A Widow for One Year (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

As in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1978), his fourth novel, John Irving explores the interaction of life and art, truth and fiction, through the lives and works of an extended fictional family of writers in A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR. Ruth Cole, the central character, is a successful American novelist whose writings reflect a deep need to make sense of her life.

Born in 1954 to a couple who had recently lost two adolescent sons in an auto accident, Ruth witnessed her parents’ divorce when she is four years old, followed by the disappearance of her mother, Marion, who apparently feels...

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