Review: The Cider House Rules – John Irving
January 1, 2007 | Filed under Reviews
I’ll admit it. I’m a fraud. I saw the movie (starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Paul Rudd) before I read the novel. I have no excuses, other than that I didn’t know the novel existed, and that I wanted to gawp at Paul Rudd. What can I say, I’m shallow. However, the novel is so much more detailed and intricate than the movie that I’m actually glad I saw the movie first. If it had been the other way around, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, as I would have been too overly critical of the shallow qualities of the film.
John Irving is fast becoming one of my more favourite authors, especially after having read The World According to Garp in 2005. He has a method of not necessarily being particularly verbose (as I tend to be), but by using only a few words, he can express a mountain of sentiments and emotions. But most importantly, I think the stand-out feature of Irving’s novels, and The Cider House Rules in general, is that he places emphasis on fact, on actions and thoughts rather than unreliable actions.
For a contemporary author, Irving does a marvellous job of bringing to life in this novel some of the pressing issues of the early twentieth century. With one of the main characters a qualified doctor and orphanage overseer who also moonlights as an abortionist for women who can’t afford a child, Irving addresses the issue of the legality of abortion, and the various debates surrounding it. The abortionist Larch however, makes the one point that the novel tries its best to get across – that abortion should be legalised for those who want it, but that the procedure should only be carried out by those who don’t have a moral stance on the matter.
Irving deals with some other issues with a light touch – amongst them lesbianism, prostitution, adultery and forgery. The lesbians featured have a truly warm relationship – they are best friends first and foremost, and lovers next. The prostitutes aren’t glamourised or sneered upon – they are real women with real families and real needs. The adultery is forgiveable, as the woman caught in the middle truly loves both the men in her own way. The forgery is committed in order to save the orphanage and the orphans. These are hefty issues, but Irving deals with them well, never turning the novel into a lecture on morality.
It’s difficult to place a finger on exactly what it is about this novel that fascinates me. Perhaps it’s the observations of society that Irving has, or the wonderful way that he shows how an orphan, Homer Wells, simply yearns for some sort of family and affection, he doesn’t desire material wealth at all. Perhaps it’s the strangeness of the relationship between Homer Wells and the two people he loves, his lover Candy (the future mother of his child), and her husband Wally. Whatever it is, The Cider House Rules has it in spades, it is a definite recommendation for anyone who enjoys longer novels that make you think, laugh, and cry.
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