Welcome to Litsy!

I didn't know much about this book when I saw it for sale at my local library, but I figured it's John Irving and it's only a quarter so why not? This was his 9th novel, published in 1998, and you can definitely see he's starting to run out of ideas and repeat themes from prior work. Still, Irving writes such detailed characters that even when the plot/themes repeat it still feels somewhat fresh. Not his best, but I still really enjoyed it .

Tagged was made into The Door in the Floor, which is the best movie adaptation of a John Irving novel so far, IMO.

1. In the early aughts there was this reality show called Starting Over with life coaches helping a group of women all living in the same house. It was ridiculous but I used to set the VCR timer so I wouldn't miss an episode.
2. Our family started online ASL lessons taught by our cousins.
#ThankfulThursday @Cosmos_Moon

Normally I like books where I “watch people living” but this one is too much for me. It‘s that meandering that annoyed me immensely. As I said before, maybe I should and could have known that Irving does that – but it seems so aimless to me. I couldn‘t figure out what he wants to tell me. Obviously nothing about Ruth although the marketing blurb indicates that …

Sorry, I couldn‘t persist this. 🤷🏽‍♀️

At audiobook chapter 100 I gave in. That‘s at the beginning of Part 2 which is set in the 90‘s. Still Ruth isn‘t what you‘d name a protagonist and Eddie is downgraded to a moron. 🙄 As if that‘s not enough Irving keeps going off track and blowing up characters you have already forgotten about as if they will have any further relevance – which I‘m sure they won‘t have.

Maybe I could/should have known about Irving‘s style before but – no …‼️

Finally reached Part 2‼️🙌🏼

But I still can‘t figure out if I like it or not … Which is why I can‘t decide to bail. *sigh*

It babbles. If I had chores to do it would be the perfect background noise. But I haven‘t. And so I take it to keep me busy while my significant other is gaming 🎮 in outer space. It helps to drown out the repeating background music 🎶 of his computer game. 💻

But sorry 🙄, this Eddie in 90‘s is so embarrassing‼️🤢

Feeling ambiguous towards this. I‘m still listening to Part 1 but I already feel betrayed. So far it has nothing to do with what the blurb says. Does it stay that way❓ With those meandering spotlights on persons and events❓On the one hand this is boring and puzzling because one doesn‘t get what‘s promised. On the other hand the waffle doesn‘t hurt – now that I got used to it.

Overall I shouldn‘t be too surprised. This book is exactly like “Garp”.

“If a girl dies before she has had sex, one might say that she is lucky, but in a boy… My God, boys don‘t want anything else.” (Chapter 32 about minutes 2:30)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I think I need to vomit. 🤮 Ruth‘s mother Marion really isn‘t very sympathetic. All that whining and neglecting her daughter. 🙄 Plus: Girls don‘t want sex. It‘s the 50s but even then it‘s backwardly. 🙄

After 26 short chapters Ruth is not much of a protagonist. Additionally I completely understand where Part 1 is going to _and_ I don‘t need more description of adolescent masturbation. 🙄

Is all that typical for an Irving❓ Opinions on that welcome.

On the plot-side, I wonder why Irving makes so many words to anticipate further events. That destroys all the suspense.

I hope there will still be interesting things to come.

I admit that the one John Irving I know so far is “Garp”. I listened to that audiobook when I was in my 20‘s but I remember it left me bewildered in spots.

This seems to repeat here. At first I was excited that I accidentally have picked an Irving with a female protagonist but now I start to be disappointed.

(I say why in my next post.)

You guys, you know, I was fed up with all those error messages that my tries to download this on my device resulted in. So I just decided to stream this audiobook. Usually I don‘t do this because it means I can‘t listen to my stories when I‘m on the road. But I will be home tomorrow almost the whole day and something ignited the hope in me that 12 days might be enough for more than one day of John Irving. 😊

😟 How come that I, five days ago, just _knew_ there would come up problems downloading this❓ *sigh*

Since this is not the only eAudio I have trouble downloading – although the other causes a different error message – I just wrote an E-Mail.

Hold your fingers crossed that I‘ll (soon) get an answer that will help me.

My new audiobook.

Let‘s hope it downloads properly to my device. It‘s 24 hours and 37 minutes long so it better does because if not I have no chance of managing to finish it before it will be due in three weeks.

Feeling I can only handle re-reads at the moment. Haven't picked this one up in at least 10 years - looking forward to some John Irving again.

Excellent book. So well written, easy to read but dense in the content. It shows how strong is the grief feeling, and the effects of the passage of time. Feat.: 🐶Clary #AwidowForOneYear #JohnIrving #Viuvaporumano
#book #bookaholic #booklovers #ler #leitura #leitora #reading #instabook #instaread #instabooks #bookstagram #litsy #booklover #readingabook #amreading #books #vero #Sha2018

I could do with an editor too 😅 #Quotes #awidowforoneyear #johnirving #book #bookaholic #booklovers #ler #leitura #leitora #reading #instabook #instaread #instabooks #bookstagram #litsy #booklover #readingabook #amreading #books

While searching my shelves for my copy of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water I found this instead. I got it at the library book sale over a year ago and need to bump it up my TBR. #yellow #readingresolutions @Jess7

There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments.

I had read two books by John Irving: The World According to Garp, which I loved, and A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I didn't like. A Widow for One Year is similar to The World According to Garp, particularly by the abundance of writer characters in the book. I really, really enjoyed this one. It was kind of weird, sad and funny at the same time. It does have some memorable quotes, and the ending is perfect.

Ted Cole was as deceitful as a damaged condom.

I was surprised I found a book with the word #one in the title so easily! I don't remember buying this book (story of my life 😂) Hopefully it's good!

#NovemberByTheNumbers

#one #novemberbythenumbers Written 20 years after Garp, I remember liking it more than some of his other later ones.

Time for my Letter I for #LitsyAtoZ. Which of these three books in my TBR by John Irving should I read? I loved A Prayer for Owen Meaney but bailed on The World according to Garp, and Setting Free the Bears. If the next one ends up being a bail, I'm giving up completely on Irving! Note: these books were picked up used, so no sweat for my pocketbook. Any opinions?

This is a book that #startswithuvw from one of my favorite authors. #marchintoreading

lovely. classic Irving. ❤️