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Until I Find You
A Novel
by John Irving


5.5

based on 25 reviews
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based on 35 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Family, sexual abuse, and Hollywood celebrity are among the themes of Irving's latest epic-length novel, which--in typical Irving style--traces virtually the entire lifetime of Jack Burns, who grows up to become a successful actor and screenwriter.

Random House, 848 pages
07/12/2005
$27.95

ISBN: 1400063833

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Robert J. Wiersema

Perhaps his finest book. The novel stands on its own as powerfully intimate, epic storytelling, but serves also as a summation, and a re-evaluation, of Irving's canon. [23 Jul 2005, p.D6]

The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson

For all its probing into the depth of one life, Until I Find You is a relatively surface-level book. But it's a very rich surface.

San Francisco Chronicle Alan Cheuse

If the story... had been a third or even twice again as long, I would have stayed with it.

Publishers Weekly

Though the incessant, graphic sexual abuse becomes gratuitous, Irving handles the novel's less seedy elements superbly. [6 Jun 2005, p.36]

Chicago Sun-Times Sharon Barrett

This is a wonderfully thought-provoking book.

The Guardian Elena Seymenliyska

So what if Jack isn't a very compelling hero or that the book is a challenging 822 pages, stretching ahead seemingly without end?... After the slim pickings of The Fourth Hand, Irving's previous novel, Until I Find You is a feast for his fans.

TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Chris Moss

In its details, the novel can be irritating.... But in its broader vision, Until I Find You is a powerful, occasionally beautiful work and none of its difficulties is incidental.

Village Voice Benjamin Strong

Until I Find You may stymie the reader with its own tactics of emotional distancing.

The Independent Mary Flanagan

At its best, it is wonderfully sustained and very funny, full of riffs and by-ways, synopses of imaginary novels and screenplays, extended quotes from poetry and song. But this can also be trying

Daily Telegraph David Robson

At 820 pages, the novel is absurdly long.... But its gentle, perplexed hero, with his lost-boy innocence, lodges in the memory.

Chicago Tribune Carol Anshaw

All along its way, the narrative lurches like a sewing machine, zipping along at a rapid clip, then suddenly slowing to take a corner, too often for not enough reason. [10 Jul 2005]

Entertainment Weekly Benjamin Svetkey

The book's second half is so much more lively, you can't help but wish Irving had packed even bigger chunks of Hollywood into this jumbo volume.

Los Angeles Times Heller McAlpin

"Until I Find You," an often stunningly visual novel, is burdened by bloat. [10 Jul 2005]

USA Today Bob Minzesheimer

There are some brilliant and hilarious passages, but a big problem too: It's hard to get emotionally invested in movie star Jack Burns who, for much of the novel, is acting more than living.

New York Observer Nan Goldberg

It occurs to me that with some really sharp editing (are you listening, Random House?), there may be two very satisfactory novels to be had here instead of one borderline awful one. [18 Jul 2005, p.21]

The New York Times Book Review Paul Gray

An immensely protracted story devoid of any conflict.

Slate April Bernard

A dreadful, though clearly heartfelt, mess.... Even by Irving's own standards, this novel is sloppy and long.

The Observer Adam Mars-Jones

Dickensian character-drawing is supposed to be larger than life, not just longer.

The New Yorker

It quickly becomes bogged down by unnecessary detail.

Daily Telegraph Benjamin Markovits

In spite of these faults, the novel almost manages, until the end, to take on a deeper significance. Thoroughness does have its power.

The Independent Christian House

A flabby belly-flop of a book.

The New York Times Michiko Kakutani

A tedious, self-indulgent and cruelly eye-glazing read.

Washington Post Marianne Wiggins

The story reads as if Irving woke from a recurring nightmare and started dictating compulsively. He's too good a journeyman to have written anything this bad on purpose, and I kept asking myself, "What's he up to? How's he going to salvage this?"

Kirkus Reviews

Is this Irving's worst novel? No doubt about it. [1 May 2005, p.497]

Boston Globe Kurt Jensen

One senses Irving's attempt to achieve comic effect with such human oddities, and to some extent he succeeds. Yet there is nothing interestingly funny -- much less comically smart -- about any of it. The literary effect is one of extraordinary aesthetic banality.

The average user rating for this book is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

tom z gave it a4:
getting way too silly and boring

Tara J gave it a9:
I couldn't put this book down. I absolutely loved it. I wouldn't say it was my absolutely favorite John Irving book, but it was close. Even after the 800+ pages I was still sad that it was over.

Nikki S gave it a10:
Irving's finest work - I was gutted when I finished it.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
A little too long, but thoroughly interesting.

antoinette b gave it an8:
Irving's command of the details that play through a person's life inspires me to heed the repeated themes that have shaped my own life. Travelilng on familiar, yet bizarre turf made me ask myself many questions about how people respond to various situations. And I liked the characters a great deal, though they were perhaps all unreachable. Ultimately it was a very lonely yet fascinating experience, being immersed in this work.

bob l gave it a10:
Why do people who clearly dislike an author's work insist on reviewing them? If John had written a dud, then I would like to hear so from someone who had the qualification to say so. I don't like Mozart, at all, does that make him bad? I loved Peake's Titus novels, does that make him a genius. Some perspective please

Natasha M gave it a9:
This beautiful novel probed at my heart. Irving made it easy to visualize Jack Burns making his way through his eccentic and disfunctional life. Being drawn into Jack's world was soemthing you couldn't escape if you were as emersed in this book as I was. With an unnerving and unique set of charactors that are as tangible as anyone you really know, and a story that is so unreal it becomes almost possilbe, Irving once again writes a story that, after reading it, the memories are as real as your own.

Until I Find You A Novel by John Irving

Until I Find You
A Novel
by John Irving