good in parts
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At its best, this book is very good. Up until the main character goes to Europe the story is engaging. The tragedy of a marriage breaking up and the sexual awakening of a young man are complex and well written. But, oh dear, the Amsterdam episode is unbelievable, tedious and frankly, silly.
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Sorry to say not worth reading
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At one time I was a big fan of John Irving, 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' remains one of my favourite novels, and 'The World According to Garp', 'The Hotel New Hampshire', 'The Cider House Rules' etc. (the film of which was dreadful incidentally) are all, in my opinion, with some caveats wonderful and original novels. However 'A son of the Circus', the novel which preceded this one, was by Irving's standards disappointing but there was enough in it to keep me reading. Unfortunately it was perhaps the beginning of the end as Irving's importance as a writer.
Nevertheless on publication I went out and bought a signed hardback of this novel. Unfortunately the bad omens signified by his previous novel were more than realised. The plot I found was unengaging, the humour laboured and unamusing, the characters uninteresting.
Unfortunately this book for me represented a complete collapse of form on Irving's part and since reading it I have been unable to venture reading his subsequent efforts. If you are new to Irving I strongly recommend his earlier novels, start here and you will wonder how the man gained his reputation.
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Mixed emotions - is this art, o just an entertainment?
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John Irving is a famous author, and "A Widow For One Year" is a famous book. Dozens of reviews are written about it by professional critics, and hundreds are written by normal readers like me. Why bothering writing another review?
Because I have mixed emotions about this book. And because I do not seem to agree with many critics.
John Irving writes in a beautiful language. "A Widow For One Year" is a page-turner, which will be an interesting part of your life for the time you will be reading it - two days, a week, a month - depending on how fast you read. The book has a plot, it has a murder, it has an intrigue, contains many beautiful episodes. Here you will find a love story of a young boy with a mature woman, you will find grief, loss of children, several European tours of Ruth Cole, the main character. Sounds familiar? Like in a "World According to Garp", you will find here the details of lives of many writers, even writers who write books about other writers, you will find lots of sex, lots of words in French, German, and Dutch, written in italics, you will find prostitutes, lust, a male cook, who is better than a female cook, you will find sports, etc. This is book is a good story. It is a pleasant read.
But... What does it want to tell me? What is the message the author gives?
Does the book want to tell something at all? Or is it just a nice story without a deeper intellectual background? Is it just like a soap opera which makes you feel great as long as you watch it and leaves nothing what you can think about after it is finished? If I look at "A Widow For One Year" in such a way, I can say that it has fullfilled its purpose.
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Not one of his best
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Forget about magical realism; forget about the exploration of grief and loss, and the complexity of human relationships. This book has an awful lot of sex. No, make that: a lot of awful sex. Still, maybe that's what people like, and maybe that's why so many are prepared to forgive Irving for falling so far below his usual high standard. I think that one reason I found this book disappointing was the the main character was not at all engaging; I didn't really care what happened to Ruth Cole, except in the first part when she was a four year old girl. In fact the first part of the book is by far the best, conjuring up real atmosphere, drama, and at times farce. I was gripped. But then we move on to Ruth's adult life and away from Long Island, and the story starts to fall flat. One thing that annoyed me somewhat was that all of the characters are writers (a bit of navel gazing on Irving's part?), and passages of their writings are embedded here and there in the story. This works well in 'Garp', but not in this book. This book is no 'Garp' and the writers in it are not of Garp's stature. Still, the book gets three stars from me. After all, it is by John Irving. Irving stands head and shoulders above most other novelists, so a mediocre book by his standards is still a good one compared with most other novels. Perhaps I was just expecting too much. Anyway, if you like Irving, you'll probably find this book to be OK. But if you're not into Irving yet, don't start with this one. 'The World according to Garp' or 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' will give you a much more favourable first impression.
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Good idea, poor delivery
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I want to start by saying that this is by no means a bad book. In fact for ardent fans of John Irving it is probably a very good novel indeed. However, for the discerning shopper looking for how to start a John Irving collection, I implore you to look elsewhere. Few would deny Irving's credentials as a writer, he has shown us with many ecellent novels including "A prayer for Owen Meany" and "The cider house rules" that he is a very talented novellist. And indeed for the first section of this book it does seem he is on to a winner once again. The story of Ruth Cole as a young child is told with compassion, but avoids the trap of filling the book with sickly sweetness. It has a strong bite in the relationship between Eddie and Marion, so cleverly orchestrated by Ted himself and this heated romance together with the steady beat of Ruth's life keep the reader interested. Where this novel begins to go wrong is when we move into Ruth's later life. She looses the idea of innocence attatched to her in her younger years and we see her far more as a woman who to my mind is filled with spite. Irving does not manage to endear her to us, or even make us understand her position, he merely creates this monstrous character from a wonderful, one. It is clear that this was a way for Irving to exorcise his own demons of being a novellist, but in this format it does not work. The book becomes limp and insipid and even the introduction of love to Ruth's life towards the end of the third part cannot make us like Ruth. A contrived ending as well all add up to make a novel that in idea is very good, but has poor execution. Fans of Irving's work will probably lap up this offering, but to those looking to get started I advise you to try looking elsewhere.
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