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bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition
3.0
I was skeptical when I picked up this book while attending one of Irving's 2015 book tour events. It sat on my shelf since, as I needed a break from his lengthy, slow-paced novels. I thought, "He has a book set in Mexico and the Philippines?!?" And, for the most part, it worked.
First, where does it fit in relation to the Irving Canon?
-Tier 1: The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany
-Tier 2: The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, Last Night in Twisted River
-Tier 3 A Widow for a Year, Until I find You
(I haven't read his other novels, which are unlisted.)
I'd place Avenue of Mysteries somewhere between Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Second, it covers the usual territory we'd expect—and mostly love—when reading a John Irving novel: orphans, prostitutes, an orphanage, a mild-mannered and mostly inoffensive protagonist writer who resembles JI (this novel's hero even happens to be named Juan Diego!), vulgar and dominating female characters, tragic accidents, and a circus: and unusual sexual situations.
This novel was more self-referential than any of his others. Juan Diego is an author who not only has his own "abortion novel," but a novel about the circus, and being the recipient of criticisms or speculations similar to the ones Irving has received himself about his own writing: "It wasn't that Juan Diego wasn't political, but, as a fiction writer, he was wary of people who presumed they knew what his politics were (or should be)." (The author has a long-standing debate with a traditional Catholic author, a former student, about abortion and the evils of the Catholic church.)
Hearkening back to The Cider House Rules, we encounter a scene in which a character goes on a diatribe about the "rules" of the Catholic church, their harm, and the need to subvert such arbitrary and damaging precedents.
I was happy this novel avoided the 3/5ths slump that pervades most of his novels (partially achieved by the fact that AoM is a hundred or so pages shorter than his others).
In the end, it was enjoyable to be in the mind of John Irving again. I expect we'll see one more novel from him but, I truly hope he'll explore new territory—and please, John, can you give us better female characters?
First, where does it fit in relation to the Irving Canon?
-Tier 1: The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany
-Tier 2: The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, Last Night in Twisted River
-Tier 3 A Widow for a Year, Until I find You
(I haven't read his other novels, which are unlisted.)
I'd place Avenue of Mysteries somewhere between Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Second, it covers the usual territory we'd expect—and mostly love—when reading a John Irving novel: orphans, prostitutes, an orphanage, a mild-mannered and mostly inoffensive protagonist writer who resembles JI (this novel's hero even happens to be named Juan Diego!), vulgar and dominating female characters, tragic accidents, and a circus: and unusual sexual situations.
This novel was more self-referential than any of his others. Juan Diego is an author who not only has his own "abortion novel," but a novel about the circus, and being the recipient of criticisms or speculations similar to the ones Irving has received himself about his own writing: "It wasn't that Juan Diego wasn't political, but, as a fiction writer, he was wary of people who presumed they knew what his politics were (or should be)." (The author has a long-standing debate with a traditional Catholic author, a former student, about abortion and the evils of the Catholic church.)
Hearkening back to The Cider House Rules, we encounter a scene in which a character goes on a diatribe about the "rules" of the Catholic church, their harm, and the need to subvert such arbitrary and damaging precedents.
I was happy this novel avoided the 3/5ths slump that pervades most of his novels (partially achieved by the fact that AoM is a hundred or so pages shorter than his others).
In the end, it was enjoyable to be in the mind of John Irving again. I expect we'll see one more novel from him but, I truly hope he'll explore new territory—and please, John, can you give us better female characters?
missyjohnson's review against another edition
2.0
would have prefered to give a 1.5 rating instead of 2. this took me FOREVER to read. I am not even sure why I kept reading. The entire book felt as if it were taking Juan Diego's beta-blocker. Miriam and Dorothy were mildly intriguing but not enough for me to think about who or what they represented. too long and too slow...............
adamgifford777's review against another edition
4.0
This is the best book John Irving has written since Son of a Circus.
sejpot's review against another edition
This book has such demeaning and objectifying descriptions of women. Completely unnecessary, the story can be told without constantly mentioning how women are always unconsciously saying they want sex.
roseleaf24's review against another edition
3.0
I have a hard time summing up my thoughts about this book. I didn't exactly enjoy it, though I found it harder to put down the further I got into it. It was almost magical realism, but not enough that I found it easy to quit as I usually do with that genre. It instilled enough curiosity and frustration to keep me reading.
libwinnie's review against another edition
2.0
Juan Diego revisits his past while traveling across the world to fulfill the dying wish of a man from his childhood. During his travels he becomes involved with a mysterious mother and daughter. Though the writing and the characters are classic John Irving, the plot leaves much to be desired and ultimately falls completely flat. From another author, I most likely would have given this book a higher rating, but John Irving is just so much better than this.
knittyreader's review against another edition
1.0
I know John Irving from 'A Prayer for Owen Meany', which I liked a lot, so I was kind of bouncing around happily when I got to review 'Avenue of Mysteries'. Once I had started, I wasn't bouncing happily anymore.
What to say? I did not get past 25% of the book. I will lower my reading challenge outcome accordingly by the way, but I did want to have a go at grading and reviewing this book here, and it cannot be done withoud Goodreads adding it to the list of read books. Anyway ...
Irving manages to write this whole book around sex. He should have listened to himself, when he wrote that it had been enough talk about sex, but he didn't. I did not completely dislike the parts about the main character's childhood, but even there it was about sex a lot of time.
I tried to keep the things in mind I learned in Literature-classes. The 'sex isn't about sex, unless it's pornography'-parts ('Avenue of Mysteries' seems to get pretty close to pornography though). The 'someone travelling is on a quest'-part (I have a slight idea what the quest might be, and no wish to find out more). The 'heart-disease has something to do with emotions'-part (well, yes, someone like MC will have quite some heartsore from his past, no doubt). I have to admit, when I grab my books to decipher symbols just to try to get through a book, it is not a good sign.
The characters were not likeable, none of them. Okay, I did like Edward and brother Pepe in a way, although seen the way the story went I am quite afraid to admit so - since I did not get myself to drag on any further, I have no idea if they might not do some nasty things, being a priest and all. I dunno, the whole story was vile, all characters were vile, so I grew to expect vile things. I just didn't want to read any further, that's all I know for now.
I received a free copy through Netglley in return for an honest review.
What to say? I did not get past 25% of the book. I will lower my reading challenge outcome accordingly by the way, but I did want to have a go at grading and reviewing this book here, and it cannot be done withoud Goodreads adding it to the list of read books. Anyway ...
Irving manages to write this whole book around sex. He should have listened to himself, when he wrote that it had been enough talk about sex, but he didn't. I did not completely dislike the parts about the main character's childhood, but even there it was about sex a lot of time.
I tried to keep the things in mind I learned in Literature-classes. The 'sex isn't about sex, unless it's pornography'-parts ('Avenue of Mysteries' seems to get pretty close to pornography though). The 'someone travelling is on a quest'-part (I have a slight idea what the quest might be, and no wish to find out more). The 'heart-disease has something to do with emotions'-part (well, yes, someone like MC will have quite some heartsore from his past, no doubt). I have to admit, when I grab my books to decipher symbols just to try to get through a book, it is not a good sign.
The characters were not likeable, none of them. Okay, I did like Edward and brother Pepe in a way, although seen the way the story went I am quite afraid to admit so - since I did not get myself to drag on any further, I have no idea if they might not do some nasty things, being a priest and all. I dunno, the whole story was vile, all characters were vile, so I grew to expect vile things. I just didn't want to read any further, that's all I know for now.
I received a free copy through Netglley in return for an honest review.
tlctbr's review against another edition
3.0
This took me forever to finish. Although I enjoyed parts of the story, the whole thing felt a little too much like recycled material from all his other books. I wanted to love it, but the whole thing was just... meh.
swicksy's review against another edition
2.0
At this stage in his career, John Irving can pretty much do anything he wants. When you have books like THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP or A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY on your CV (not to mention that Oscar for THE CIDER HOUSE RULES), well most authors would probably be happy with just one of those.
Irving's later novels have not captured the brilliance of his earlier work (although the first half of UNTIL I FIND YOU comes very close). While containing many of the themes of his other books (conflicts with religion and sex, strong/dominating female mother-figure characters, children that are extraordinary), AVENUE OF MYSTERIES feels like more of an experiment than a novel. Again though, at this point for Irving, why not?
It reads like a stream of consciousness, going backwards and forwards in time without much warning as an author travels to the Philippines and finds a strange connection with a pair of very sexually alluring women, and thanks to beta-blockers remembers his troubled past as a poor child (a "dump kid" who reads....basically he grew up near a dump but taught himself to read so the book frequently refers to him as the "dump kid reader"). There are the aforementioned women who seem to be following the protagonist wherever he goes throughout Asia, a young girl who can read minds but can only be understood by her brother because of a throat malady, a priest who gives up his vows to marry a transvestite and the broken nose from the statue of a holy figure just to name a few of the things that the protagonist encounters throughout his life.
It's a bit of a challenge to stay focused, but the writing compelled me to keep reading and the more I think about it after, the more appreciated this book. Does that make me want to give it more than 2 stars, nope. I would add 1/2 star if Goodreads allowed it, but feel that my reaction is more worthy of the lower 2 than rounding up to 3 stars.
If you love Irving's writing, you're more than likely to read this anyway (as you should). Otherwise the casual reader might not be as taken with it as those who have read and loved Irving's previous work.
Irving's later novels have not captured the brilliance of his earlier work (although the first half of UNTIL I FIND YOU comes very close). While containing many of the themes of his other books (conflicts with religion and sex, strong/dominating female mother-figure characters, children that are extraordinary), AVENUE OF MYSTERIES feels like more of an experiment than a novel. Again though, at this point for Irving, why not?
It reads like a stream of consciousness, going backwards and forwards in time without much warning as an author travels to the Philippines and finds a strange connection with a pair of very sexually alluring women, and thanks to beta-blockers remembers his troubled past as a poor child (a "dump kid" who reads....basically he grew up near a dump but taught himself to read so the book frequently refers to him as the "dump kid reader"). There are the aforementioned women who seem to be following the protagonist wherever he goes throughout Asia, a young girl who can read minds but can only be understood by her brother because of a throat malady, a priest who gives up his vows to marry a transvestite and the broken nose from the statue of a holy figure just to name a few of the things that the protagonist encounters throughout his life.
It's a bit of a challenge to stay focused, but the writing compelled me to keep reading and the more I think about it after, the more appreciated this book. Does that make me want to give it more than 2 stars, nope. I would add 1/2 star if Goodreads allowed it, but feel that my reaction is more worthy of the lower 2 than rounding up to 3 stars.
If you love Irving's writing, you're more than likely to read this anyway (as you should). Otherwise the casual reader might not be as taken with it as those who have read and loved Irving's previous work.