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 touchstones in his life, each representing a period in which he explores an idea or a philosophy. Three in OneIrving divides A Widow for One Year into three major sections. Don’t be misled though. None of the three are meant to stand on their own and each would be meaningless without the others.Book one takes place in the Hamptons in 1958. It is in this book that the events which will forever mold all of the characters take place. Irving also includes enough foreshadowing to clue us in on what will take place in the next two books. Somehow though, the spoilers he gives us in the first chapter do nothing but enhance the reading experience and when the events unravel, they still manage to be fresh and surprising.In this first book, Eddie falls irrevocably in love with Marion, Ruth learns to live with death and abandonment, Marion shuts down her heart, and Ted shows himself unable to change despite the traumatic events swirling around him.In book two, Ruth and Eddie meet as adults in 1990. We meet Hannah, Ruth’s best friend and other interesting characters. Irving takes us on a book publicity tour to Amsterdam and forces us to witness that which we would otherwise avoid.Book three takes place five years later (in 1995) and is a book of resolutions. Irving wraps up everyone’s plot lines very neatly. He very nearly gives us a “happily ever after” ending for each person. Happy ending or no, there is definitely an ending with no strings left to unravel.CharactersPerhaps one of the most amazing things about Irving’s writing is his intense characterizations. There are no perfect heroes in Widow for One Year and very few villains. Even those people with whom we have the greatest exasperation show themselves in some aspect to be sympathetic. Irving’s characters are filled with quirks. They defy any sort of “norm” or stereotype. Indeed, perhaps some of the strength of Irving’s writing is that just when he’s gotten you to believe that a character is a stereotype, he shows you a different side of them or makes them act in a way that is unexpected, yet consistent with the character. Even the dead have a role in this novel. Marion and Ted’s two sons die four years before the novel begins yet they have a presence that is more than ghostly that permeates every page.TechniquesIrving uses foreshadowing better than any other author I’ve ever read does. He tells you in first chapter how the book will end, yet no one will want to leave before he finishes telling the tale. Indeed, you’ll hang on every page to figure out how he will get to the ending he has foretold.Irving also frees his writing from the shackles of chronological time. For all that each book is “set” in a particular year, he freely moves back and forth using both character memories and foreshadowing, making the actual “when” almost irrelevant. A Widow for One Year is a nearly seamless picture of a lifetime. It doesn’t necessarily cover from birth to death, but you do feel you know everything you need to know about each person.One of the real treats in this novel are the stories-within-the story. Nearly all of the main characters are in the publishing industry, primarily as writers. Irving includes their writings as an integral part of the novel. He includes the complete text of two of Ted’s children’s books and summarizes the plots and themes of the novels of Ruth, Eddie, and Marion. We even get a slight peek at Hannah’s writings.A Writer’s LifeA Widow for One Year is a book that absolutely resists being summarized in a banal statement such as “This book is about writing.” Or “This book is about sex.” The book is about many things, and is complex enough to have different meanings for different people. However, the complexity of the plot is not reflected in complex writing. It is a very easy book to read and nearly impossible to put down once you’ve started it.Having made that disclaimer, let me say that yet another delightful part of this book is the comments Irving makes on writers and writing. Irving tells us that writers are creative—they create what they write, and yet, even the most original writer draws on his or her experiences and knowledge. I can’t help but wonder whether some of the book tour scenes, interviews, and articles weren’t drawn from his own experience. At the very least, I think he enjoyed poking fun at some of the publishing industry’s foibles.Irving’s books have long ranked as some of my favorite novels. The World According to Garp is a must-read, and A Prayer for Owen Meany affected me like no other fiction book I’d ever read. While A Widow for One Year does not surpass A Prayer for Owen Meany, it comes very close.
I had never read a John Irving novel until the one who is always right, Mrs B, handed me a copy of The World According To Garp. Mrs B once told me my style of writing reminded her of Irving so I was understandably intrigued to try one of his books. I found Garp a stunning read with its mixture of comedy and tragedy shared by a group of memorable characters. In facing A Widow For One Year my hope was that the magic of Garp would remain.The novel is divided into three parts covering the years 1958, 1990 and 1995 with the central character being the steadfast novelist, Ruth Cole. Ruth is only four in the first part and the focus of the story is mostly on an affair between Ruth's mother, Marion, and a 16 year old student, Eddie O'Hare, who is working for Ruth's father, Ted, throughout the summer. The first part ends with Marion's sudden departure, the conclusion of Eddie's summer job and Ruth being left in the care of her father, Ted, a once renowned children's author who is now more interested in sketching sordid images of the countless women he indulges in affairs with and casts aside without a second thought.In the second part Ruth is a famous writer promoting her third novel. While the shadow of her mother's departure still hangs over her, Ruth remains an independent but cautious woman who has little faith in men. Amongst the key events in this second part is a reunion for Ruth with Eddie O'Hare and a visit to Amsterdam that helps shape Ruth's fourth novel but leaves a lasting impact on her. The third and final part sees Ruth having taken a chance with a man and been left a widow and single mother. In trying to put her life back together Ruth finds love waiting for her in the most unexpected of places.As with Garp, Irving once again displays the quality of making us smile before lining up unforgettable tragedy. In the first part, the Cole household on Long Island is haunted by the images of Ted and Marion's dead sons, Thomas and Timothy, the brothers Ruth has never met and has only ever known through photographs. Irving's later revelation of how the brothers were killed is a chilling chapter with striking imagery as Ted Cole finally tells Ruth the story about her siblings while she is behind the wheel of a car and focused on the road ahead. It's the most powerful moment of the book for me.I found the first part the most enjoyable for the bulk of the laughs could be found here, particularly Ted Cole having to run through a series of gardens to escape a mistress he has rejected and wished he hadn't. As adults Ruth and Eddie are moving slowly forward with their lives but always being held back by the past. Ruth anticipates her mother's return at significant events in her life and always feels the void whenever this doesn't occur, while Eddie, now also a novelist, remains in love with Marion after more than three decades. The final part is the shortest and weakest of the three for me as Irving brings all the main characters together but somehow it feels a bit rushed. Had the book been longer, particularly in part three, I don't think it would have been any less enjoyable though what's there is still brilliant.A Widow For One Year has maintained my faith in John Irving. There are some great characters with the majority reflecting the stranglehold the past can have on us no matter how many years have passed. Many of the book's images - Thomas and Timothy's pictures, Ruth's drive with Ted, the Red Room in Amsterdam, Eddie O'Hare's everlasting love for Marion - stayed with me after reading the last page. Though not as good as Garp I would still mention A Widow For One Year in the same breath.
What do You think about A Widow For One Year (2004)?
When we lose someone to death, we're on the other side of a divide that neither party can cross.We see things from the side of the living. We see pictures we have taken of their laughter and their tears. We hang their pictures on the wall and they speak to us, as we pass, of better times.The illustration on the front cover of my edition of this book shows a little picture hook, of the kind that you would see on a wall where a picture has been removed.To lose a child, and then lose the memories of that child leaves a space in the heart that can drag the self towards it. That slide into tears, sorrow, and worse, can be an undoing, or a making.The removed picture, along with all the other pictures of her dead sons, was taken by their mother as she left. She, who was too scared to love, just in case she lost again, did not seem to realise that by leaving, she was subjecting herself to the very thing she feared.But this is not her story; this is the tale of those she abandoned: the young daughter, the teenage lover and the philandering husband.Whee, commess!
—Robert Day
This is the only Irving novel I've read so far, but I plan to read more in the future. I read "A widow for one year" about a year ago, and I picked it unknowingly in the bookshop without knowing anything about the author, his style or the story. To be honest, I picked it up just because:a) It was long and it was summerb) It began with the sentence "One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking -it was coming from her parents' bedroom".You can beat a beginning like that one, but it's gonna be hard.So I did what I'm not used to do: I entered a literary work without any clues whatsoever. It was great.John Irving is a story-teller, in the widest sense. He takes a character and builds a story around him, normally adding loads of special characters to accompany him. He tells the story with slow, careful writing, paying the right attention to details (the brother's stories and how Ruth memorises the stories through the photographs, just genious) and keeping the reader interested. His stories are long, and he might get a bit tough from time to time, but it's worth it. What I loved the most was how true, how honest, how real his characters were. Neither good nor bad, just people living hard situations and not always taking the right road.I preferred the first part of the book, which focuses on Ruth's parents relationship, rather than the second one (when Ruth is actually old enough to have her own relationships). That might have been because I liked the parents best, and I found both of them appealing and intriguing, I wanted to know what was wrong with them.
—Irene
My 4-star "read" review is really a misnomer because I haven't really "read" this book. This is my third try at it and once again I am stopping at the same spot I stopped the other two times! I reread the first third of the book, which I enjoyed, got into the second third of the book, read about 50 pages and come to a grinding halt. I'm really not sure what it is that is stopping me at this point but since it is the third time, I'm not sure I will try again. I returned it to the library and am at least taking another break. Maybe I will pick it up in a few months and instead of starting at the beginning again, I will pick up where I left off and continue on. Irving sometimes irritates me and sometimes elates me. The second third of this book, for some reason, irritates me.....
—Carol
