Until I Find You

Whew...finally. This book was the longest I can remember reading in years. 820 pages of thick and chewy John Irving writing (which is, of course, full of lots of details!) He's my favorite author though, so I have to say I appreciate the artful way in which he assembles a cast of the most random characters and weaves a really detailed and meaningful plot.

This book followed Jack Burns through a big portion of his life, starting with when he was 4 and his mom (a famous tattoo artist) takes Jack throughout Europe to find the father that abandoned the two of them. They know that Jack's father is a skilled and passioned organist and tattoo addict, so by checking in with tattoo artists and churches they're able to be hot on his trail.

They don't find him. And from then on Jack's fate is at the mercy of a world of girls... and to overly simplify the storyline, it's pretty much about the life of a boy who is sexually molested by older women and how that marks him for life (get it, like tattoos?) That is a line on the back of the book - that each of the main characters are marked for life.

So, Jack eventually becomes a famous actor. He win's an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000, which made me smile bc it was like a little inside joke. John Irving won the Oscar that year for Cider House Rules.

I'm not going to go any further. There is a BIG twist in the plot about halfway through in which most of the first half of the book is kind of rehashed, but it was good. Ultimately, worth the investment of time it takes to read 820 pages.

Do I recommend it? I am not going to go *that* far. Like most Irving stuff, there's more than a fair share of "weirdness" in it (and my fear is you'll read this book on my recommendation and be like - "Jamie! What the heck!?") My favorite Irving books are The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules. This was maybe the 3rd in line behind the two of them.