The average user rating for this Book is 5.5 out of 10 (based on 35 Votes).
tom z gave it a4: getting way too silly and boring
Tara J gave it a9: I couldn't put this book down. I absolutely loved it. I wouldn't say it was my absolutely favorite John Irving book, but it was close. Even after the 800+ pages I was still sad that it was over.
Nikki S gave it a10: Irving's finest work - I was gutted when I finished it.
[Anonymous] gave it a7: A little too long, but thoroughly interesting.
antoinette b gave it an8: Irving's command of the details that play through a person's life inspires me to heed the repeated themes that have shaped my own life. Travelilng on familiar, yet bizarre turf made me ask myself many questions about how people respond to various situations. And I liked the characters a great deal, though they were perhaps all unreachable. Ultimately it was a very lonely yet fascinating experience, being immersed in this work.
bob l gave it a10: Why do people who clearly dislike an author's work insist on reviewing them? If John had written a dud, then I would like to hear so from someone who had the qualification to say so. I don't like Mozart, at all, does that make him bad? I loved Peake's Titus novels, does that make him a genius. Some perspective please
Natasha M gave it a9: This beautiful novel probed at my heart. Irving made it easy to visualize Jack Burns making his way through his eccentic and disfunctional life. Being drawn into Jack's world was soemthing you couldn't escape if you were as emersed in this book as I was. With an unnerving and unique set of charactors that are as tangible as anyone you really know, and a story that is so unreal it becomes almost possilbe, Irving once again writes a story that, after reading it, the memories are as real as your own.
an c gave it a0: I will never sin again,er, read again. This book is punishment enough for ten lifetimes.
Rosalind K gave it a5: I am a hudge fan and Oen Meany is the nest book, which I will continue to reread, as for this book, I am just over half way through and its a stuggle. You don't feel for the characters as you do in John's other books, it feels over written, but I will contiune reading it, but am disappointed.
Brian F gave it a9: All right--there are flaws. Long; too much penis. But the truth of mother and father and family, the complicated, ever-reviewed, ever-debatable truth, reaches its finest statement in any of Irving's novels. Reconciliation, redemption, the possibility for peace: these are worth every minor weakness. I may get a tattoo.
jenifer o gave it a7: perhaps as unconfortable as i have ever been reading a novel... i loved it.
Chris B gave it an8: I almost gave up on the book - and author - in the first 200 or so pages. But because Irving has always been one of my favorites, I stuck with it and am glad I did. Too long, too much beating the sexual abuse theme into the reader's head (yes, John, WE GET IT), and many times of wondering whether Irving has gone off the deep end. But around the middle, I found I was hooked on Jack Burns and his pitiful yet oddly sympathetic existence. Yes, the journey is long and there are detours that could have been avoided, but the reader is rewarded in the last 100 pages with a mostly satisfying ending.
Arno A gave it a9: A lot of harsh words are being written here about John Irvings latest book. I have read all his novels and enjoyed this book far more than I have others such as the fourth hand. I agree with Kevin R, spending a few days in John Irving's offbeat universe is always a real pleasure.
adam j gave it a3: way too many exclamation points. and what great writer would use the term "pubes" so liberally?
Dan O gave it a0: In a world of extremes, we have to accept that no one is all good or all bad. That being said, I've had a hard time finding anything good in this novel, as much as I wanted to. Garp was perverse, even sick, but there was context and a moral to the story. I've read several reviews and comments, and no one has inspired me to go beyond the 224 pages I have suffered through. I'd hoped the "Grey Ghost" would provide the moral that would elevate this book from being just a sick tale of characters (and an author) obsessed with a boy's penis. I've tolerated it as much as I can. No more. I remeber a critc talking of Woody Allen's first film after his scandal. He said essentially that we (the public) were willing to put up with a certain amount of perversity for the sake of art. But it had better be very good art. This is not. I'd love to be shown where I am wrong and encouraged to finish the book. But that doesn't seem to be happening.
James B gave it a1: John Irving just might be the greatest living American author. Several of his works, such as "Owen Meaney", "Cider House Rules", "Hotel New Hampshire", "Garp" and "Widow for One Year" rate as the finest literature of the of the late 20th century. Which makes "Until I Find You" all the more dreadful. The novel fails on most levels but its greatest flaw is that, in an effort to produce characters of unfathomable depth, Mr. Irving painstakingly paints portraits of people we simply don't care about. I understand that this story is his most autobiographical to date, which is certainly disconcerting, however it should have produced an empathatic Jack Burns. I was rooting for Jack through much of the book but I simply could not sustain the effort through 848 pages. It took Mr. Irving eleven years to write "Until I Find You"; it follows that anything that difficult to write is also that difficult to read.
Tucker M gave it a9: Spectacular, an epic story of ones crap life changing
Pat D gave it a0: This is the worst John Irving book I've read and I've read them all. I'm only at page 244 and I really have no interest in continuing to read this story. The fascination with Jack's penis is excruciating to read and the writing itself is self-conscious with Irving trying too hard to be funny. Everything turned south after Jack and Alice got back from the North Sea and we have to endure the standard private-school scenes (already used by Irving in at least 3 of his other books) and the mandatory wrestling references, made all the worse by the constant references to Jack's penis, which I find quite disturbing, almost as if the author is obsessed with a young boy's genitalia. This is a very sad day for me as a fan of Irving's work.
Alex B gave it an8: To me, Irving's previous few works have been formulaic to the point of entering Cartland-dom: take one bear (preferably Russian); several overly-involved wrestling lessons; and the inevitable stint at the University of Iowa (preferably at the writing school); add a dash of Vienna if possible, and mix in at least one character bordering on sexual deviancy. Viola - an Irving novel is born. The first third of this novel seemed to be on the slippery slope towards being as flat and monotonous as the landscape around Iowa City, but then it dramatically picks up pace - and stays with it. Yes, it is long, I agree. However I totally and utterly disagree that this is a bad novel. This is the pinnacle of Irvings' work; to my mind he offers a thought-provoking, sometimes excruciatingly uncomfortable read. But being honest, who can say they have never wondered about the level of complicity a child feels in retrospect at their own traumatic childhood? Who has not been at a family gathering only to find out their most cherished memories of childhood are warped versions of actuality? To me, this is an excellent dissection of the dysfunctional broken 'family': a vengeful woman seeks to ruin the man who made her pregnant using the most powerful tool she has - the child; the sexual predator masks his mental torment through carnality. This is a novel simultaneously as colourful and as painful as a full-body tattoo; it may leave one shiveringly cold at times, but is packed with memories, real and false, and remains memorable for it.
Paul P gave it an8: For the most part I agree with RR's comments. However, I think the book had a few too many characters in the middle of the book whose futures and relevance was left unresolved. But, Irving's ability to create weird, bigger than life people with whom one can empathise, is what keeps me reading his books.
Bo L gave it a7: Wonderfully told story with great characters. Yet despite the length of the novel, there doesn't seem to be much depth. We seem to know Jack, but not really, and that could seem to be on purpose as Jack doesn't really know himself either. I really enjoyed this novel.
Dawn L gave it a6: Definitely not one of Irving's best. The apparent absence of editing was excruciating at times. Yet in spite of the various problems with the book, his mastery at storytelling shines through, and I couldn't put the book down. Unfortunately, at the end I was left unsatisfied -- how different from Owen Meany or A Widow for One Year.
R R gave it a9: John Irving's new book will no doubt generate lots of controversy. Instead of talking about its (very few) drawbacks, let me mention what I find to be its great strengths. First, there is the tone, or the style of the storyteller. Irving has again succeeded in finding a very different voice, when compared to earlier novels, for this book. It is at times fast, funny, flippant and full of a wry, youthful vigour one wouldn't expect from a writer his age. Then there is the extraordinary depiction of truth, the book being a big meditation on constructivism. Jack's memories and experiences as a child are re-evaluated, if not completely turned around in the second half. The truth is a complex beast, and it is only as adults that we are even able to handle different versions of it (most of us don't, or don't even try). Irving does this on the side, instead of pressing the issue into the reader's head, which is what most author's would do. Then, there is the undaunted portrayal of sex in its many forms, covering a vast spectrum, from pornography to sexual abuse to innocence and loving, adult sex. Many readers will be offended, but if they, and others, keep an open mind, they will find their views on many subjects challenged. The way Irving depicts the sexual abuse of Jack, mainly from the child's point of view, is thrillingly well done. He does this without passing judgement; this he leaves to the reader. I can't remember the last time an author has gone to such great pains to leave his personal point of view out of his writing, and it is a tribute to John Irving's tremendous skill as a writer. Finally, I would just like to mention that I found each page of the book to be important, it kept me hooked throughout, there is plenty of sly humor and vintage Irving-style absurdity, and despite the fact that Jack remains (on purpose, this is clear) undefined as a character, I was often moved by the poignancy of a situation or even a single, well-crafted line. Fantastic, and a book that will grow in stature in the decades to come.
Kevin R gave it an8: This is almost a great novel, populated by some of Irving's most well-drawn characters. While Irving is usually didactic and tells us what to think, the themes and climax of this novel are much more ambiguous. It left me not quite sure what to think, but very glad I spent a few days in John Irving's offbeat universe.
david g gave it a1: For an author once touched by genius (garp, meany) this seemingly spells the end of a sad decline. Ironically, Hollywood may be to blame, as his excursions into script writing signaled the start of the slide.
Lisa L gave it a0: A syrupy tearjerker. I stopped near 600, it was excruciating.
Anna gave it a0: I am a huge Irving fan and have read all his novels, most of which I absolutely adore. I have been looking forward to this book for so long now, and what an anti-climax. Until I Find You is just about the most boring book I have ever read. 800 pages of utter nothing - it truly saddens me.
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