Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Until I Find You (Part A): A Novel
    Unavailable
    Until I Find You (Part A): A Novel
    Unavailable
    Until I Find You (Part A): A Novel
    Audiobook35 hours

    Until I Find You (Part A): A Novel

    Written by John Irving

    Narrated by Arthur Morey

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns - his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents.

    When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead - has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or "scratcher."

    Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England - including, tellingly, a girls' school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women - from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda's, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym.

    Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack's hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, "sleeping in the needles" and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist's unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can't get rid of.

    Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older - and when his mother dies - he starts to doubt the portrait of his father's character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force.

    A melancholy tale of deception, Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life's hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving's great novels, and restates the author's claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Audio
    Release dateJul 12, 2005
    ISBN9780739320303
    Unavailable
    Until I Find You (Part A): A Novel
    Author

    John Irving

    John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning in 1980 for the novel The World According to Garp. In 1992, Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He won the 2000 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Irving's most recent novel is In One Person (2012).

    More audiobooks from John Irving

    Related to Until I Find You (Part A)

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      TV & REVIEWS

      Jun 13, 2023

      TV & REVIEWS
      4 min read

    • Article

      That Changed My Life

      Mar 15, 2022

      The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde My adoration of Oscar Wilde was a gift from my father who introduced me to the novels and plays. The original film of The Importance of Being Earnest was a firm favourite and, when I was 16, my father to

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Things That Unite Us

      Jul 25, 2021

      Every Thursday, at the Coopers Chase luxury retirement village, a converted convent sitting among rural landscapes and market towns south of London, four “not friends” meet in the jigsaw room. Sandwiched “between Art History and Conversational French

      8 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 8, 2024

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      “Work Is The Nice Life”

      Apr 30, 2021

      “Work Is The Nice Life”
      9 min read

    • Article

      Robin Ince Is On The Road

      Jul 10, 2023

      Every week is independent bookshop week for me, but there is also an official independent bookshop week for those who need reminding, so I took off to Arnold, Belper and Nottingham for some shop, library and school events. The week began threateningl

      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Mar 20, 2024

      by Hillary Yablon (£20, HB, Orion) Sylvia may be 63, but she certainly isn’t old. So when she catches her husband in a very compromising position with her arch-enemy, she finally decides that enough is enough. Their dull retirement community has noth

      2 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading

      Dec 29, 2021

      Upstanding town councillor and partner in the Wallaby Bay fishing fleet, Eve, 70, never forgets the day 30 years ago her duplicitous husband died. She was about to leave him when the call came that a winch had fallen on top of him. Recuperating from

      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Of The Month

      May 28, 2021

      ERICA GILLINGHAM is a queer poet, writer and bookseller with a PhD in lesbian love stories and kissing. @ericareadsqueer Isabel Waidner Isabel Waidner’s writing is electric. Kinetic, peripatetic, suspect, the reader knows as little about where they a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Oct 5, 2022

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mat Osman

      Apr 20, 2023

      GO BACK THROUGH THE HISTORICAL records and it can be tough to access the lives of those who, in their own time, were considered unimportant. Yet, says Mat Osman, British history is full of people who “were kind of kept down but were incredibly ambiti

      3 min read

    • Article

      Past IMPERFECT

      Oct 2, 2023

      Past IMPERFECT
      10 min read

    • Article

      Past Imperfect

      Sep 2, 2023

      Past Imperfect
      9 min read

    • Article

      March’s BOOK CLUB

      Feb 1, 2024

      The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes (£20, HB, Orion) It’s 1759 and the painter Thomas Gainsborough lives in Suffolk with his wife and daughters, Peggy and Molly. Best of friends, the sisters do everything together and Peggy keeps a close eye on Mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Pushing The Boundaries

      Jul 14, 2023

      By DARREL BRISTOW-BOVEY JONATHAN BALL Writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey is a self-confessed “polar nut” and “Shacklehead”. His fascination with Ernest Shackleton began when he was a little boy and his father told him incredible tales about the Anglo-Irish

      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jan 29, 2023

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      On The Box

      Sep 28, 2021

      On The Box
      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Sep 16, 2019

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      CHILL Out

      Sep 30, 2022

      Showmax, binge from 1 November An alien comes to Earth to learn how to become human and finds the woman who can help save his species. They discover that in order to save his world, they must first save ours. This much-anticipated series – based on t

      2 min read

    • Article

      September’s BOOK CLUB

      Aug 4, 2022

      It’s been a decade since Hannah was at Oxford, yet she’ll never forget it. Her room-mate, April, was killed by one of the university porters. Now he’s dead and Hannah wonders if she helped send an innocent man to prison. But if Hannah digs too deep,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Sep 20, 2023

      by M.A. Kuzniar (£16.99, HB, HarperCollins) Loosely based on Swan Lake, this frosty, festive and fated fairy tale is sure to seduce you. As the first snowflake of winter falls on post-war London, invitations appear for the most talked-about party of

      2 min read

    • Article

      Swansongs And Southern Discomfort

      Oct 27, 2022

      THE BORDERLAND BETWEEN popular fiction and literary fiction is now fertile territory. Once upon a time it was easy to tell them apart. Popular and genre fiction were in small format paper-backs, literary fiction larger: now all have been promoted to

      6 min read

    • Article

      TV & REVIEWS

      Dec 20, 2022

      TV & REVIEWS
      4 min read

    • Article

      December’s BOOK CLUB

      Oct 27, 2022

      The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk (£14.99, HB, HarperCollins) From the author of the I Heart series comes another crowd-pleaser with a concept: what if it was Christmas every day? For newly single Gwen, who is keen to escape her job, a family Chris

      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Mar 23, 2022

      Great Read
      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 18, 2019

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 21, 2023

      Books
      3 min read

    Reviews for Until I Find You (Part A)

    3.5/5

    921 ratings33 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      disappointing
    • 2/5
      I had read John Irving's 'A widow for a year'about 8 years back and enjoyed it, so was encouraged to pick up 'Until I find you'when I saw it in the bookshelf of the Delhi Gymkhana Club library. Also, I was also intrigued by the blurb on the back cover, 'In this way, in increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us-- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss', which seemed to capture the sadness of the story. So though it is a large book, more than 800 pages of small print, I opened it with a lot of anticipation.But this book turned out to be a major disappointment. It is the story of a young boy whose mother is hunting for his father, accompanied by him through all the wanderings across various cities of Europe before eventually landing up in Canada and being admitted into a school for girls which nonetheless admitted boys till the 6th class.The book attempts to be a modern version of the genre of storytelling epitomized in 'Tom Jones'. From the time he's 6 years old the protagonist is molested sexually by older girls and women. The major part of the book is about these kind of experiences. Though not sexually explicit or prurient, these repetitious experiences become boring after some time. Everything else, such as his admission into a boys boarding school at the age of 12, his talent for acting and eventual arrival in Hollywood to become a well known actor, are secondary to his sexual acts, in almost all of which, he is the victim at the hands of women. Apparently, these childhood experiences obstruct him from having a normal relationship with girls his own age, no matter how much he may be attracted to them. In fact, all relationships in this book are kinky, including his mother's with his girl friend Emma's mother.I find it hard to believe that 15 year old girls would have any inclination to molest 6 year old boys. All such episodes appear to be a sham, written for shock effect, and not at all convincing. considering that there's hardly a plot, and the tale is straightforward, it is difficult to see why it had to be such a long book.The finale in Zurich is the worst tripe I've read. It's not clear whether the author's trying to be funny, or sarcastic about sanatoriums and the doctors manning them. It just goes on and on and on. Even the twist in the story when the part played by his mother in distorting his memories of childhood and his father, doesn't catch the reader's interest or attention. By this time one just wants the book to be over and done with.
    • 4/5
      Wow, this was a long book. In page length I've read longer, of course, but not all 800 page books feel so tedious. I would compare this novel, to some extent, with Anthony Trollope's longer novels, where far too much detail is included, far beyond what any central plot would require. Still, Irving's writing has a more modern style, and some nice imagery, interesting turns of phrases, and unusual situations and characters, enough that I prefer this novel to Trollope. Still, a bit of harsh editing would have helped this book (and cut it down by a few hundred pages, perhaps).

      This story focuses on Jack Burns, a man who as a child is dragged across Europe by his mother, in search of his father. They never are reunited with Jack's dad, of course, so the rest of the novel is Jack trying to deal with his parents and his own identity (or lack thereof). Jack is victimized by just about everyone he meets, it seems, so that just as modern entertainment numbs us to horrible things on screen, Jack is unaware of or at least unconcerned about the horrible things people do to him. He has no concept of what a normal, healthy relationship looks like, with parents, friends, siblings or lovers. While tedious as a novel, there are some great scenes and topics in this book, and lots to digest and discuss. This is not a book for readers who are concerned about sexual trigger warnings, and there is a lot of fairly explicit sexual material in this story.
    • 5/5
      We follow Jack Burns from an early age and on into maturity. As a child he is taken by his Scottish mother from Canada to tour Europe in search of his father who had deserted his mother. On his return to Canada we follow him through school, college and eventually into his career as an actor. But it is not until his mother dies that he begins the search of his own for his father, and what he discovers is very different from what he remembers from when he was a child.Until I Find You is an involving novel, and one needs a good memory for many of the characters we meet in the early pages will reappear in one way or another much later, one also needs to remember events for we may well get a different slant on them as the story unfolds. But of course it is Jack that we follow throughout; and as a child he is a bright and endearing, but he may well loose some of our affections as he grows up for he is not always best behaved, but I am sure that if you stick with him and understand what made him he will reclaim your feelings, for ultimately this is a very touching and moving read, and Jack really does come out of it with honours.Along the way we encounter an array of those characters beloved by Irving, the misfits, the mis-formed, the eccentrics and those on the borders of acceptable society, as well as some truly caring individuals; there really are those who are watching over Jack for his welfare.It all adds up to a typically engrossing Irving novel, humour and wit intermingle with passages that are moving or touched with sadness or even tragedy. Never predictable but ever inventive, and of course beautifully written as one would expect from Irving, it all makes for a very worthy read.
    • 4/5
      I finished this behemoth of a book Thursday night. I'm torn about whether to recommend it or not. It's John Irving after all and the writing itself is exactly what you'd expect. I've always loved Irving and A Prayer For Owen Meany is probably my favorite book ever. So I personally was completely caught up in the story. I read 800+ pages in the time it usually takes me to read a 300 page book. There were times I literally couldn't put it down.That said, the story itself is disturbing. It's about a child who is sexually abused. It's about memory and what we think we know and how we are changed when we find the truth (in this way, it was reminiscent of the excellent Julian Barnes book, The Sense of an Ending).There are graphic scenes in the book. That probably won't surprise you if you've read any other Irving. But the scenes don't feel prurient. They simply feel like reporting a story. Or, as Irving says in this book, telling the whole story in chronological order.So, would I recommend it? Maybe. Did I think it was a good book? Definitely.
    • 4/5
      I found this book way too long, which was a real disappointment because I usually enjoy John Irvings stuff. It started out well, with John Burns and his mother looking for William his father. It had the usual amount of eccentric behavior from the main characters, including a tattoo artist, wrestlers and some very odd people indeed!! but about half way through it started dragging on and on with way too much sex for a little boy to see and experience and behaviour that was weird to say the least.Not one of my favourites I am afraid.
    • 5/5
      This book would have earned five stars from me if the last eighth had been deleted. Irving has a tendency to try and fit too many plot points/storylines into one work, and after you've reached the climactic moment of the book, another hundred pages are tiresome.
    • 2/5
      The blurb on the back of this book sounded OK so I bought it. Big fat book, but most of Irving's tend to be. Unfortunately this should have been much shorter IMO - so much of it seems to repeat the same themes over and over, and whilst some scenes are comical (the doctors' conflab for example) they go on and on, like a Catherine Tate sketch, long after they have ceased to be funny. There was a story in here trying to get out and it was being smothered. Perhaps the worst bit was the middle section which had Emma in it. I swear if she had called Jack 'Baby Cakes' one more time my head would have exploded. And was it just me that found the older girls' obsession with Jack's tackle a bit icky?And don't get me started on the wrestling.Please.....no more wrestling!!
    • 4/5
      John Irving has a few recurring themes in his books: wrestling, bears, family, (disturbing) sex, and writers. This book could have used a bear or two instead of all the sex; there is just too much. If Until I Find You would have half the amount of sex, it would have been a slightly absurd, but wonderful story about family and forgiveness.
    • 2/5
      Some of these people actually exist! I met Tattoo Ole exactly where he was in the book!
    • 4/5
      When I look at other reviews for this book I realize that, as with all authors, you either love their work or you don't. In the case with Until I Find You, Irving fans either appreciate the fact that he spent 800+ pages telling the life of Jack Burns or they felt he was being long-winded and extremely repetitive and needed a really good editor. My opinion? After reading only one other book from Mr. Irving, (The Water Method Man) I cannot really do any comparisons as to his style in this versus that. But as I read through the book, I did find it somewhat repetitive in places. But for me? I didn't find that a big problem here.And when I got to the end of the book and the story had been turned around during the final section so that there were things we had learned about characters that were completely different than what we were led to believe? Those 800+ pages were totally worth it.The child neglect and abuse were painful. There was a lot of unfair treatment to characters that was painful. But without feeling manipulated like a puppet on a string as I did when I read some of the formulaic crap writing of certain unnamed authors that I refuse to read any more (no matter how often friends or family try to force their books upon me!), I felt deeply the deaths of certain characters and the final pages, too. In the end, I will miss Jack Burns.
    • 5/5
      This story centers around Jack Burns who with his mother Alice, has been on a lifetime quest to find William, Jack's father. William left Before Jack was born ... never married Alice. Knowing that he is an ink addict, after her father gave him his first tattoo, she learns the trade herself, and visits tattoo studios across the Baltic seas in search of William. She is quite skilled and sets up her studio in many ports, looking for William. The story has hidden twists, and although Jack becomes the center fiqure, finding his father after his mother dies, I became partial to Alice. She is an intirquing character and does many unexpected things. I also like her taste in music. She blasts Bob Dylan while working, and Jack himself says: "Dylan is kind of like a tattoo ... he gets under your skin and stays with you."
    • 5/5
      By now I think I've clearly established that I'm a huge John Irving fan. I just finished his most recent, Until I Find You, and I loved it. I adored it. I didn't want it to end, which may seem odd since it's 820 pages long. Please don't let the length deter you. I loved the narrator's voice, the characters-major and minor. I loved the story, the journey, the quest; the twists and the passage of time. Every last bit of it seemed plausible to me, but I've always embraced the bizarreness of Irving's characters and settings.Two favorite passages:So much of what you think you remember is a lie, the stuff of postcards. The snow untrampled and unspoiled; the Christmas candles in the windows of the houses, where the damage to the children is unseen and unheard.If you can't forgive her, you'll never be free of her. It's for your own sake, you know- for your soul. When you forgive someone who's hurt you, it's like escaping your skin- you're that free, outside yourself, where you can see everything.
    • 4/5
      This is Irving's most autobiographical book. It is very moving. He travels with his mother who is a tatoo artist away from/towards his father whom he doesn't know... It is excellant.
    • 3/5
      Whenever I get a chance to spend time wandering around a bookstore with no particular book in mind (sadly not too often), I always check if one of my favourite writers has published a new book. One of these writers is John Irving. For many years now, Irving has been near the top of my favourites list, with A Prayer for Owen Meany probably being one of the best, if not the best, novel I have ever read. It was therefore with great expectations that I took his latest book - Until I Find You - with me on my latest trip to Japan, looking forward to long hours of reading pleasure on the flights.Alas, it was not to be. I have had disappointments from recent Irving books, but Until was probably the greatest letdown. I learnt a lot about tattoos but despite the familiar Irving prose this book somehow seemed too long and repetitive. And the ending was hugely disappointing. The book tells the story of Jack Burns, "actor before he was an actor", son to Alice, a tattoo artist, and to William, an organ player. William falls out of love with Alice shortly after meeting her, but she is pregnant with child and does not agree to let William go without a fight. When Jack is four he tours Europe with Alice, moving from city to city, from church organ to church organ, in the hope of tracking William down and confronting him with his "abandoned responsibilities". In the first third of the book (total: >800 pages!) Jack recounts this odyssey through Europe, reconstructing it from the memory of 4-year-old.After the failed hunt for William, Alice and Jack go back to Toronto and Jack is enrolled in an all-girls school, St. Hilda's, where boys are admitted until grade four. It is there that he discovers his affinity for "older women" and where he meets Emma Oastler, who becomes his mentor and life-time friend. From St. Hilda's Jack goes to a boarding school in New England, this time an all-boys school. Eventually, Jack moves to Los Angeles and becomes a famous actor, winning an Oscar for a screenplay adapted from one of Emma's books after her death. In the last third of the book, and after his mother dies, Jack discovers the truth about his parents and he embarks on a second odyssey to Europe, this time seeing the stories his mother told him in a totally different light.As usual, Irving's characters are described in detail and become memorable personae: Jack's third-grade teacher, Catherine "The Wurtz", who ends up as his companion to the Oscars; Michelle Maher, one of Jack's many girlfriends, but the one he never forgets; numerous tattoo artists, all Alice's friends, who helped her and Jack during their voyage in Europe lending them a place to "sleep in the needles"; and many more. Irving's characters become very vivid in the reader's mind, and because of the length of his novels some of them become almost friends. I remember the feeling I had when I finished reading The Cider House Rules during my military duty: I felt very sad to have to "say goodbye" to some of the characters after weeks of companionship.Some of Irving's regular and recurring themes are also present in Until: New England, boarding schools, wrestling and coaching, intra-family intimate ties, single motherhood, marital infedilities, etc. Curiously missing, though, are the bears... Irving's use of repeated phrases that become the leitmotif of the book are also present in Until, except that this time I found them to be somewhat too repetitive (how many times can one read about Jack's fondness for his penis being held by an older woman?).As much as it pains me to write this, it seems that Irving is past his prime. He made his fame with A World According to Garp (personally not one of my favourites and a terrible movie adaptation) and then solidified his literary prominence through bestsellers such as The Cider House Rules, A Son of the Circus and The Fourth Hand. But it is his earlier novels - for example The Hotel New Hampshire or A Prayer for Owen Meany - that are truly his best. If you are new to Irving, Until I Find You is definitely not the book you should read first.
    • 4/5
      Irving seemed to be sliding into mediocrity until this novel. The early thrill of "Garp" and "Cider House Rules" was gone. He's returned to form here, by not repeating his formula. He gives a definite twist and turn to the path one is going down as one reads this. The usual humor and quirkiness combined with some newfound wisdom.
    • 4/5
      Until I Find You is the fourth Irving novel I've read, but not my favourite.Jack Burns is a movie star retracing the steps of his childhood to discover that what we remember is not necessarily what happened. Constanly ill at ease with the absense of his father, this dominates his life and governs many of his choices and decisions.What I have previously admired about John Irvings writing is the detailed insight he gives the reader into his charcters and their histories. In this novel however, one really has to do that twice - learning as Jack does the two different versions of his past, the remembered and the actual. Until I Find You brings up several themes that Irving broaches in his other novels - sexual awakenings, fascination with older women, a young boy discovering through unconventional means about the (usually adult) world around him. I don't feel that it was done as well in this novel as it was in the others I've read. At times there was just too much sexual reference, and while much of it was crucial to Jack's later development, I'm not sure it was all absolutely necessary or believable. The closing chapters are very moving, and I'm glad I stuck with it to the end. I can imagine many readers may not have done. At times I got a little bored, but was left satisfied at the conclusion, in much the same way that Jack Burns may be.Plenty to get stuck in to.
    • 4/5
      John Irving is one of my all time favorite authors. A Prayer for Owen Meany, Ciderhouse Rules, and A Widow for One Year are three of my favorite books. I found this one by accident in the discount section of Barnes and Noble, confounded that I had not heard of it (or forgot ten that I had) . I must say the opening struck me as a little strange; I decided to give it my 50 page trial. It didn't help that the thing was over 800 pages! Why doesn't anyone edit anything anymore?By the time I got to page 50 I decided to read just one chapter a night . That way I could be reading something else as well, because it didn't really merit my full attention. It seemed like one of the typical sex-obsessed characters saga, but I couldn't stop reading it. it took awhile, but I finally got wrapped up in the world of tatoos, child neglect and abuse, and really weird relationships that John Irving so seems to enjoy portraying. I'm still not sure what I feel about it overall. I think it was a cathartic undertaking for the author, and a little too neatly wrapped up at the end. If he had just met his sister and father as a child we could have had a 200 page novel instead. Not his best, but genius must be hard to maintain at such a pace.
    • 3/5
      A long long book. I had the feeling that alot of this could be left out and still make a good story. Loved the trips around Europe but the bits inbetween.... not really sure about
    • 4/5
      Standard John Irving fare; sex, school wrestling, some Wiennamania (although less than usual), a couple of unexpected deaths. As usual, the characters become persons (although it did take four or five hundred pages).Although not as good as A prayer for Owen Meany or Garp, John Irving fans will probably enjoy this. But considering that it's rather lengthy and the story isn't that great, it doesn't make for a very good introduction to the authorship.
    • 3/5
      Until I Find You describes the growing up of Jack Burns. Like any Irving, the book is filled with people who are searching for their true identities and to come in peace with their past. Thorough research in the world of tattoos is highly readable. The story is placed in Amsterdam for some episodes, very recognizable (when you live there like me). The first part of the book is captivating, but near the end I had difficulties in reading on. The end is predictable but makes the circle round in a nice way.
    • 5/5
      A major work. Emma is one of the most memorable literary characters of all time.
    • 4/5
      First of all, this book is based on a phenomenal idea, and has beautifully created characters. However. One thing I love about Irving is his style of writing, but this seemed to be more like a first draft than a finished and edited book. There's alot of repetition, and I felt myself getting impatient with all the double and triple explanations every single thing. That aside, the story itself and the characters really are incredible...My suggestion? Read it on holiday on the beach somewhere, when you want something just engaging enough to take your mind off the sand creeping into places it shouldn't be.
    • 3/5
      I'm glad Bookclub made me read a John Irving title - it's one of those books I sometimes wanted to give up on but am glad I didn't, although very few of his characters appealed to me. His central characters, Jack Burns and his mother, are both selfish and self-centred, although Jack redeems himself with his father in the end. Won't rush to read more John Irving though, especially not if this is his 'magnum opus' as blurb suggests (I had heard of The World According to Garp but never read it).
    • 3/5
      How can one condense a tightly packed 800 pages in a paragraph? Plow on, reader, plow on! After dealing with Jack's bizarre and disconforting sexual childhood and then his similary described sexual adulthood, I came to terms with his more balanced adventures (around part III). I was almost interested and excited about the novel (after casting it aside 3 times) when Jack decided to persue a psychoanalysis which utimately ends in an unbelievable (this is Irving after all) and farcical reunion. Too bad. I usually enjoy Irving, but there are too many episodes that drag on and my favorite characters get killed off.
    • 4/5
      I am a huge John Irving fan (my favorite is Hotel New Hampshire), so I am used to his quirky characters and meandering plot lines which run in all directions, but finally return to the point of the story. This being said, I found Irving's latest novel to be a bit long-winded (at 820 pages it is *not* a light read!). Every character is flawed, sometimes almost unbelievably so...and yet, at the end, there is redemption for the main character, Jack Burns. I would recommend this book only to die-hard Irving fans who will be patient enough to wade through this chunky novel. Think Garp times 10!
    • 1/5
      This book is utterly awful.1. Irving writes like he's paid by the word. I don't need MORE words, I need BETTER words. Doesn't this man have an editor?2. Irving uses real places (restaurants, hotels, streets, cities) in order to set moods that a better writer could and would do with descriptors. Doesn't this man have an editor?3. Irving tries really fuckin hard to enter into a subculture he doesn't understand but he hasn't done sufficient research on any of it. "Eyelid" piercing? come on. People do it, sure. But they do it about as often as they get their clit pierced. What he means is "eyeBROW" piercing. (and women should not get their clits pierced. Clitoral hood, yes. Triangle piercing, yes. Clit, no. We need our clits.) And his charming and eccentric tattoo artist subculture does not ring true. Doesn't this man have an editor?4. And while we're on the subject, how can you write an 800 page novel that includes as a major plot point a tattoo incorporating women's genitalia and yet call it "vagina"? This man needs an editor. That's not the only place he says "Vagina" when he means "vulva," but it's the most prominent. Imagine what went through my head when the protagonist is said to have seen two vaginas in one day. I of course pictured him carrying a speculum in one hand and a flashlight in the other. No one who considers themselves literate should make this mistake and certainly not someone who writes for a living. Doesn't this man have an editor?5. And while there is, as always, a ton of sex in the novel, Irving, as usual, manages to make it the LEAST erotic sex I think I have ever read. Worse than Kinsey.The only reason I read the book was because it was offered to me by a woman who had read a book on my recommendation, so I felt like I owed her, you know?I should have been warned, because she's a serious Irving fan and even she said that it falls off after the first 400 pages or so. I read the first half of the book and wondered how the hell writing this bad could FALL OFF? I quit at 700 pages.I am also kind of disgusted at Irving (1) for having the woman with whom the protagonist is most closely emotionally bound suffer from vaginismus (I just think this and other women-related issues in the book reek of misogyny) and then having the gall (2) to dedicate the book to his infant or toddler son. That's sick.
    • 4/5
      The first 100-pages were painful. But they serve a deliberate purpose, and I enjoyed the remainder of the novel. While there was no dramatic climax, ala "Owen Meany", the gradual self-actualization of Jack Burns was satisfying. Irving's characters seem a little more well-rounded, a little less sex-obsessed, perhaps, in the end, a little more real. What happens when a person finds out that everything he thought he was turns out to be a lie? In this story, the truth of who Jack is is not relative. Jack must eventually grapple with truth existing outside of his frame of reference and experience. As an adult, Jack must rediscover his entire life, and reconcile every relationship and memory. An intriguing exercise.
    • 5/5
      i feel the only way to read a john irving book is in paperback, so i waited about a year for it to finally come out in paperback- and it was worth every moment!! i loved this book (all 820 pages of it!). it was classic irving with all his regualr themes and more. i enjoyed the payoffs and the suprises that popped up. i'm so sad it's over!!! read this book!!!
    • 4/5
      Whew! I just finished this monster of a novel (over 800 pages). It only took me about 2 and a half weeks (which is long for me). I can't say I LOVED it. But I did stick with it. This book is a very strange one with very unlikable characters. There is a ton of sexual abuse (of a kid!) and characters who are multi-faceted. This is my second John Irving novel. I don't know if I could ever re-read this again, but ultimately, I am glad that I finished this book.