Andrew's review
Until I Find You: A Novel by John Irving
I went into this novel with high hopes, since Irving has said before that he's been working on it for years. Now that I have finished it, I am wishing he had completed 10 years and 300 pages ago. I am no fan of long, long books, but I stuck to it; unfortunately, the pay off wasn't there.
Mainly, everything seemed overly familiar. The Emma Oastler/Jack Burns relationship was cut from the same cloth as Melony/Homer in Cider House, Hester/John in Owen Meany, and Franny/John in Hotel NH. Similarly, Jack's private school years feel reheated from Garp, Owen Meany and Hotel NH. Maybe this familiar territory is what some fans want from Irving, but I found it disappointing.
One Irving trademark lacking from this book is imaginative characters. Emma is the best character, and when she dies halfway through the book, the reader feels the loss as much as Jack. An exception is Alice's funeral, which I thought was vintage Irving; the crazy tatooists who arrive and the hijinx that ensues ...more
Mainly, everything seemed overly familiar. The Emma Oastler/Jack Burns relationship was cut from the same cloth as Melony/Homer in Cider House, Hester/John in Owen Meany, and Franny/John in Hotel NH. Similarly, Jack's private school years feel reheated from Garp, Owen Meany and Hotel NH. Maybe this familiar territory is what some fans want from Irving, but I found it disappointing.
One Irving trademark lacking from this book is imaginative characters. Emma is the best character, and when she dies halfway through the book, the reader feels the loss as much as Jack. An exception is Alice's funeral, which I thought was vintage Irving; the crazy tatooists who arrive and the hijinx that ensues ...more
