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A Widow for One Year
by
John Irving (Goodreads Author)
Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character--a " difficult" woman. By no means is she conventionally " nice, " but she will never be forgotten.
Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her--on Long Island, in the summer of 1958--Ruth is only four.
The second window into Ruth's li...more
Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her--on Long Island, in the summer of 1958--Ruth is only four.
The second window into Ruth's li...more
Mass Market Paperback, 592 pages
Published
November 27th 2001
by Ballentine Books
(first published January 1st 1998)
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John Irving has yet again created a whole world between the covers of a novel. Characters grow old with the reader, experience lust and loss, love and life. The thoughtfulness of his every detail and the concise placement of every word create a landscape more vivid than reality
One of the interesting topics of conversation in A Widow for One Year involves the main character’s attitude towards autobiographical fiction. Irving’s protagonist, world-famous author Ruth Cole, gives one hope tha...more
One of the interesting topics of conversation in A Widow for One Year involves the main character’s attitude towards autobiographical fiction. Irving’s protagonist, world-famous author Ruth Cole, gives one hope tha...more
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The first couple hundred pages of the book, before it jumps forward several decades, are the most even, and it is this part of the story that is most endearing. This first part introduces us to the story's three or four main characters and chronicles their shared summer of 1958--a summer which, you guessed it, has profound effects on the rest of all their lives.
And it is much of the rest of these lives that Irving takes us through in the remaining four hundred pages, and due to the f...more
And it is much of the rest of these lives that Irving takes us through in the remaining four hundred pages, and due to the f...more
When I think about a book written by John Irving, the picture that comes to mind is a vine; a vine that weaves within itself and spreads thick in it’s own mass. This is the 3rd Irving book I have read. Irving uses some of the same themes in his many novels. Boarding schools, younger men with older women are some that immediately come to mind. This particular book is about a family that lives in The Hamptons. The father, Ted is an author of children’s books. The wife, Marion, is also an aut...more
The first thing that struck me about this book was the heart-stopping beauty of Marion, a central character near the beginning of the book. It's tough to get images that concrete in written words, but Irving handles it without strain. Its not just a physical description, its the way that the rest of the image is a bit darker, a bit fuzzier when Marion is in the picture, like Irving is using the depth of field in a photograph to highlight the subject, like her physical brilliance is so overwhelmi...more
I don't much know how I feel about this one. The first section of the book is completely brilliant. As is the last line. But in between is rushed, contrite, and full of coincidences that seems like cheap ways to move the story along. Irving gets around conflict in the second part of the book by killing people off. Don't want to deal with the Ruth/Ted conflict? Kill him off! Don't want ruth to have to face her husband about what happened in Amsterdam? Kill him off! And apparently, having a...more
I hated this book. John Iriving's inability to write women characters was a huge problem in this book since it has a female protagonist. I didn't care about her at all and I wasn't that intrigued by the story either. I generally like John Irving's writing style, but it didn't make any difference to me with this book because I didn't like one single character.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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One of the great books Irving has ever written, this novel is basically two stories in one. A fairly accurate and well-done film version of the first part came out a few years ago entitled "A Door in the Floor". It was well cast with Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger and filmed on location on Long Island.
This is the story of a young girl born to two people whose lives were destroyed when their two young sons were killed while driving their parents home after a night of too much...more
This is the story of a young girl born to two people whose lives were destroyed when their two young sons were killed while driving their parents home after a night of too much...more
I saw a trailer for the film based on this book, and decided I should read it again before seeing it. I love LOVE John Irving. I love what his mind comes up with. There are very few books that I am willing to re-read, but John Irving’s books are some of the few.
I was looking at the reviews on Amazon and a lot of people were getting down on the book. Because it “wasn’t realistic” - “just didn’t ring true” Fiction, people. Do we understand the concept? It’s NOT true. It’s a ...more
I was looking at the reviews on Amazon and a lot of people were getting down on the book. Because it “wasn’t realistic” - “just didn’t ring true” Fiction, people. Do we understand the concept? It’s NOT true. It’s a ...more
Stephanie "Jedigal"
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Recommended to Stephanie "Jedigal" by:
Karyn
Wow. My 5th Irving, and what a good book. As usual, the author depicts scenarios that seem SO UNLIKELY! and yet they are believable and compelling.
A major theme of this novel is grief, grief for those we've lost to death, grief for our bad past choices, grief for loss of connection with the living, grief over abandonment. Connected to this, however, is the theme of love. Love of children for their parents, love of parents for children, love for our fellow man whom we may not know...more
A major theme of this novel is grief, grief for those we've lost to death, grief for our bad past choices, grief for loss of connection with the living, grief over abandonment. Connected to this, however, is the theme of love. Love of children for their parents, love of parents for children, love for our fellow man whom we may not know...more
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I read this directly following The World According to Garp...not a good idea. The parallels are abundant, and for the first half or so of the book I wondered about Irving's fixation on writing about writers. Like song writers writing about writing songs, it's an interesting possible introspection on the writer's part, sharing their process, doubts, etc with their audience. It really can be charming, the first time around. When I get into the second and feel as though I'm reading a parallel no...more
OK here's my final word on John Irving, because I will probably never read anything else he's written (though I've heard The World According to Garp is his best.) His characters are real and they were JUST ENOUGH to keep me going each of the twenty times I nearly stopped reading this novel. The plot is a rambling patchwork in which we never, ever, forget the writer sitting at his typewriter, searching for something to say. When he finds it, he riffs on it till it dies, and then searches for some...more
Way more quirky and twisting plot than I expected, but thoroughly enjoyable story.
This is typical John Irving good storytelling. The bookjacket promises "a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force." I'll give it that. But the love story is not the most interesting part. I like book sex as much as the next reader. But in addition to detailed and engaging personality descriptions Irving is also really articulate about bodily descriptions and refers to the main character's "great breasts" a few too many times for my liking. The more interesting ...more
I’d forgotten what an intoxicating writer John Irving is. His compelling prose has a clarity and starkness that manages to entertain your brain and soul while permanently incorporating his characters and stories into your memory and being.
Irving is not one of those writers who kicks out a new novel every year. His novels are too carefully crafted, too (dare I say it?) literary to be anything less than an evolutionary process. After reading A Widow for One Year, I suspect his books are ...more
Irving is not one of those writers who kicks out a new novel every year. His novels are too carefully crafted, too (dare I say it?) literary to be anything less than an evolutionary process. After reading A Widow for One Year, I suspect his books are ...more
I love John Irving and have been reading him faithfully for many years. This book had some interesting themes around motherhood, grieving, and the art of writing fiction. But it was dull. If it weren't for the fact that I have a long history with John Irving's work, I might have put it down. I stuck with the novel because I assumed a writer of Irving's talent would have a strong payoff for my effort. Unfortunately, the ending was predictable and uninteresting. To be fair, the first section o...more
I started to give this four stars but, the more I thought about it, well, here's five stars.
A fifth star (from me) means there has to be something timeless about the story, passages that express moments of what I think of as universal connection and deep understanding. My heart either seems to slow down or speed up and I sometimes close my eyes and feeling a welling up of emotion inside. I suppose if I were willing to spend the time on this review I could express myself better, but h...more
A fifth star (from me) means there has to be something timeless about the story, passages that express moments of what I think of as universal connection and deep understanding. My heart either seems to slow down or speed up and I sometimes close my eyes and feeling a welling up of emotion inside. I suppose if I were willing to spend the time on this review I could express myself better, but h...more
“A widow for one year”...a different book...grief is described so ..errr...differently...then it is hilarious too...explicit at places, bit repulsive though..but if u ask me if I liked it- I dont know...i’m curious, intrigued, and the narration style is gripping...the chronology is random, references are made to future incidents...there is no attempt to hold back ...no suspense...there are psychological insights...and yet I ‘m not sure if it will have a lingering effect in me as a good book.... ...more
A Widow for One Year is a story about Ruth Cole, told in three parts. For the first part of the book, she’s only four years old. In the second, she’s in her 30's, a successful writer. In the last part of the book, she is 41, widowed, and the mother of a one year old.
The story is both tragic and farcical. When it opens, her two older brothers have both perished in a car accident. (Something Ruth doesn’t have the capacity to understand, and her mother doesn’t have the capacity deal with ...more
The story is both tragic and farcical. When it opens, her two older brothers have both perished in a car accident. (Something Ruth doesn’t have the capacity to understand, and her mother doesn’t have the capacity deal with ...more
John Irving has this way of making me feel really disturbed and uncomfortable. I had a hard time rating this book because there's no denying that he's a fantastic writer. I've never seen an author who can write in the third-person omniscient point-of-view as well as he can, as well as frequently jump back and forth in time without confusing the reader. However, this story could have been told without the really graphic scenes and all the gratuitous sex, and it still would have been great.
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I vacillate between loving and loathing John Irving. Mostly I come down in favor of loving, but it is a love-hate relationship I have with his books. This book did ultimately draw me, woo me and win me over, despite the flawed characters, the (very male) graphic, sometimes violent, sometimes pathetic sex scenes, the violence and the pain inflicted by the various characters on each other. In some sense, the book's discourse on literature (most of the main characters are writers of some kind) m...more
I just finished reading this for the second time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was given it by a friend back in 1999 as I departed for Sochi, Russia. I read it whilst I was there and, if I remember correctly, it was my first John Irving novel. (I've since read The World According to Garp and The Fourth Hand).
The story is about a writer, who gets a job with a writer as a writer's assistant and falls in love with the writer's wife (who, later, becomes a writer). The husband and wife ha...more
The story is about a writer, who gets a job with a writer as a writer's assistant and falls in love with the writer's wife (who, later, becomes a writer). The husband and wife ha...more
At the end of his novel <ital>A Widow for One Year</ital>, John Irving remarks that you love him or you hate him. Nobody is indifferent to John Irving he says.
I think he's right. And because I am eternally the girl next year, I think this is so because he spares you nothing. Ever. It's fair to say I have more about sex reading Cheever than, well, anywhere else. Doing is not always learning. Sometimes it takes a good goddam novel.
<ital>A Widow for One Ye...more
I think he's right. And because I am eternally the girl next year, I think this is so because he spares you nothing. Ever. It's fair to say I have more about sex reading Cheever than, well, anywhere else. Doing is not always learning. Sometimes it takes a good goddam novel.
<ital>A Widow for One Ye...more
This book was slightly disappointing, despite how interesting the plot was. The main character, Ruth, seemed like half a person to me - and what an unlovable person, at that!
One interview said the book's "comic masterstroke" was that writer John Irving made all of the characters in this book writers. Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.....oh wait. That's so funny, I forgot to laugh. It would have been funny if all of the characters were hot dog vendors, for example, or clowns. But I...more
One interview said the book's "comic masterstroke" was that writer John Irving made all of the characters in this book writers. Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.....oh wait. That's so funny, I forgot to laugh. It would have been funny if all of the characters were hot dog vendors, for example, or clowns. But I...more
A Widow for One Year is a highly complex and reverting novel about fiction writers. Ted Cole; his wife Marion; their daughter Ruth; and Eddie O’Hare a family friend are, to varying degrees, successful writers. Hannah is the only principal character who is not a writer. Perhaps, she is too obsessed with sex and bad boy friends to write.
The title is well chosen as it highlights a significant theme that determines the novel’s outcome. Ruth, the most successful writer in the family, ...more
The title is well chosen as it highlights a significant theme that determines the novel’s outcome. Ruth, the most successful writer in the family, ...more
A Widow for One Year is probably my favorite book by John Irving. As the author of a series of satires, [...:], I always love a book that can make me laugh. This one did not disappoint me. Mr. Irving's comedic wit is superb!
It is a very poignant tale of a very dysfunctional family. Chances are, it will make you feel better about your own family and it may also help you find the humor in situations within your own past which may have caused you pain at an earlier time. The si...more
"A Widow for One Year" doesn't get near joining the top group of John Irving's novels, but it's a decent read. Prostitutes, writers, New England, continental Europe, infidelity ... yup, it's another Irving novel, all right (what, no bears?).
It's understandable that the movie version ignores the last two-thirds of the novel. The first third — lonely, haunted wife who has an affair with the teenage boy hired to assist the author husband — is the best section, hands down. The ...more
It's understandable that the movie version ignores the last two-thirds of the novel. The first third — lonely, haunted wife who has an affair with the teenage boy hired to assist the author husband — is the best section, hands down. The ...more
John Irving - God's gift to contemporary readers. The master of the semi colon, the creator of characters unforgettable if not entirely lifelike, the spinner of yarns that are simultaneously tragic and zany - a man who can write books that you just actively enjoy, feeling as though you are getting everything you could possibly want out of a novel. I LOVE YOU MAN.
Of course, I also hate John Irving for possessing talent I will never know from, and making it seem so easy. I hate him for makin...more
Of course, I also hate John Irving for possessing talent I will never know from, and making it seem so easy. I hate him for makin...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| this book | 10 | 62 | Oct 17, 2011 09:11pm |
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John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thir...more
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“…the consequences of sex are often more memorable than the act itself.”
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“All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.”
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