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Mar 30, 2017sgcf rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book - so powerful! Irving is a brilliant story teller, perfectly structuring the complex themes of friendship, religion, politics & principles, and fate vs free will. His language and imagery is exquisitely rich; his vividly detailed characters and scenarios prove him a master of that fundamental writing advice: show by example – don’t tell. Irving reveals to us in tiny sneak-peeks what is coming without revealing the whole picture until the very end. At the end of the book I felt a little like the young narrator when he says about his dead mother: "When someone you love dies unexpectedly, you don’t lose her all at once; you lose her in little pieces over a long time." (p.135). I marvelled at Irving’s insight into humanity. This book is simultaneously filled with hilarity and pathos, and will become one of my all time favourites.