Record Number |
813852 |
ISBN |
9780552997966 (paperback) |
055299796X (paperback) |
Author |
Irving, John, 1942- author. |
Title |
A widow for one year / John Irving. |
Publisher/Date |
London, England : Black Swan, 2010. |
©1998. |
Pagination etc. |
656 pages ; 20 cm. |
Contents note |
Originally published: London: Bloomsbury, 1998. |
Portrait on inside front cover. |
Summary Note |
We first meet Ruth Cole in the summer of 1958 when she walks in on her mother having sex with 16-year-old Eddie O'Hare, the assistant to Ruth's alcoholic father. The death of Ruth's older brothers (years before she was born) turns her mother, Marion, into a zombie who is unable to love her surviving daughter. Ted Cole is a semisuccessful writer and illustrator of disturbingly creepy children's novels. His womanizing habits prove he's "as deceitful as a damaged condom," but he remains the only stable figure in Ruth's life. The tempestuous tale fast-forwards to the year 1990 when Ruth's soaring writing career is faring far better than her lackluster love life. The final segment of the novel ends in 1995 when 41-year-old Ruth is ready to fall in love for the first time. |
Subject |
Love stories, American |
Women novelists -- Fiction |
Relationships -- Fiction |
Widows -- Fiction |
Women -- Fiction |
Long Island (N.Y.) -- Fiction |
Romance fiction. |
Shelf Location |
F IRVI |