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A Widow for One Year
 
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A Widow for One Year (Hardcover)

by John Irving (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 537 pages
  • Publisher: Random House Inc (T) (April 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0375501371
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375501371
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,134,704 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #83 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Irving, John

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Product Description

Product Description

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. Her story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

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. Her story is told in three parts, each focussing on a critical time in her life. When we first meet her - on Long Island in the summer of 1958 - Ruth is only four.

The second time we meet Ruth it is 1990, when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgement in men, for good reason. The book closes in 1995 when Ruth is forty-one years old, a widow and a 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 multi-layered 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

43 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (11)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This was an excellent 'get your teeth into book'., 6 Jan 2002
By E. Foley (Cork, Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Widow for One Year (Paperback)
I've read and enjoyed a few other John Irving books and this book did not disappoint. If you liked 'The World According To Garp' and 'Hotel New Hampshire' you'll love this book. Told in three distinct sections (much like acts of a play), it presents the life of Ruth Cole centrally, but also the many colourful characters who inhabit her world. Although readers will need to suspend their realism for some of the more unlikely coincidences, this in no way takes from the book. And the fact that so many characters in the book are themselves authors, one gets great insight into John Irving's own probably journey with this and his other books. I would highly recommend this novel, a must for John Irving fans and a good start for a first time reader.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic John Irving!, 30 Sep 2002
By O. Ahmed "plastikos" (Ponteland, Northumberland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Widow for One Year (Paperback)
Having not read a John Irving novel since The Cider House Rules, I wasn't sure I could reacquire the taste for his methods of storytelling. By the very first page of A Widow For One Year, however, I was hooked. This book has the usual Irving mixture of tragedy, comedy, romance, and, of course, sex. And yes...I am man enough to admit that by the end of the book I was moved to tears!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Promises much, delivers little, 30 Oct 2002
By Mr. M. J. Hulme - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: A Widow for One Year (Paperback)
I am at a loss as to why the second part of this book is such a disappointment, for this was exact point at which this book lost me. Told in three parts, the first part is fantastically well written - the characters are well-imagined and depicted such that you feel as if you actually know them. The sections on the upbringing of little Ruth Cole, her wayward father and the role of Eddie are simply superb - I'd love to gush on about why and how, but I don't want to give anything away. There have not been many books that I have sat and read and read and read until I've devoured some 200 pages in one sitting, but this first section is priceless. I had hoped that this would herald a return to form for John Irving after some fairly lean times.

Sadly, this is not the case. Once we are (arbitrarily) flung some forty years into the future, the remainder of the book is self-conscious navel-gazing, focusing on the trials and tribulations of being a successful niche market author. Oh John! Please! This isn't 'magic realism', it's a silly exercise in exorcising your demons, and this narcissism drags the book down with it. Part three is a little better, picking the pace up again, but the long and meandering second section took all the momentum and impetus out of the book and renders later events almost irrelevant. If you are looking for an introduction to John Irving, look elsewhere - ardent fans may lap it up, but it is certainly not his finest hour.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Eating with a novel is not eating alone, Eddie - I'm mildly ashamed of you" she told him...
A Widow For One Year by John Irving.

Simply dedicated `For Janet, a love story' this thumping great fat book covers the lives and loves of the Cole family, their... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Mrs. Katharine Kirby

3.0 out of 5 stars Wow, what a strange book
Having read `Garp' I was pretty keen to give another Irving book a go. Well, I kind of wished I hadn't. Read more
Published 13 days ago by aus_books

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining and well written
This is certainly an interesting and entertaining enough plot to beguile one into rereading after the passage of time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by inch worm

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best by a long margin
Not his best by a long margin, but worth reading if you're a fan. A book in three parts that despite the consistency of characters feels like three odd books stuck together. Read more
Published 6 months ago by E. Lander

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not my favourite
The story takes you on a journey along with its characters (both through their lives and geographically). The style is typical Irving. Read more
Published 10 months ago by French reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Very different from a lot of Irvine's stuff - loved it
The plot is on the same scale as some of Dickens' works - it covers some thirty or more years, and conveys the subtle changes that befall the three central characters in that... Read more
Published 16 months ago by L. Hennessy

3.0 out of 5 stars good in parts
At its best, this book is very good. Up until the main character goes to Europe the story is engaging. Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2008 by D. J. Brown

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry to say not worth reading
At one time I was a big fan of John Irving, 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' remains one of my favourite novels, and 'The World According to Garp', 'The Hotel New Hampshire', 'The Cider... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2007 by G D Rigby

4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed emotions - is this art, o just an entertainment?
John Irving is a famous author, and "A Widow For One Year" is a famous book. Dozens of reviews are written about it by professional critics, and hundreds are written by normal... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2007 by Audrius Alkauskas

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of his best
Forget about magical realism; forget about the exploration of grief and loss, and the complexity of human relationships. This book has an awful lot of sex. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2005 by John Williams

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