would have been useful and illuminating.

Instead, Irving segues into long descriptions of characters such as the stationmaster. While the stationmaster is undoubtedly amusing, I wondered why I cared. And yet I liked the stationmaster passage better than the scenes at Ocean View. It's unfortunate that the 5 pages introducing the stationmaster were more interesting than Homer, Candy, and Wally combined.

In the end, finishing The Cider House Rules became a chore. I fail to see the brilliance apparently displayed in this novel. Perhaps it only appears on a second reading; however, I don't think I'll ever pick this up again. (Oh, and can I express my distaste for reading pages and pages about characters named Candy and Angel? One would have been enough.)

n  ” Le regole (egli arguiva) non pregano; le regole ordinano.”n

Pubblicato nel 1985, “Le regole della casa del sidro”, è un romanzo molto conosciuto soprattutto per la trasposizione cinematografica del 1999.
La storia è ambientata nel nebbioso Maine tra il 1910 ed il 1940.
All’orfanotrofio di St Cloud’s, William Larch si occupa di far nascere bambini destinati all’abbandono ma, allo stesso tempo, è determinato nel sostenere quelle madri che, invece, scelgono l’aborto:

”... il lavoro del Signore e quello del Diavolo.”

Tra i tanti bambini ospitati, spicca Homer Wells che dopo una serie di grottesche adozioni fallite resta nella struttura come aiutante di Larch.
La vita abitudinaria tra la sala operatoria e la lettura serale di Dickens ai più piccoli, sembra ad Homer un punto fermo fino al giorno in cui arriva una coppia di fidanzati che stravolgeranno la sua vita...

La seconda parte del romanzo si svolge su più piani: da un lato Homer e la sua scoperta del mondo con le sue regole e delle sue complicate relazioni;
dall’altra Larch, che abbandonato da questo figlio putativo diventa sempre più dipendente dall’etere.

Forse a tratti un po’ dispersivo ma comunque un romanzo di grande ricchezza di personaggi, di ambientazioni e di contenuti.


” “Interferisco, io, forse?” domandò Larch. “Quando una donna assolutamente priva di mezzi mi dice che non può rassegnarsi ad abortire, che deve invece, semplicemente, mettere al mondo un altro orfano... interferisco, io? M’immischio forse?
“No,” disse, raschiando. “L’assisto nel parto, mannaggia. E credi che sia felice in genere la vita dei bambini che nascono qui? Credi forse che il loro futuro sia roseo?”

I just finished reading this novel, and it is so phenominal that I'm almost speechless, and I'm sad that it is over. The story is engrossing, rich, moving, tragic, and satisfying, and the imagery is extraordinarily powerful. The plot takes place during the first half of the 1900's in rural Maine, and tells of Dr. Larch, an obstetrician, founder of an orphanage, abortionist, and ether addict, and his favorite orphan, and heroic figure, Homer Wells. Irving develops the characters superbly, such that the reader comes to know and love all of them, even those with significant flaws. The abortion issue is handled perfectly; while it becomes obvious what Irving's opinion is, he presents both sides of the issue objectively and refrains from preaching on the subject or becoming overtly political. Normally I recommend reading a book before seeing the movie adaptation, but in this case, the movie is excellent, so by reading the book first, one may not appreciate the film as much as one should. Irving is a storyteller on par with Dickens, and I'm going to add his other works to my future reading list.

As a general rule I don't read books after I have already seen the movie but for one of my favorite authors I made an exception. I was actually surprised to find that the movie did not really deviate much from the book as movies usually do. I think the parts that they left out of the movie were acceptable and still kept the story intact. In fact I think I might prefer the movie's edited version of the story better though no one can argue that Mr. Irving is a master storyteller. I loved it as would be expected. I loved the movie too. I liked the explanations of how the author got his material for the book at the end. I found it very interesting. A favorite.

не вірю, що нарешті дочитала цю книжку, певно, я витратила на неї найбільше сукупних зусиль на цей рік, вона далася мені з боєм. вона дуже добре пасує для обговорень, тут стільки деталей, стільки відгалуджень, що хочеться зустрітися з кимось хто читав і кілька годин вести розмову в стилі "а ти помітила те й те? а як тобі це? а не думаєш, що тут йшлося про ось це?"

мені не дуже сподобалася пристрасть автора на десятки абзаців смакувати особливо гидкі моменти, показувати якомога детальніше: запалені матки, гній, слиз, пеніс поні в роті, з одного боку воно створює сильні враження, а з іншого від цих образів потім важко кудись подітися.

в останній третині книжки автор робить стрибок на 15 років вперед - і це мене роздратувало, створило певну нерівність у темпі, бо того час рухався дуже повільно, ми могли якомога детальніше досліджувати всі поривання і травми героїв.

я намагаюся пояснити собі назву - і бачу відповідь у тому, що правила існують для тих, хто може їх зрозуміти. як неграмотний збирач яблук не осягне написаного на листку послання від власника саду, так і жінка в скрутному становищі не мусить спиратися на жорстокі ідеї привілейованих чоловіків.

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

Mi sono avvicinato a questo libro senza saperne assolutamente niente. L'unica cosa che sapevo era che ne era stato fatto un film, che mi pare fosse stato passato spesso in TV ma che non avevo mai visto.

È stata quindi una sorpresa scoprire che il libro ruotava intorno a un orfanatrofio nel Maine, al suo direttore (il dottor Larch) che oltre a occuparsi degli orfani offriva anche gratuitamente aborti a chi li richiedesse, malgrado l'illegalità della cosa, e ovviamente a Homer Wells, uno degli orfani.
Un orfano che il destino voleva rifiutato da tutte le famiglie adottive e quindi destinato a rimanere all'istituto, dove si sarebbe occupato dei bambini più piccoli e sarebbe diventato l'assistente di Larch.

Homer che poi "prende il volo", spinto dal dottore (una figura più paterna di molti genitori) a seguire una giovane coppia benestante giunta lì in cerca di aiuto.
La storia di amicizia e amore con Wally e Candy è complicata e dolorosa, con diversi "colpi di scena" non propriamente imprevedibili che però non guastano la lettura.

La condizione di orfano e la vita nell'orfanotrofio, la questione etica dell'aborto (il lavoro di Dio e il lavoro del Diavolo), la lealtà e l'amicizia, il rimorso e la colpa.
La condizione delle persone di colore nel Maine nel secondo dopoguerra.
Mister Rose con il suo lavoro di coltello, la giovane Rose Rose calamita di uomini e guai.
Angel Wells, con la sua vita idilliaca e improbabile.
Il patriottismo idealista di Wally.
Il dottor Stone.

Molte tematiche che erano attuali negli anni cinquanta-sessanta-settanta, e che assurdamente restano oltremodo attuali pure adesso.

Un libro lento e vasto, che parte piano ma che poi entra sotto la pelle.

Had I never read this book or not watched the movie, I would have missed
out on something special. Looking at the reviews below tells me I'm not so wrong. There
are many written that are alike; no need for another.
This was such a great book by a great author.
Irving also starred in the 1999 movie.

I started the Cider House Rules after giving up on 3 novels that just couldn't hold my attention.
John Irving will certainly make you love reading again. The Cider House Rules is once again a novel rich with characters so real you forget this is fiction and you care about what happens to them.
Why can I only say that about a mere handful of writers?

This is a novel about abortion in the 1940s. The dilemmas of abortion are obvious, and this novel does lean towards pro-choice. I think pro-lifers would be well advised to save themselves the ordeal, but
that really is too bad since they would miss out on a wonderful read. John Irving is a master writing about the human condition, and given the setting of an orphanage, unwanted children, an elderly ether-addicted doctor, this is every bit as great as you would expect it to be.

If you find yourself in the same place I was, where you just can't seem find interest in reading anymore, pick this one up and get to know some wonderful (and not so wonderful) people.

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.

"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.