God's work and the devil's contribution

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God's work and the devil's contribution ( 1985 , original title: The Cider House Rules , German translation by Thomas Lindquist) is an epic novel by John Irving . In 1999 the work was made into a film by Lasse Hallström (see God's work & the devil's contribution ); Irving himself wrote the Oscar-winning script.

action

The sixth novel by John Irving takes place predominantly from the 1930s to 1950s and tells the story of the orphan boy Homer Wells, who grew up in the care of the ethereal Doctor Wilbur Larch, director of the remote Saint Cloud's orphanage in the US state of Maine . Dr. Larch, a gynecologist and experienced obstetrician, not only works as an educator and medical supervisor for the orphans of Saint Cloud's, but also performs abortions , contrary to the legal situation at the time . He is firmly convinced that women should have the choice of having a child or terminating the pregnancy , provided they are adequately informed. The book outlines the path of Dr. Larch from medical students, the one attributable to sexual contact with a prostitute in the course of treating sexually transmitted disease of ether addiction , self-made falls for experienced doctor who decides the face of death the prostitute and her daughter with improperly performed abortions abortions, and thus henceforth dedicates both God's work (the fruit of conception) and the contribution of the devil (unwanted pregnancy).

The real main character of the novel, however, is Homer Wells, whose childhood and adolescence is discussed in detail in the orphanage of Saint Cloud's. As one of the oldest orphans, he expresses his wish to stay in the orphanage after various failed adoption attempts. Dr. In return, Larch, in his fatherly role, expects Homer to "make himself useful". From then on, Homer worked as hard as he could in the orphanage; he supports Dr. Larch and his colleagues Edna, Angela and Mrs. Grogan and works every evening as a reader for the other orphans (including the girl Melony, the only other orphan of almost the same age with whom he had his first sexual experiences as a teenager). Little by little, Homer takes on an assistant role in the orphanage and the hospital attached to it; he receives from Dr. Larch received in-depth medical training and eventually used his increasingly extensive medical skills himself by helping Larch with births and abortions (which he himself disapproved of). At the same time, Homer has a rather loveless relationship with Melony, to whom he also promises not to leave Saint Cloud's before her.

By chance, the almost grown-up Homer is given the opportunity to leave the orphanage and get to know a world that is completely new to him: Wally Worthington, who comes from a wealthy family, and his unwantedly pregnant fiancée Candy Kendall come to Saint Cloud's to meet Dr. Larch's services as an abortionist. Homer, who falls in love with Candy at first sight, receives from Dr. Larch and Wally were given the opportunity to accompany Wally and Candy to work in the Worthington family's Ocean View orchards over the summer. Homer learns to appreciate life in Ocean View and stays with the Worthingtons, where he works as an apple picker and a girl for everything. His contacts with Candy are always friendly; Only when Wally was shot down as a pilot in World War II and is henceforth considered missing does a love affair develop between him and Candy, which they always keep secret in the unclear about Wally's fate. When Candy becomes pregnant by Homer, they try to hide this by taking a long trip to Saint Cloud's, where Candy secretly gives birth to their son Angel. Back in Ocean View, Homer pretends that Angel is an orphan he has adopted. At the same time, Wally, who survived the crash of his plane seriously injured, appears again paralyzed in Burma .

Years later, Homer still lives in Ocean View; his family are the returned from the war, still physically handicapped Wally, Candy (who Wally has now married and with whom Homer still has secret sexual contacts) and his son Angel. Together they run the apple orchard , where the adolescent Angel falls in love with Rose, the daughter of Mr. Rose, the black man from the South and the leader of a group of migrant workers. When Angel and Candy find out that Rose is sexually abused by her father and that he is pregnant, things roll over. Homer remembers his medical training and voluntarily performs an abortion on Rose for the first time . Mr. Rose is stabbed by Rose; Finally, Melony, who has been looking for Homer for years, appears in Ocean View and immediately recognizes Homer and Candy's son in Angel. At the same time, Dr. Larch, who has been struggling with a board of trustees in the leadership of Saint Cloud's for years and has been secretly working for a long time on a return of Homer as chief doctor of Saint Cloud's, in an ethereal frenzy, not without first arranging everything necessary for Homer's return to have. In order not to let Larch's work go under, Homer agrees to act as the alleged Dr. Fuzzy Stone succeeds Dr. Larchs to compete. After he and Candy educate Wally and Angel about their longstanding relationship and parenting with Angel, Homer, aka Dr. Stone returned to Saint Cloud's to take responsibility for the work of God and the contribution of the devil.

criticism

The book deals with the motifs of parenthood and growing up that are typical for Irving, whereby the focus of the action is on the mostly untypical parent-child relationships: on the one hand the relationship between the orphan Homer and his "foster father" Dr. Larch and, on the other hand, between Homer and Angel, his alleged adopted child. As in Garp and how he saw the world, father-person worries are treated as well as issues of growing up and emotional development. These themes come to the fore in Irving's later novels, Owen Meany , Until I Find You and Last Night on Twisted River . God's work and the devil's contribution is a typical Irving book in other respects too : there are the strong and dominant female figures (Mrs. Worthington and especially Melony) that often appear in his works, as well as the tragic ones that arise from his fear for his own children (and often fatal) fates of children (here of the young Fuzzy Stone, whose identity Homer takes on at the end of the book). Another classic Irving theme, unusual sexual relationships (between Homer and Melony, Homer and Candy as well as Melony and her work colleague) also plays an essential role, whereas other recurring themes at Irving, such as wrestling or writing in "God's Work" rather remain meaningless (if one disregards Melony's fight with the apple pickers on the one hand and Dr. Larch's activity as a chronicler and Angel's only hinted at later authoring career on the other). Incidentally, Irving shows us (again) his admiration for Charles Dickens and his novels, his detailed knowledge based on intensive research (especially with regard to gynecology ), his preference for settings in his native New England and his tragicomic talent, coupled with that of his Readers so valued linguistic expression. All of these factors make “God's Work” one of the favorite Irving books.

Press reviews

“In a sense, Irving's new work is also universal. A novel about the endless toil of sexual emancipation , about the long, historical way out of bigotry ; Written by a man, with a man as a hero, not a bit feminist and yet a fiery work for women. Somebody do it. "

Text output

  • John Irving: The Cider House Rules. Morrow, New York 1985, ISBN 978-0-688-03036-0 (original edition).
  • John Irving: God's Work and the Devil's Contribution. Diogenes, Zurich 1988, ISBN 978-3-257-01766-3 (German first edition), German translation: Thomas Lindquist.
  • John Irving: God's Work and the Devil's Contribution. Diogenes, Zurich 1990, ISBN 978-3-257-21837-4 .
  • John Irving: God's Work and the Devil's Contribution. Read by Johannes Steck , Random House Audio, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-8371-2586-3 (4 audio books MP3 CDs).

Individual evidence

  1. Matthias Horx : Yes, a ham! So what? In: Die Zeit , No. 13/1988.