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Mar 01, 2010

Ben rated it:

I shouldn't be throwing semicolons around too often; and yet, after reading Irving, what do I find myself doing? semicolon, semicolon, SEMICOLON ; ; ; ; I'm not winking at you; those are semicolons.. now you know what I mean. Irving affects me in many ways -- the semicolons are just one example. (And yes, I know I'm probably not using them correctly -- you don't have to point that out. You really don't.)

More than a week after finishing, The Cider House Rules, it's still on my mi More...

32 comments like (36 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

d rated it:

this may be my favourite john irving book. i like his deceivingly lighthearted style, and the deadpan humour he gives his characters. the cider house rules in particular seems more real than the others, the orphanage and apple orchards seem more tangible, the emotions less idiosyncratic and the characters more human.

the direct issue here is abortion. the medical procedures to, the right to, the choice to...it's enough to make me want to cross my legs to prevent any traffic in or out. More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2007

Katie rated it:

I just finished reading this novel, and it is so phenominal that I'm almost speechless, and I'm sad that it is over. The story is engrossing, rich, moving, tragic, and satisfying, and the imagery is extraordinarily powerful. The plot takes place during the first half of the 1900's in rural Maine, and tells of Dr. Larch, an obstetrician, founder of an orphanage, abortionist, and ether addict, and his favorite orphan, and heroic figure, Homer Wells. Irving develops the characters superbly, such th More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2008

Pamela rated it:

I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I am VERY Pro-Life and was very skeptical before about picking it up...although I love John Irving as an author. He is excellent at character development and his stories are so multifaceted that you are never disappointed. This is certainly true here in this novel. My surprisingly favorite character was Melony. She was hauntingly creepy, pathetically adorable and demanding of your attention although not a primary character. I More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Logan rated it:

I've always struggled with Irving and Cider House Rules is no exception. It's not that Irving is a poor writer, no one can argue that. His characters are always fully-fleshed and alive on the page and each sentence drips with so much detail that you think you're going to get splinters when Homer and Melony are messing around in the abandoned millworker's dorm. I just think that most of the time when I put the book down I feel like I've read the equivalent of cotton candy: really pretty but n More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Steven rated it:

John Irving might just be my favorite contemporary author. No current author can move me with their storytelling quite as capably as he.

I picked up this book to read on a recent trip to New England, specifically Maine and New Hampshire. I had previously seen the movie and I knew that the story was set in the land of lobsters and blueberries. Although I had enjoyed the movie version quite a bit, I enjoyed the book infinitely more. Indeed, the character of Melony, who is absent from More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 06, 2008

Suzanne rated it:

I love John Irving but stayed away from this work for years because of the "abortion" issue. I didn't want to be preached to, (in principle I am against abortion) and I foolishly underestimated Irving's ability to create a complete work, one in which "abortion" was a small part. This is one of his finest works and I recommend it without reservation. Irving forces the reader to view the world from many angles and does it with his usual excellence in creating characters with More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2009

Leah rated it:

I finally finished The Cider House Rules this morning; I've been working on it since mid-August. Usually if I take that long to read a book it's because the book isn't very good, I've gotten bored with it, or the writing is hard to comprehend. None of those things are true of The Cider House Rules. Instead I found the book to be wonderfully written with rich and complex characters (not to mention a moving and controversial storyline). I think the main reason I took so long to finish it (aside More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Belinda rated it:

Like "A Prayer For Owen Meany," one to make you reflect on yourself and the world around you, while you laugh, cry and everything in between. Irving's skill with manipulating the English language for effect has never been more in evidence.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Bill rated it:

I started the Cider House Rules after giving up on 3 novels that just couldn't hold my attention.
John Irving will certainly make you love reading again. The Cider House Rules is once again a novel rich with characters so real you forget this is fiction and you care about what happens to them.
Why can I only say that about a mere handful of writers?

This is a novel about abortion in the 1940s. The dilemmas of abortion are obvious, and this novel does lean towards pro-choice. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Cider House Rules started fairly slow, but I found myself engrossed in it more and more as I waded through. The novel focuses largely on the issue of abortion and often confronts the main points with such bald truth that it can feel a little harsh. The story itself isn't as predictable as many novels in this sort of genre, and I found myself really wondering how everything would turn out in the end. I found the moral dilemmas very intriguing and it actually made me evaluate my own beliefs in the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Rachel rated it:

Loved it like I loved The World According to Garp. Anybody else ever confuse John Updike with John Irving from time to time? Whoops.

Homer Wells is an orphan at St. Clouds, where Wilbur Larch is giving safe, illegal abortions to women and delivering unwanted babies. I still cannot say exactly where I stand on abortion - I waver back and forth. Of course, CHR makes a case for abortion rights based on incest, and an alternative of chemicals and coat hangers. Which is really the onl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

kristin rated it:

A Prayer for Owen Meany made me want to read more from John Irving. While I know I have seen pieces of the movie, it was barely enough to be worth mentioning. This book was a little slow at first, but I've discovered this is because he takes extra steps in developing his characters and setting the stage for their intertwined lives (a theme in the other Irving books I've since read). Ultimately I want to see the movie now for comparison because the book was just so damn good. Very raw and dar More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2007

Mark rated it:

After seeing the movie (which I loved), I knew I wanted to read the book. It's still the only Irving book I've read, but it made me want to read all of them. Homer Wells is a character that I could identify with in a strange, but very specific way. (No, I'm not an orphan. But I have felt so many of the same feelings that he did. Haven't we all?)
The book is, first and foremost, about abortion. It's very pro-choice. So, if that bothers you...well, read it anyway. Maybe it will change your mi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ashley rated it:

my first irving novel----how late i came to irving! this novel is full of secrets that you only start to see in hindsight as you reflect on what you've read. irving's depictions of relationships are uniquely complex and full of mysteries that draw me in as a reader and force me to take a very close look. irving is a master of gestures and nuances in novels that can feel, if you aren't reading carefully, like simply a series of short, small actions.

what is extraordinary to me in irvi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2007

Steve rated it:

OK - this is the second book. Can you tell I like John Irving? Many people have seen the movie based - pretty faithfully thanks to the author's involvement - on the book. I must say I prefer to remember Toby Maguire from this role, however much fun I found Spiderman.

Like most John Irving books, this one is inhabited by real people with flaws and amazing humanity. What did I learn? I am reminded with each read that absolutism in any form can only bloom where the existence of real More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2008

Inge rated it:

really liked this book, the film hasn't a tenth of the story, depth, character et all that is in the book. i highly recommend it and not just to you princes of Maine.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Pam rated it:

This is a good book with a good story. However, it is not one of my favorite of John Irving's novels. There is a sexual scene with a woman and a horse that set me off guard somewhere near the beginning of the novel. I also had a difficult time with Doctor Larch's ether addiction as well as his unreasonable and almost psycho obsession with Homer Wells. The graphic abortion scenes were also not very pleasant for me. I think that the writing of John Irving is still commendable however the to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 03, 2007

Walter rated it:

The author has a great talent for writing. I was impressed at the vividness of the writing and the ability he had of adding humor to the horrible. That being said, there was much too much of the horrible for my liking. Death, betrayal, incest, addiction, self annihilation, and no hope for progress...argh! There is quite enough of this in real life (just read the news). I'd rather avoid dealing with these grim topics in a work of art, unless there is some transcendence of the horror. One could ar More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2008

Alyssa rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Ron added it

There's no doubt about it: John Irving is a genius. I don't know of any other author to whom I've given three of his books five stars, but this is another, and I've yet to read several of his others.

He produces storylines whose twists and turns are crafted carefully to be convincing yet never predictable; a range of characters that stay in the mind for a long time after putting down the book; research on a variety of topics that makes you believe he's an expert on them all, and also the little More...

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Apr 29, 2009

Kdubs rated it:

i am a wee bit grossed out by this book. i get the reason for the blatant abortion details, but i'm a little too much of a pussy to read about it. and the weird (but kinda sweet) interaction on wilber larch's part toward homer wells is disturbing. i get the feeling he's going to turn out to be a pedafile. but, at the same time, i can't put it down and will likely rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

ok, ok. i take back the part about dr. larch maybe being a baby molester. this book was awesome. More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Gwynhwyfar marked it as to-read

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0 comments like

Aug 21, 2011

Gordon rated it:

This may be my favorite John Irving novel. . .I'll have to see how it sits over time with "Prayer for Owen Meany." I've had this book set aside on my reading list as a treat and I wasn't disappointed. I'm a fan of Irving, but am most taken with his mid-career efforts. I have no further interest in reading about bears (they run rampant through his earliest works) and while I've enjoyed his later novels, they haven't caught me the way Garp and Owen Meany did.

Cider Hous More...

0 comments like

Mar 12, 2011

Maggie rated it:

This book certainly pulled no punches, getting into subjects of race, class divide, abortion, orphans, prostitution, incest, and adultery - just to name a few. I have not seen the movie, so I can make no comparisons there. This was my first John Irving novel, and I found his writing to be excellent. My only complaint about the novel was that I felt he went a little too far to provide us with details of sexual experiences a few times that could have benefited from a little discretion. I also felt More...

0 comments like

Feb 11, 2011

Nicholas rated it:

John Irving isn't a bad writer, he just is not to my taste whatsoever. Homer, for instance, is presented as the protagonist, but he is always talked about and very little of what we see is the actual doing. Something as important as his first relationship or sexual encounter or romantic encounter are glossed over as, "so Homer started having sex..." which, to me, is just awful. I want the details of the charaters.

That's the problem. The Cider House Rules tells a lot about i More...

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Dec 17, 2010

Madeline rated it:

What I love about John Irving's novels is how they chronicle ordinary people living mostly ordinary lives, but somehow manage to come off as great, sweeping epics. I don't know how he does it - The Cider House Rules contains no epic journeys, no great battles, no romances for the ages, and no heroes. It's an ordinary story, but Irving's writing makes it seem just as incredible and important as The Odyssey.

Maybe it's the time span - the book covers a period of over 50 years, and center More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2010

Kathy rated it:

John Irving is an interesting writer. He is a real story-teller who evidently relishes in his story-telling. He weaves a bit of the fantastical into his otherwise realistic narrative and spends a great deal of time developing his characters. They all have complex histories and personalities. Irving has so many side stories for character development that it actually starts to get tedious, but it still makes for good reading. This complex story has many themes, and the overall idea of the book is More...

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Mar 14, 2010

Jeff rated it:

In Cider House rules John Irving manages what few author's can. He truly weaves a story. The threads of the paths of the individual characters come together to create a complete fabric while remaining believable. The characters are well developed moving the reader to compassion or dislike depending on one's view. The development of the lead character, Homer Wells is compelling and held my interest during the entire book, which is fairly long one. But it does not overshadow the other characters. More...

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Nov 26, 2009

Brian rated it:

I usually keep a copy of The Cider House Rules in my car in case I wind up stuck somewhere and need something to read. I've read it through about four or five times and each time I'm amazed at the density, the color, the honest brutality and pain of the world Irving creates. Despite his inelegant language, he is a genius at pace and the structure and the pre-2000 novels are things of real beauty. This one, in particular, is nearly perfect. (I still like Garp better, though.)

I h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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