Queen Esther
A Novel
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3.6 • 103 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Few skewer sanctimony quite like Irving at his best. More important: I fell in love, once again, with his people.” —Peter Orner, The New York Times Book Review
After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.
“A story that’s unmistakably Irving—amiably peopled, compellingly plotted and, above all, compassionate for its characters” (NPR).
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.
Not just a story of survival, but a profound exploration of coming of age, identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives, Queen Esther “is richly textured with unforgettable characters, vivid settings, and familial love that will stay with you long after you put the book down” (The Jewish Book Council), showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Irving revisits the setting of The Cider House Rules with a baggy novel about a Viennese Jewish orphan and her adoptive family in New Hampshire. Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905 and loses her father to pneumonia during the family's passage across the Atlantic when she is two. She and her mother, Hanna, settle in Portland, Maine, where Hanna is killed by an antisemite when Esther is three. Esther then winds up in the orphanage run by Dr. Wilbur Larch, a character from Cider House, before she's adopted as a teen by the tolerant and patrician Thomas Winslow and his wife. In the late 1930s, Esther travels to Jerusalem and aids a Zionist paramilitary group. After Israel's independence in 1948, she becomes involved with the Israeli Defense Forces and engages in heroic exploits well into her 70s. Long stretches of the novel are devoted to her biological son, Jimmy, who is raised by Thomas's daughter, and grows up to become a novelist. It's tough to find a clear through line, and Irving sidetracks the proceedings for extended digressions into the history of circumcision and other matters. There's fun to be had in his bawdy wordplay, however, as when Jimmy, visiting Thomas in the hospital after a stroke, misunderstands a nurse's use of the word "labile" and "imagine his unfortunate grandfather as emotionally vaginal." Unfortunately, such moments are too few and far between to save this jumbled tale.
Customer Reviews
All the hits
All of the Irving hits are here: wrestling, Vienna, New Hampshire, unconventional mothers. You’ll feel you’ve read this book before, but it’s the deeply drawn characters that will stick with you, as they do in Irving’s best books.
Not his best
I kept expecting the story to pick up, to take off, and it never happened. The story line had several chances to improve, but, again, it continued on with long, unimportant side stories, difficult characters to care about…..I was really looking forward to this book. I ordered it early. It’s not worth the time.
Queen Esther
John Irving, you Rascal! Now I have to go back and reread “Great Expectations” in light of the comments thru Thomas and Jimmy. Too many books and too little time, but “Queen Esther” was a pleasant trip through time with a group of most memorable characters. Thank you!