Special Offers see all
More at Powell'sRecently Viewed clear list
Original Essays | May 1, 2013
5 comments
|
 
$1.50
List price:
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editions
A Widow for One Yearby John Irving
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character — a "difficult" woman. By no means is she conventionally "nice," but she will never be forgotten.
Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her — on Long Island, in the summer of 1958 — Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth's life opens in the fall of 1990, when Ruth is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason. A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She's about to fall in love for the first time. Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief. Review:"Deeply affecting....The pleasures of this rich and beautiful book are manifold. To be human is to savor them." Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review:"Masterful...powerful...Irving's best books are Dickensian in their rich characters, plotting and language — and of course, in moving the reader. On the final page of A Widow for One Year...I literally burst out crying." Orlando Sentinel
Review:"A sprawling 19th-century production, chock full of bizarre coincidences, multiple plot lines, lengthy digressions, and stories within stories....An engaging and often affecting fable, a fairy tale that manages to be old-fashioned and modern all at once." The New York Times
Review:"[Irving's] characters can beguile us onto thin ice and persuade us to dance there. His instinctive mark is the moral choice stripped bare, and his aim is impressive. What's more, there's hardly a writer alive who can match his control of the omniscient point of view." The Washington Post Book World
Review:"In the sprawling, deeply felt A Widow for One Year, John Irving has delivered his best novel since The World According to Garp....Like a warm bath, it's a great pleasure to immerse yourself in." Entertainment Weekly
Review:"Enchantingly balances the haunting tug of grief with the lure of enduring love...Irving's rich narrative and his sense of play result in a delicious collusion between author and reader." Raleigh News & Observer
Review:"Wonderfully Satisfying...[Irving] tells this story with so much delight that it's difficult for the reader not to be infected with the same kind of joy in the reading." The Dallas Morning News
Review:"As compelling as Garp...which is to say it's terrific....His most moving book....John Irving is one of America's great storytellers." San Jose Mercury News
Review:"Comic and tragic, brilliant, and moving....Crammed with all the wonderful characters, quirky situations and memorable coincidences that have made [Irving] so beloved by readers....A terrific read that will make you its willing slave, so captivating is its allure." Chattanooga Free Press
Review:"A feast....One of this storyteller's richest works....A rich, resonant tale." Austin American-Statesman
Review:"Irving is a writer whose keenest sensibilities have always fallen somewhere between Dickensian verbosity and Mad magazine mischief." Rocky Mountain News
Review:"Full of humor, heartbreak and lust." Newsday
Review:"Powerful...a masterpiece." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Review:"[A] sprawling, complex family history....Wisely and carefully crafted." USA Today
Review:"A Widow for One Year delivers everything John Irving fans have come to expect from the beloved author of The World According to Garp: a funny, sad, sprawling saga full of oddball yet believable characters." Glamour
Review:"There's only one thing wrong with John Irving novels: They have to end. Readers won't easily part with the characters in his latest work, A Widow for One Year....[An] exhilarating talent." The Tennessean
Review:"Moving and memorable...This novel marks a return to the deep but gentle examination of human nature that made Garp so successful." San Diego Union-Tribune
Review:"May be Irving's best book....A remarkable achievement." Sunday Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Synopsis:In A Widow for One Year, we follow Ruth Cole through three of the most pivotal times in her life: from her girlhood on Long Island (in the summer of 1958) through the fall of 1990 (when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career), and at last in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother (and shes about to fall in love for the first time). Both elegiac and erotic, A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force.
About the AuthorJohn Winslow Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. He is the author of nine novels, among them The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Son of the Circus. Mr. Irving is married and has three sons; he lives in Toronto and in southern Vermont.
What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Product Details
Other books you might likeRelated SubjectsFiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
||||||||||
