John Irving was born on March 2, 1942. His fame has increased over the years and his career took off after he wrote his famous novel The World According to Garp. Two of his novels, The Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany have been best sellers and also made into very successful movies. Irving grew up as the son of an Exeter faculty member. It is believed that his father, Colin F.N. Irving, and uncle H. Hamiltion “Hammy” Bissel are portrayed through characters in many of his novels. The Cider House Rules movie won a 1999 Academy award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Irving began writing when he was twenty six years old and published his first book, Setting Free the Bears. The novel got fair reviews, but didn’t gain the popularity he had hoped for. John Irving published The Cider House Rules in 1985. The book is focused around abortion and many have paralleled it to Oliver Twist. The story is set in rural Maine in the first half of the century. Dr. Wilbur Larch is the founder and director of an orphanage in the town of St. Clouds. The story is about the doctor and his favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted. Dr. Larch performs abortions secretly due to all the back-alley abortions of the time, and upon learning his secret, Homer expresses his discomfort and disapproval of the doctor’s actions. Homer then meets Candy Kendall, and they have a child named Angel. Angel then meets a girl and they get pregnant. Homer performs the abortion, and goes back to the orphanage to take Dr. Larch’s place. This book is going to be very interesting to read and I’m looking forward to learning the history behind the time period of the book and more on John Irving’s life.
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