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Aug 16, 2016lukasevansherman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I can't decide whether Irving is the most popular of literary writers or the most literary of popular novels. I've been working my way through his considerable body of work and have yet to find a book of his that isn't worthwhile. Yet for all his success (He's also won an Oscar.), I feel he's not taken as seriously as some more "literary" authors. Maybe he encourages this, as he cites the unfashionable Dickens as one of his favorite writers and has never been associated with any trendy movement. His 13th novel may be his most ambitious and impressive yet. It takes as its theme sexuality, in particular the blurring of gender lines and sexuality fluidity. In a less skillful, less nuanced author's hands, this could be heavy-handed or overly political. It is political, but Irving has never been a message writer and so the issues he's dealing with are rooted in his characters. It has some similarities with "Middlesex," but I think Irving's book is more successful. It is impressive that an elderly New Englander can write so empathetically about characters of different sexual stripes. A great novel for our time and far better and more daring than any of his much younger competitors (All the New York Jonathans).