Widow for a year

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Widow for One Year (1998, original title: A Widow for One Year ) is the ninth novel of US writer John Irving and his first in which a woman plays the main role. The translation is by Irene Rumler.

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The story of the writer Ruth Cole is told during three turning points in her life:

  • Summer 1958 when she was just four years old and her parents were about to split up,
  • Spring 1990 when she is a successful writer, and
  • Fall 1995, when she fell in love for the first time as a 41-year-old mother and widow.

Summer 1958

Summer 1958. Ruthie is the daughter of Ted and Marion Cole. Ted is a children's book author and illustrator of his own works, and he also paints and draws nudes of mothers. Marion is an extremely attractive beauty who has been introspective since the death of her first two children. Marriage is broken, Ted drinks and has affairs with his models, while Marion, living in the past, thinks she is a bad mother to Ruthie, having used up all her love for the deceased sons. Ted, who wants to separate from Marion, has rented an apartment that the parents take turns in while the other parent takes care of Ruthie.

Sixteen-year-old student Eddie O'Hare, who is about to take a summer job as assistant writer Ted Cole, comes to the Coles house that summer, which is full of pictures of the deceased sons. He soon realizes that Ted is a better father to his daughter than Marion is a mother. Ted intrigues against his wife. Eddie was primarily hired to see Marion commit an affair so that Ted could get sole custody of Ruthie. Ted aims for the resemblance of Eddie to his sons. Eddie promptly falls in love with Marion and has an affair with her.

The game of intrigue takes its course. Ted achieved his goal of flinging Marion. But she turns the tables by leaving her family with an unknown destination and taking all the pictures of the sons with her, since she is of the opinion that Ted has his child with Ruthie, while her sons were more her children. Because of this and the fact that Ted has never been abandoned by a woman, she hurts him deeply in his pride. For Eddie in particular, this summer is a chaos of emotions. His great love is gone and from now on he is fixated on older women.

Spring 1990

In the spring of 1990 Eddie and Ruth meet again. Eddie, a moderately successful writer, introduces Ruth to one of her reading evenings. The only point that connects the two is the longing for Marion, with Eddie still mourning his undying love, Ruth, however, wants to get to know the woman who has abandoned her child.

Ruth is now an internationally successful author. She has an erratic relationship with her father, Ted, whose success was gradually fading but who is living well on his earlier successes. Her best friend since college was Hannah, a journalist. After a series of disappointments, Ruth has a rather platonic love affair with her editor Allan, who however wants to intensify the relationship and proposes to her. Eddie discovered books by an author who calls herself Alice Somerset. He is convinced that Marion Cole wrote these books and shows them to Ruth. Although Ruth can find out her mother's address, she waits for Marion to answer.

Ruth is traveling to Europe this spring for a promotional tour. At the end of the tour she is in Amsterdam and by chance, while doing research for a new book project about prostitutes, witnesses a murder. She anonymously sends evidence to the police and flies back home. Upon their return, Ruth and Allan marry and have a child. But the marriage is short-lived. Allan dies of natural causes a few years later and Ruth is a widow.

Fall 1995

Amsterdam policeman Harry, who investigated the murder of the prostitute a few years ago, is about to retire. He annoys the fact that the murder was solved, but the anonymous witness was never known. So he investigates the case again and thinks he recognizes Ruth Cole as the unknown witness. Harry, who happens to be a fan of the writer Cole, comes across it, among other things, because the last book by Ruth describes in detail the room of the murdered prostitute Rooie.

Ruth has been a widow for a year. Only now does she and Eddie write to Marion, but she doesn't answer. Hannah and now Eddie are Ruth's closest friends. Ted passed away (suicide) and Ruth and Eddie are still waiting for Marion to come back. Ruth and Harry meet again on their promotion tour for their new novel. Harry leads Ruth into the red light district to face her with the prostitutes she saw back then. Ruth tells him about the murder. They both fall in love and get married. Eddie is also still happy in his old age: After the wedding, Marion reappears and plans to move into Ted's house with Eddie.

success

The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 19 weeks in 1999 .

Criticism and Trivia

A tragic comedy that is again about Irving's theme of the insurmountable loss of a child. At the same time a multi-layered love story and a story about growing up.

From the children's story told in the second part of the book, A noise, as if someone tries not to make a sound , Irving created his first children's book in 2003 with drawings by Tatjana Hauptmann.

In 2004, the first part was also filmed under the title The Door in the Floor - The Door of Temptation (original title: The Door in the Floor ) with Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger in the lead roles.