A book review of A Widow for One Year by John Irving
A Widow fir One Year by John Irving A Widow for One Year is the tryptih tale of the life of writer Ruth Cole. THe novel opens with Ruth at age four, her parents burdened by the grief which has taken the place of their two teenage sons, killed some years earlier. Ruth's father, a famous children'S writer, buries his sorrow beneath the countless affairs and rigorous rounds of squash. Ruth's mother fleetingly takes a young lover, Eddie, whose chieff attraction is his resemblance to her dead sons. Ruth's mother disappears, thus setting the stage for the developments of the next three decades. We next meet Ruth in 1990, now an acclaimed novelist, in mid-thirties, with a knack for choosing dreadful boyfriends. She is a wonderfully believable character--a tribute to Irving's popwers of observation and imagination. Ruth's relationship with her father, best friend, and the memory of her still-absent mother are explored in incredible detail. She begins a successful relationship with her editor, Allan, whom she marries rather abruptly and the couple soon has a son. When Allan dies, Ruth is compelled to confront loss and reasses her relationship with her mother as an adult. In the final section, Ruth is involved in a grisly murder case in Amsterdam, the resolution of whch involves a policeman, who ultimately ends her widowhood. Irving's use of haunting phrases and imagery unexpectedly trips circuits in the reader's mind, much as memory functions, giving the story an astonishing plausibility absent from less well-crafted fiction. THe characters are so utterly real that the reader is apt to miss the careful study that underlies their creation. Although marred by a few appalling clichés, the writing is servicable and admirably succint. Clearly Irving's strength lies in storytelling and characterization, rather than elegantly wrought phrasing. Convenient coincidences, rather than ingenious plotting, account for most characters interactions. In a lesser work, Irving's obvious contrivances might tax the reader's patience, bt such is the narrative drive of this story that such flaws are readily forgiven.