Book Review: UNTIL I FIND YOU, by John Irving

Could it be true? A John Irving novel that actually didn't make me cry like a little baby? I guess it is: I made my way through all 820 pages without shedding a single tear, and I'm not sure I could be more surprised. Normally, his novels come with at least one scene that just gets me--he sets it up from page 1, and I see it coming, approaching steadily, growing larger and larger on the horizon, until suddenly it's upon me and I cannot fend it off. Emotionally, John Irving's books tend to just wipe me out.

So how did he make it through 820 pages (that, my friends, is a large book to be lugging around an airport) without breaking my heart even once? Well, this is just a different sort of book, I suspect. It's very vulnerable, and fairly heart-warming, and while I hate to point fingers this way, I'd hazard a guess that the subject (the search for an absent father) is a bit close to our dear author's heart. The way he writes UNTIL I FIND YOU is almost tender.

In my review of The World According to Garp, though, I made mention of Irving's repeated themes. What the heck, I'll quote myself:

Having now, officially, read six Irving novels, I have to admit that I'm growing weary of the repeated themes. In my review of The Hotel New Hampshire, I cited this as an asset, but I think I'm beginning to feel a bit like Irving is dipping from the same pots again and again. The books are still great, but I just feel a little let down when I see pieces of my favorite plots tossed around from book to book, and especially now that themes from my favorite, A Widow for One Year, have made some rather breathtaking appearances in The World According to Garp.

And, though I had high hopes at the start of UNTIL I FIND YOU that Irving would not head down those familiar roads, I was a bit disappointed to find the characters in Amsterdam's Red Light district, yet again--or to find yet another character grow up to become a writer (or musician, or celebrity of some sort).

That criticism aside, I will admit to enjoying UNTIL I FIND YOU, even if I reluctantly won't list it alongside my favorite Irving novels (A Widow for One Year, The Cider House Rules). I loved reading all the stuff about tattoos, and I loved a certain character that I'll leave unnamed who is at last revealed toward the end of the book.

It is a good book, read by a harsh audience. I caught on too late in the story that this wasn't the sort of book that set out to make me cry.

RATING: 4

Book Review: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, by John Irving

John Irving, you break my heart. You do, and not in that "Your first novel was so good but the rest of them are trash" sort of way, because you truly do get better and better with each book. Evidence of this is the fact that my favorite (still) of your books is one of the most recent. But, oh, how you make me cry! Like a little baby, because you lull me into the gentle rise and fall of the events in your characters' lives and then suddenly everything falls to tragic little bits and I am, literally, sobbing.

No author makes me cry quite like John Irving does: right on cue and messily, snot and all.

Of course I mean this as a compliment, and GARP is at peak John Irving form when it comes to making me cry like a baby. You ought to know by now that I'm not big on summaries, since I like to go into a book knowing as little as possible about it, so ha ha! I tell you nothing, but "cried like a baby" and "really darn good."

I will add the teeniest bit of criticism, though. Having now, officially, read six Irving novels, I have to admit that I'm growing weary of the repeated themes. In my review of The Hotel New Hampshire, I cited this as an asset, but I think I'm beginning to feel a bit like Irving is dipping from the same pots again and again. The books are still great, but I just feel a little let down when I see pieces of my favorite plots tossed around from book to book, and especially now that themes from my favorite, A Widow for One Year, have made some rather breathtaking appearances in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP.

With that in mind, The Cider House Rules stands out as one of Irving's most wholly original books, and it is now tied with A Widow from One Year as my favorite Irving novel, moving up from a close second place. But don't let my teeny bit of criticism delude you into thinking that John Irving is second rate, because he isn't. He is fantastic. So go read one of his books, right now.

I must add that, in the newer versions of GARP, a Reader's Guide is included at the end, complete with an essay by Irving about the book. The essay on GARP is well worth reading. He writes of letting his twelve-year-old son read GARP for the first time in a way that made my little heart squirm. It is a lovely essay; don't pass it by.

RATING: 4

Book Review: THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE, by John Irving

To my knowledge, there is no other author quite like John Irving (and if you know of one, by all means, tell me!). His novels are vast, often following the characters through their entire lives, and they are varied--Irving presents his characters with some of the most original conflicts of any author I've read, and his characters themselves, oh!, they are so lovely, so complete. And he is funny.

In this case, I turn to the back of the book for a summary, since it does so well. I give you THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE:

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels.

So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they "dream on" in a funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel by the remarkable author of A Widow For One Year and The Cider House Rules.

"Funny, sad and outrageous" just about sums it up.

Irving is a master of recurring themes--throughout the book certain things come back, over and over (the bear, Sorrow, Freud and "the other" Freud), like refrains between the verses of the Berry family, changing slightly as the story and family ages, acting as the support beams for the rest of the plot. In fact, with this book, the fifth Irving novel I've read, I noticed that Irving repeats themes from novel to novel--the dressmaker's dummy, the "not growing" (Owen Meany, Lilly Berry)--thus giving his books a feeling of continuity.

Perhaps the only fault I could find with NEW HAMPSHIRE was that, as it was written early in Irving's career, the writing isn't as tight as in, say, Irving's second newest novel, A Widow For One Year (his newest being Until I Find You, whose paperback arrival I am anxiously awaiting)--and that isn't much of a criticism, not when you consider that his early books are still a sight better than most. In NEW HAMPSHIRE, he just doesn't seem quite at home in his style yet, and it's only knowing that Irving is so good now that makes me notice.

With that in mind, I'd suggest you start with The Cider House Rules or A Widow For One Year if you're new to John Irving. If you're a veteran, well, dive right in--THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE does not disappoint!

RATING: 4