The Cider House Rules (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Irving
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Nineteenth century, 1940’s, Doctors, 1920’s, 1930’s, New England, Adoption or adopted children, Abortion, Medicine, Orphans or orphanages, Medical ethics
- Locales: Maine
Told in an omniscient style, The Cider House Rules is a Dickensian novel about the disenfranchised; it is unusual for Irving in that he does not make use of his “props”—Vienna, bears, and motorcycles. It is also an examination of the family from an entirely different perspective—an orphanage—and the abortion discussions in the book are another example of the violence inherent in the world as Irving sees it. It is a novel with a frankly social point of view, a “polemic,” as some critics claim, yet Irving's actual stand on the issue of abortion rights is not clear at...
[The entire page is 1733 words long]
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