David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "quirky"
Avenue of Mysteries
John Irving hasn't written such a contentious book (at least one that I've read) since CIDER HOUSE RULES, which in my mind was a brave book, risking Irving's livelihood, as it was brazenly pro-choice.
Irving does this again here as he targets Benedict XVI's ambiguous approach toward the poor in his banning of the use of contraceptives. But Irving doesn't go all agnostic against the church as there's quite a bit of mysticism in AVENUE OF MYSTERIES. That's where Dorothy and Miriam come in. They're literary groupies of noted author Juan Diego Guerrero whom he meets in a trip to the Philippines to honor the father of a diseased friend of his. Dorothy and Miriam can't be seen in a mirror and they don't show up in a picture taken by a tourist with Juan Diego. What the heck is going on here? He has sex with both, but the mother, especially, appears out of nowhere.
Let's back up a bit. Juan Diego is a slum kid who with his sister, Lupe, lived in a dump in Oaxaca, Mexico, with their protector, Rivera, who sincerely loved them. His mother worked as a cleaning woman for the Jesuits during the day and as a prostitute at night. There's some question whether Rivera is Juan's father. But Juan Diego teaches himself to read by rescuing books mostly thrown out by the Jesuits who have a school and an orphanage nearby. There's further weirdness in that Lupe can read minds, and no one can understand her except Juan Diego. She seems to be speaking an ancient Aztec language. The Jesuits want Juan to go to their school because he's one of the smartest of the smartest; he even teaches himself to read English.
Lupe hates the statue of the “Big Mary” in the Jesuit church, probably because the statue of the Lady of Guadalupe is much smaller and relegated to an inferior part of the church. The weirdness continues. Big Mary seems to come alive at times. Then there's Edward Bonshaw, a priest in training, who falls in love with a transvestite. He and Flor eventually raise Juan Diego in Iowa City where Edward is an English professor. Somebody decides the best place for the kids is probably the circus, where Lupe would function as a mind reader and Juan Diego would be her interpreter, but the real reason she eventually gets the job is because the lion tamer is afraid of the male lion and he wants Lupe to read his mind. She can; she can also read the minds of the female lions. The lion tamer is one bad dude and he gets his just desserts, destroying the circus in the process.
As an older man Juan Diego is on beta blockers for his heart, but he feels diminished and tired when he takes them. He also takes half of a Viagra tablet. When he meets Miriam and Dorothy he increasingly forgets to take the beta blockers that diminish his sex drive.
The final major character in the novel is Clark French a former student of Juan Diego's who is a more accomplished author in the Philippines than Juan Diego. Clark is religious and he won't shut up. He also managed Juan Diego's affairs on the islands. He and Clark argue religion constantly and literature. Juan Diego thinks literature is always influenced by the author's life (as was Irving's in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP); Clark insists that it's about the imagination, his reason for denouncing Mark Twain as a major writer. Juan Diego was happiest in Oaxaca; most of the book is about his dreams about his former life; it's the real reason he doesn't take the beta blockers. They interfere with his dreams. A key clue to the import of Miriam and Dorothy is that they're both wearing black at the end; I wouldn't have been surprised to see them carrying cycles and sporting hoods.
There's an argument among authors. Should you outline or plan your novel or should you let the characters tell the story. This book is so weird that Irving was obvious choosing the second approach.
Irving does this again here as he targets Benedict XVI's ambiguous approach toward the poor in his banning of the use of contraceptives. But Irving doesn't go all agnostic against the church as there's quite a bit of mysticism in AVENUE OF MYSTERIES. That's where Dorothy and Miriam come in. They're literary groupies of noted author Juan Diego Guerrero whom he meets in a trip to the Philippines to honor the father of a diseased friend of his. Dorothy and Miriam can't be seen in a mirror and they don't show up in a picture taken by a tourist with Juan Diego. What the heck is going on here? He has sex with both, but the mother, especially, appears out of nowhere.
Let's back up a bit. Juan Diego is a slum kid who with his sister, Lupe, lived in a dump in Oaxaca, Mexico, with their protector, Rivera, who sincerely loved them. His mother worked as a cleaning woman for the Jesuits during the day and as a prostitute at night. There's some question whether Rivera is Juan's father. But Juan Diego teaches himself to read by rescuing books mostly thrown out by the Jesuits who have a school and an orphanage nearby. There's further weirdness in that Lupe can read minds, and no one can understand her except Juan Diego. She seems to be speaking an ancient Aztec language. The Jesuits want Juan to go to their school because he's one of the smartest of the smartest; he even teaches himself to read English.
Lupe hates the statue of the “Big Mary” in the Jesuit church, probably because the statue of the Lady of Guadalupe is much smaller and relegated to an inferior part of the church. The weirdness continues. Big Mary seems to come alive at times. Then there's Edward Bonshaw, a priest in training, who falls in love with a transvestite. He and Flor eventually raise Juan Diego in Iowa City where Edward is an English professor. Somebody decides the best place for the kids is probably the circus, where Lupe would function as a mind reader and Juan Diego would be her interpreter, but the real reason she eventually gets the job is because the lion tamer is afraid of the male lion and he wants Lupe to read his mind. She can; she can also read the minds of the female lions. The lion tamer is one bad dude and he gets his just desserts, destroying the circus in the process.
As an older man Juan Diego is on beta blockers for his heart, but he feels diminished and tired when he takes them. He also takes half of a Viagra tablet. When he meets Miriam and Dorothy he increasingly forgets to take the beta blockers that diminish his sex drive.
The final major character in the novel is Clark French a former student of Juan Diego's who is a more accomplished author in the Philippines than Juan Diego. Clark is religious and he won't shut up. He also managed Juan Diego's affairs on the islands. He and Clark argue religion constantly and literature. Juan Diego thinks literature is always influenced by the author's life (as was Irving's in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP); Clark insists that it's about the imagination, his reason for denouncing Mark Twain as a major writer. Juan Diego was happiest in Oaxaca; most of the book is about his dreams about his former life; it's the real reason he doesn't take the beta blockers. They interfere with his dreams. A key clue to the import of Miriam and Dorothy is that they're both wearing black at the end; I wouldn't have been surprised to see them carrying cycles and sporting hoods.
There's an argument among authors. Should you outline or plan your novel or should you let the characters tell the story. This book is so weird that Irving was obvious choosing the second approach.
