What John Irving does best- creates a very detailed history, starting with Jack as a young boy and taking you with him into adulthood. But the childhood portion of this book is told from the perspective of his memory, which will have you having all sorts of bits of nostalgia in relating to the way Jack remembers things and reasons he mis-remembers them. It's especially heartbreaking because as an adult he is searching for his father he never knew, and discovers that some memories he has involve his father, which he was not aware of when they were actually occurring. He has equally revelatory moments about memories involving his mother. In any case Irving's insight into how children see and interpret events and life in general is pretty amazing.
And, like his other books, you get so involved in the world he creates, that when this book ends it is depressing to leave the North Sea and Baltic Sea Ports. This book pretty much made me want to move there. Irving's stories usually take place in New England, and a portion of this book does, but it was really beautiful to read his descriptions of Northern Europe in Until I Find You. As a side note, there is also lots of tattoo art history in this book, as Jack's mother is a tattoo artist. And I have to end this with a quote from the beginning of the book by William Maxwell, which pretty much sums it up-
"What we refer to confidently as memory...is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable...In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw."