As in The World According to Garp, a young man is trying to find
his way as he grows up amid institutional, individual, familial,
and social craziness in upper New England. An orphan whose
adoptions never stick, Homer Wells keeps returning to the
institution in remote St. Cloud's, Maine, that is presided over by
it's elderly founder, ascetic Dr. Wilbur Larch, committed and
expert obstetrician and abortionist (as well as ether addict). Dr.
Latch's creed is to give people what they want: an orphan or an
abortion. He and his aging female staff count on Homer to grow up
to succeed Larch in "the Lord's work" of providing abortions in
this pre-World War II world; but while Homer is an accomplished
apprentice, his principles are resolutely pro-life. At 20, he
leaves the orphanage to live with a wealthy family of coastal
apple-growers, whose son and future daughter-in-law are the Golden
Delicious variety and become his closest friends. Homer becomes
expert at the business, which involves sorting marketable perfect
apples from the bruised ones good only for the cider press. But
with the apples comes temptation, leading to problems with the
rules of love, a not-quite Jules-et-Jim-like solution, and an
ultimate crisis that brings the book to a resounding, but awfully
pat, resolution. As with Garp, Irving is not afraid of sentiment -
and here knows how to stir the emotions in skillful depictions of
parental love, unwanted orphans, Alzheimer-stricken adults, and
distraught women desperate for a D&C. Even in scenes of
appalling horror, Irving can be very funny - he shows obvious
indebtedness to Dickens - but there is a less savory element in the
way he presents some of his pathetic characters - especially
females - as titillating freaks. And the cranking out of the
less-than-gripping plot is made palatable largely by episodic
situations involving the more vivid minor characters. Most
seriously, despite echoes of the clearly "significant" title
throughout, it is not at all clear what exactly is the novel's
point. Finally, this effort is sometimes moving or amusing, but
also irritating and ultimately disappointing. (Kirkus Reviews)
'The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St
Cloud's so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the
orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer's intention to make St
Cloud's his home.' Homer Wells' odyssey begins among the apple
orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St
Cloud's orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship
with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage's founder - a man of rare
compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur
takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery,
to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange
relationship with the wife of his closest friend...
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