Until I Find You
I just finished reading John Irving's latest novel Until I Find You. I'd read two of Irving's books before this (A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp) and have become a fan, thanks to the recommendation of a good friend. While not quite as good as Owen Meany and Garp, Until I Find You did not disappoint. Some reviews I've seen are all over the map for this book, with the worst digs aimed at it's length - 848 pages - while other reviews praise it for the intense character development. I think that if you can make it past the slow construction of the foundation in the first 200 pages, the characters in this story really shine.
The book starts with 4 year old Jack Burns, following him through school, college, and into adulthood as a successful Hollywood actor. I'm grossly oversimplifying the story by saying it's just about Jack and how he grew up, but I'm not going to write a full blown review here. All of Irving's stories have deep, troubled, and sometimes twisted characters that are complex and fascinating - if you are a patient reader, Until I Find You is very much worth the wait.
The book starts with 4 year old Jack Burns, following him through school, college, and into adulthood as a successful Hollywood actor. I'm grossly oversimplifying the story by saying it's just about Jack and how he grew up, but I'm not going to write a full blown review here. All of Irving's stories have deep, troubled, and sometimes twisted characters that are complex and fascinating - if you are a patient reader, Until I Find You is very much worth the wait.
posted by steve at 10:59 AM
8 Comments:
I really liked "A Widow for One Year" and if you saw the movie "The Door in the Floor", that was based on only a little tiny part of the book. Have you read it?
I haven't read either one yet, but I did pick up "Cider House Rules" tonight. I'll add Widow and Door to my list.
Did you read this version?
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/BookDetails.asp?BookID=25590
I've given up reading books, there's too much interesting stuff on the web. The last book I read was about a month ago, Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys.
Nope, I got a used hardcover copy at the Rose Bowl swap meet for $8.
Why won't you read an eBook? Why oh why?
Here are my two favorite quotes from John Updike's 2004 novel Villages:
"Two kinds of women existed in the world, Owen perceived: those with whom you have slept and those, a cruelly disproportionate but reducible number, with whom you haven't."
"Owen's past is like a sheet of inky blue tissue paper held up to the light, so the holes pricked in it shine: these stars are the women who let him fuck them."
I haven't ever read anything by Irving. I will have to try him out now.
(PS I am impressed by your bus karma!)
Thanks for the review . . . this book is on my to-read pile and it may have just vaulted to the much-desired pole position for my upcoming weekend out of town. I will be in your fair city on Thursday, Digital Janitor . . . taking a client to dinner that night, leaving the next morning.
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