John Irving has written an elegy to a writer's life, perhaps his own, in Avenue of Mysteries (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 480 pages, $28.00/11.99) which revisits many of the themes and concerns that have dominated his work since I first encountered him in The World According to Garp. Issues of the search for a parent, sex and sexuality, sexual ambiguity, as well as religion and faith dominate this wandering novel that follows Juan Diego Guerrero's life from his earliest memories as a child in the burning dump of Oaxaca, Mexico thorough an elegiac literary trip to the Philippines, where he seeks to visit the remains of a dead friend's father. The book's action takes place almost entirely within Juan Diego's mind as memory and imagination merge and twist within him. I wanted to like this book more than I did, as I followed what I will presume to be Irving's most recent and final exploration of his own life and thought in the novel format.
Images
of the burning, stinking dump and the Virgin of Guadalupe dominate
this reflective meditation on writing and writers, faith and belief,
and loss. Juan Diego and his sister Lupe are each damaged, he because
his (maybe) father Rivera drives over his foot in childhood, leaving
him a limping cripple for life. Meanwhile, he becomes a voracious
reader as he salvages books from the dump's burn pile in both English
and Spanish. He also becomes the interpreter for Lupe, who, while she
cannot produce speech comprehensible to anyone but Juan Diego, can
read minds and, perhaps, see the future. She discovers that she must
sacrifice her life to make it possible for Juan Diego to develop his
own, as he eventually makes his way to the University of Iowa, where
he embarks on the life of a writer. The story is told in a series of
flashbacks while Juan Diego makes his trip, accompanied at times by
the mysterious Dorothy and Miriam, both sexually demanding,
controlling, and knowledgeable about his life and writings. The plot
is as convoluted as my paragraph, but eventually works itself out
without ever losing its mysterious sense of Juan Diego's success and
sense of loss.
The
book is filled with aphorisms and meditations on the writer's life,
perhaps a writerly quirk aging authors must fall into. Juan Diego
cannot escape the fussily oppressive ministration of his former
student Clark French. He's eternally grateful to Edward Bonshaw and
his eventual partner Flo (the sexually ambiguous transvestite). He
encounters the life of the circus (or is it the circus of life?),
where he learns and grows, but never forsakes his limp. The range of
characters will either grab readers or leave them gasping for breath,
or both. Each one has a symbolic quality which becomes a ghost in
Juan Diego's life until reality and imagination become inseparable.
The iconography and symbolism of the book can be confusing, but
become increasingly clear as it moves towards its relatively
satisfactory conclusion. At one point, Juan Diego comments, “Dreams
edit themselves, are ruthless with details. Common sense does not
dictate what remains, or is not included in a dream.” Later, Juan
Diego considers himself, “Yes, his novels come from his childhood –
that's where his fears came from, and his imagination came from
everything that he feared. That didn't mean that he wrote about
himself.” Oh no?
John Irving
John
Irving, at age 73, has written fourteen novels, a screenplay for one
of them (for which he won an Academy Award), won lots of acclaim, and
wrestled, both literally and literarily, with life and literature
throughout it all. Raised in the shelter of New Hampshire's Exeter
Academy, he never met his biological father, who, nevertheless,
attended many of his wrestling matches (what a wonderful image that
is!). During his career as a writer, he has been on the short list
for a Pulitzer Prize, but hasn't won one. Nevertheless several of his
books have been huge commercial successes and/or have been turned
into successful films. Several of his books have been best sellers,
but none have achieved number one. Avenue
of Mysteries was the first
Irving novel I completed reading since Hotel
New Hampshire some
thirty-five years ago, although I took runs at both Cider
House Rules and A
Prayer for Owen Meany, both
best sellers. In other words, Irving is not always everyone's cup of
tea, but is an important American writer and literary figure.
John
Irving's Avenue
of Mysteries (Simon &
Schuster, 2015, 480 pages, $28.00/11.99) turns into an interesting,
intriguing meditation on writing and the writer's life. It's tortuous
plot demands careful attention. The characters are often mysterious,
arresting, and intriguing. It should prove to be a rewarding read for
many people who have followed Irving through the years, but I
wouldn't recommend it as a first Irving book. This would seem to be
more a summation of a career than an opening salvo, so begin
somewhere else and then reach out for it when you have become
familiar with Irving through his earlier work. I read the book as an
e-galley supplied to me by the publisher through Edelweiss:
Above the Treeline. I read it using my Kindle
app.
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