Delivering Three for the Price of One
A Widow For One Year by John Irving
I'd forgotten what an intoxicating writer John Irving is. His compelling prose has a clarity and starkness that manages to entertain your brain and soul while permanently incorporating his characters and stories into your memory and being.
Irving is not one of those writers who kicks out a new novel every year. His novels are too carefully crafted, too (dare I say it?) literary to be anything less than an evolutionary process. After reading A Widow for One Year, I suspect his books are touchstones in his life, each representing a period in which he explores an idea or a philosophy.
Three In One
Irving divides A Widow for One Year into three major sections. Don't be misled though. None of the three are meant to stand on their own and each would be meaningless without the others.
Book one takes place in the Hamptons in 1958. It is in this book that the events which will forever mold all of the characters take place. Irving also includes enough foreshadowing to clue us in on what will take place in the next two books. Somehow though, the spoilers he gives us in the first chapter do nothing but enhance the reading experience and when the events unravel, they still manage to be fresh and surprising.
In this first book, Eddie falls irrevocably in love with Marion, Ruth learns to live with death and abandonment, Marion shuts down her heart, and Ted shows himself unable to change despite the traumatic events swirling around him.
In book two, Ruth and Eddie meet as adults in 1990. We meet Hannah, Ruth's best friend and other interesting characters. Irving takes us on a book publicity tour to Amsterdam and forces us to witness that which we would otherwise avoid.
Book three takes place five years later (in 1995) and is a book of resolutions. Irving wraps up everyone's plot lines very neatly. He very nearly gives us a "happily ever after" ending for each person. Happy ending or no, there is definitely an ending with no strings left to unravel.
Characters
erhaps one of the most amazing things about Irving's writing is his intense characterizations. There are no perfect heroes in A Widow for One Year and very few villains. Even those people with whom we have the greatest exasperation show themselves in some aspect to be sympathetic.
Irving's characters are filled with quirks. They defy any sort of "norm" or stereotype. Indeed, perhaps some of the strength of Irving's writing is that just when he's gotten you to believe that a character is a stereotype, he shows you a different side of them or makes them act in a way that is unexpected, yet consistent with the character.
Even the dead have a role in this novel. Marion and Ted's two sons die four years before the novel begins yet they have a presence that is more than ghostly that permeates every page.
Techniques
Irving uses foreshadowing better than any other author I've ever read does. He tells you in first chapter how the book will end, yet no one will want to leave before he finishes telling the tale. Indeed, you'll hang on every page to figure out how he will get to the ending he has foretold.
Irving also frees his writing from the shackles of chronological time. For all that each book is "set" in a particular year, he freely moves back and forth using both character memories and foreshadowing, making the actual "when" almost irrelevant. A Widow for One Year is a nearly seamless picture of a lifetime. It doesn't necessarily cover from birth to death, but you do feel you know everything you need to know about each person.
One of the real treats in this novel are the stories-within-the story. Nearly all of the main characters are in the publishing industry, primarily as writers. Irving includes their writings as an integral part of the novel. He includes the complete text of two of Ted's children's books and summarizes the plots and themes of the novels of Ruth, Eddie, and Marion. We even get a slight peek at Hannah's writings.
A Writer's Life
A Widow for One Year is a book that absolutely resists being summarized in a banal statement such as "This book is about writing." Or "This book is about sex." The book is about many things, and is complex enough to have different meanings for different people. However, the complexity of the plot is not reflected in complex writing. It is a very easy book to read and nearly impossible to put down once you've started it.
Having made that disclaimer, let me say that yet another delightful part of this book is the comments Irving makes on writers and writing. Irving tells us that writers are creative-they create what they write, and yet, even the most original writer draws on his or her experiences and knowledge. I can't help but wonder whether some of the book tour scenes, interviews, and articles weren't drawn from his own experience. At the very least, I think he enjoyed poking fun at some of the publishing industry's foibles.
Irving's books have long ranked as some of my favorite novels. The World According to Garp is a must-read, and A Prayer for Owen Meany affected me like no other fiction book I'd ever read. While A Widow for One Year does not surpass A Prayer for Owen Meany, it comes very close.
