“Until I find you”, John Irving’s 11th novel is, if at first sight only because of its volume, an ambitious and impressive piece of work. Over 800 pages long in the English version – it will probably be close to 1.000 in the German one – it chronicles the life of Jack Burns, from his early childhood until the year 2003, when he is a famous actor.
In that regard, it is vintage Irving: an epic life story told in loving detail. There is also the requisite mentioning of Maine and wrestling, and as almost all of his male protagonists, Jack grows up fatherless. But unfortunately, it lacks other characteristics that make Irving’s novel so unique and such a pleasure to read: the witty portrayal of imperfect, eccentric yet lovable characters that make us laugh and cry at the same time. Make no mistake; the characters in this novel are all imperfect to the extent of being dysfunctional: Alice, Jack’s Scottish mother and a tattoo artist, drags her son around Europe in search of his runaway father, a musician and alleged womanizer. Jack himself has a fatalistic weakness for older women despite being molested by one at age 10, and is an occasional transvestite. But we can never feel with these people, never laugh at their misadventures and cry about their struggles, because everything in this novel is blown out of proportion, everything is just a little too much to still be realistic. The figures aren’t tragic heroes trying to gain control of their lives anymore, they have become grotesque.
The book is divided into 5 chapters, each a landmark in Jack’s life. The story just keeps droning on in a foreseeable and repetitive fashion. Only in the final chapter, when his whole life and everything he has believed to be true about it has fallen apart, does Jack finally break out and tries to get a grip on his life, first, with the help of psychologist, then by doing some soul-searching in the places of his childhood and searching for his father. This is when the novel finally picks up speed and gets interesting. But unfortunately, this change in the story comes too late and is too short to justify the 700 pages that came before it. By then, the reader is genuinely bored by Irving’s endless and most of the times unnecessary descriptions of the places and people Jack encounters in his life.
“Until I find you” could have been a gripping novel about deception, lies, a stolen childhood and all the consequences – if it had been about 500 pages shorter. As it is, it is a long winded, melodramatic description of a life gone wrong and spent mostly in self pity. Only for die hard Irving fans.
“Until I find you” is currently only available in English, published by Random House and costs 14,95 Euros.
Geschrieben von Sarah Rieser