Until I Find You: A NovelUntil I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns – his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead – has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or “scratcher.” Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England – including, tellingly, a girls' school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women – from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda's, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym. Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack's hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, “sleeping in the needles” and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist's unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can't get rid of. Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older – and when his mother dies – he starts to doubt the portrait of his father's character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force. A melancholy tale of deception, Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life's hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving's great novels, and restates the author's claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - florasuncle - LibraryThingThe first two sections – 300-odd pages - were wonderful; classic Irving. The remaining 600 were rambling, flabby, repetitive and, in the case of the last section, plain preposterous. Embarrassing. I ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - jimrgill - LibraryThingBeginnings are hard. Endings are harder. And in the case of “Until I Find You,” both the beginning and the ending are quite rocky. The middle of the book, however (and in a novel of more than 800 ... Read full review
Contents
In the Care of Churchgoers and Old Girls | 3 |
Saved by the Littlest Soldier | 17 |
Rescued by a Swedish Accountant | 37 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alice Alice's already answered better breasts called Caroline church Claudia closed clothes couldn't course Daughter didn't don't door dress Emma Emma's eyes face father feel felt four García gave girl give Gray hair hand happened he'd head hear heard heart holding imagine Ingrid It's Jack asked Jack Burns Jack told Jack's keep kind kiss knew later least leave Leslie living looked Machado mean meet Michele Miss Wurtz mother movie never night Oastler older once organ penis play probably prostitutes remember seemed seen sister sleep someone sound stopped story sure talk tattoo tell thing thought told told Jack took touch turned walked wanted watch William woman women young