Until I Find You, by John Irving

Retrieved from: LPLY
1400063833, 2005
Suggested by: reviews, interview on NPR, more reviews, and a vague sense of guilt that I've never read anything by him
My Ratings: 8 Merit, 10 Interest, 9 Fun

This is why I read: a surprise in 106 cubic inches. So, yeah, John Irving. We've heard of him, we may have read or watched interviews he has done in the past. We've probably seen a movie made from one of his books. I'd never read anything he wrote (that I'm aware of). Certainly, I haven't picked up a novel. He's a Modern Classicist and therefore unreadable, like all modern classics.

Ooops. Actually, no. He's quite easy to read...easier than Tolkien, tons easier than Diana Gabaldon (although just as wordy in this book!). Think 'easy' like Stephen King. Yes, he writes a lot about wrestling, but that's ok because I understand wrestling. Don't ask. But the majority of the book is about a man-boy trying to find himself under all the layers of protection he and his mother have built up on him, rather like shellac. Or tattoos.

The first half of the book takes forever to get through, mostly because the subject matter is so disturbing. The second half speeds by. In fact, when I finished it, it was an enormous let-down: Jack is just getting over himself and becoming a real person. Which is the point. I want to know what happens now that he's an adult. I want to know how his relationship with his father develops. Surely that's the sign of a good writer: making the reader care about a character as mentally whacked as Jack.

When I mentioned to a library patron that I was reading--and enjoying--this book, except the characters are "kind of weird" she told me "all John Irving characters are weird." So I'll just add, if you want to read a book containing the phrase "holding his penis" at least 100 times, this is the book for you. I became so inured that I left the book open at one point and was queried about it when a family member noticed those words on the page. Oh well.

Good book, though possibly not his best. But now I can't wait to read more of Irving!