A Widow for One Year

Description

“One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking—it was coming from her parents’ bedroom.” This sentence opens John Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year, a story of a family marked by tragedy. Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character—a “difficult” woman. By no means is she conventionally “nice,” but she will never be forgotten. Ruth’s story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life. When we first meet her—on Long Island, in the summer of 1958—Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth’s life opens on the fall of 1990, when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason. A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She’s about to fall in love for the first time. Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing, A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief. ([source][1]) [1]: http://john-irving.com/a-widow-for-one-year/

First Sentence

One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking-it was coming from her parents' bedroom.

Description

Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character--a 'difficult' woman. By no means is she conventionally 'nice', but she will never be forgotten. her story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life. When we fist meet her--on Long Island in the summer of 1958--Ruth is only four. the second time we meet Ruth it is in 1990, when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgement in men, for good reason. The book closes in 1995 when Ruth is forty-one years old, a widow and a mother. She's about to fall in love for the first time. (back cover)

Subjects

Other Editions

• A Widow for One YearPaperbackBlack Swan1999-01-01
• A Widow for One YearPaperbackRandom House1998-01-01
• Widow for One YearRandom House Audio1998-05-05
• Widow for One YearHardcoverRandom House1998-07-28
• A Widow for One YearPaperbackRandom House Trade1998-09-01
• Witwe für ein Jahr.HardcoverDiogenes Verlag, Zürich1999-02-01