A Widow for One Year

I decided it was time to read something a bit more meaty than some of my recent books. I picked A Widow for One Year, by John Irving, from my unread books pile. Purchased from a recent library book sale ($5 a bag!), I looked forward to reading a second Irving book, having read A PRayer for Owen Meany for 9th grade English. I remember loving that book - even if it was over 10 years ago.

I did not love this book.

A Widow for One Year revolves around several characters. One is Eddie O'Hare. At the age of 16 he finds summer work as an assistant to childrens' book writer Ted Cole. His real job, however, is to be a sexual companion to Cole's wife, Marion. Ted has a revolving door of affairs, and Marion remains married to him solely for the benefit of their 4-year-old daughter Ruth. However, in addition to being miserable in her marriage, she still grieves over the now years-past loss of her older sons in a car accident. Eddie proves a welcome (although weird and creepy) distraction from all that. Eddie falls in love with her and can never get over it. Marion leaves Ted, but in the process leaves Ruth and Eddie as well.

Ruth is the main character, if there is one, but she doesn't play a large role until about 1/3 of the way through the book. Fast-forward about 30 years, and she's a famous author. While researching a book, she uncovers mayhem in Amsterdam which will alter the course of her life. She grew up without a mother and still hasn't found contact with Marion, although she does find Eddie and they become close friends. Later on, she will believe she has fallen in love, marry, become a widow for a year, and then actually fall in love.

There are many other major characters: Ted and Marion, Ruth's friend Hannah, a Dutch cop, and a host of other pivotal minor characters. Their lives all become intertwined. And there's a whole lot of sex.

In high school and college English courses, teachers and professors force students to over-analyze books, looking for themes, metaphors, allusions, and a host of other literary elements. Most students come to the point where they discover that such exercises are a bit over the top. Often an overly analytical reader will find elements and make connections that the authors themselves did not know about! In truth, there are two types of good writers: those that just write and do it well, and those that very intentionally think about every little detail and literary tool at their disposal. Irving is of the latter mold, made abundantly clear through his introduction

What does this mean? With Irivng, you're going to get a well-written book with great attention to detail and remarkable depth. That's a fantastic start. I must say that reading this book felt refreshing. The characters were extremely well developed and the plot was appropriately complex.

Rich writing alone, however, does not instantly make a book great. I must say that I did not particularly enjoy this book. Far too many of the fiction books that I have read lately have been very light and fluffy with average (or less) writing and little to no depth to characters, setting, or plot. It was nice to read something more substantial, but outside of that I found the book to be dreadful.

Each character in this book is obsessed with an idea or emotion that they are never able to overcome. Most people, I've found, do not hold on to things for 30-40 years. Some do, I suppose, but it really was grating to read about. Irving created these characters with that in mind, but over 540 pages it becomes overbearing.

Most offensive, however, is one of Irving's (self-revealed) main themes: sex. There is an awful lot of sex in this book. An awful lot. While sex is a natural, beautiful thing, the exploitation of it is disgusting. That's what Irving does much of his writing. There are some nice sections to it, and if 50% of the sex were cut from the book it would still carry the same punch and would be a more legitimate work of art. This, however, is 50% excellent novel, 50% pornography masked as literature.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

37 books, 139 days...at this rate I'll read 97 books