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Until I Find You - John Irving
Until I Find You
by: (author)
2.97 145
Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns – his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From... show more
Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns – his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead – has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or “scratcher.”Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England – including, tellingly, a girls’ school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women – from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda’s, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym. Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack’s hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, “sleeping in the needles” and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist’s unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can’t get rid of. Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older – and when his mother dies – he starts to doubt the portrait of his father’s character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force.A melancholy tale of deception, Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life’s hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving’s great novels, and restates the author’s claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.From the Hardcover edition.
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780345479723 (0345479726)
ASIN: 345479726
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages no: 848
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
msleighm books
msleighm books rated it
5.0 Until I Find You
This book is very complicated and not at all what I expected. Loaned to me by a reading friend I had no expectations. A couple of days after completion, I am left feeling lifted. I definitely don't want to give any spoilers so I'll leave that there. The simple part of the story is about Jack Burns, ...
Overloaded Bookshelf
Overloaded Bookshelf rated it
4.0 UNTIL I FIND YOU
If I only had a penny for every time the word "penis" appears in this novel... That aside, this is another Irving classic, this time examining love in all its splendour and squalor. It's not quite on the same level as Garp or Owen Meany, but has the fascinatingly flawed characters, wonderful use of ...
Moje książki
Moje książki rated it
4.0 Zanim Cię znajdę
Irving Znakomity. Nie chcę polemizować z wszystkimi, którzy wyrażając opinię o tej książce przyznali jedną lub dwie gwiazdki. Jednakże należy pamiętać że Irving to nie Coelho czy Zafon. Fakt, że książka ogromna 588 stron drobnym drukiem i to jest najgorsze w całej książce. Jednak to już sprawa wydaw...
Books etc.
Books etc. rated it
I can't remember if this was my first Irving. I know that I was absolutely floored by the book. I remember carrying it along across Italy to loose the book mysteriously at home.The star downgrade is probably because I've read some more Irving inbetween and recognize some of his tricks. I still enjoy...
Page Turning Paula
Page Turning Paula rated it
2.0
I never thought I would consider a John Irving novel a waste of time. But alas, here I am.
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