About this title: John Irving's 11th novel is about an actor named Jack Burns, son of tattoo artist Alice and church organist William. William departed after fathering Jack, and Alice has been seeking him all these years--as has Jack. At the end of the novel Jack not only finds his father but discovers truths that change him profoundly. In between, he takes part in a series of sexual adventures, in some of which he is abused, and also becomes an acclaimed screenwriter as well as an actor. Irving is always a heavily autobiographical writer who relentlessly homes in on his obsessions, but more events than usual ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Large Print Publishing
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9780375435270ISBN:0375435271
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 1099 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 07/2005
ISBN-13:9781400063833ISBN:1400063833
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 824 p. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780345479723ISBN:0345479726
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Slight shelf wear and wear on the cover and its edges. Small tear on top cover near spine. Book is in great reading condition. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 824 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780345479723ISBN:0345479726
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Light edge and corner wear. Bottom corner on book creased along with a few pages. Very light cover creases. No marks. Tight, square book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 824 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780345479723ISBN:0345479726
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean pages, no marks or tears, about first 20 pgs are stiff on bottom right corner portion, cover has few creases & bents, corners/edges bumped/chipped, few pencil marks on first right corner pg, tight binding, all... Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 824 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780345479723ISBN:0345479726
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Very slight edgewear. No spine creases. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 824 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. 0345479726 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Edition: Large type / large print.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Large Print Publishing
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780375435270ISBN:0375435271
Description: Good. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 1099 p. read more
"Help! Some hack has kidnapped John Irving and is publishing novels under his name! As so many, many have said: I've loved John Irving's work for years, but this book is a mess (were there no editors? Or - and here's a scary thought - is this actually the edited version?). Irving is getting up there in years (he was 63 when Until I Find You was published), but one still wouldn't have imagined he'd be capable of writing such a joyless, tic-ridden, self-indulgent, slightly icky-minded shambles of a novel. And not even early-onset Alzheimer's could explain the endless repetition of catch phrases and character details (I'll say it again -- were there no editors?) that become so freaking irritating you want to scream. Why was Irving not embarrassed to write such clumsy attributions as "'Blah blah blah,' Alice said, maybe." As if that "maybe" was supposed to make us go all mushy inside because of his amateur, cloddish attempt to limn the transient nature of memory. I mean, come on, John. I didn't go to Exeter like you, but I managed to figure out a thing or two in life. All of this is a shame, most of all. Much of the press around the book seems to focus on its autobiographical nature and on Irving's effort to mine personal experiences, a strategy that has served him well in his previous novels but which falters miserably here. This is the sort of book Irving should have written for therapy (if he needed to) and then burned; it's nothing strangers needed to read. I hope he's got more books in him, but I pray to god that work like Until I Find You is out of his system for good."
"Churning out a behmoth of a tome, John Irving tries to cram as much witty narrative as possible in "Until I Found You" that he ultimately alienates the reader from gleaning any pleasure from the act of reading. It's a shame as Irving can tell a story better than most, laying down choice morsels of life lessons that go down as smooth as the best cognac. This story, recounting the story of a boy with his tattoo-artist mother in tow, trying to find (well, no, trying to ELUDE) his organist father. Along the way, he's molested by several women, learns how to act by donning women's clothing (and becomes a celebrated actor), wonders how to engage in a meaningful love relationship, and searches for his father to find the meaning of life and love. I wished that Irving could have hit a literary home run with this as he did with some of his other works like "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and "The Hotel New Hampshire", but throughout the novel it seems Irving was as lost as his main characters were."
"I enjoyed the first section of this book, which seems almost like a return to the Irving of 'The World According to Garp' or 'The Hotel New Hampshire', about the young Jack and his tattooist mother wandering through assorted European cities searching for his elusive father. However, I feel the book deteriorates disastrously after that - the writing style seems to go downhill and there is a lot about child abuse which I just didn't want to go on reading."
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