Although in Queen Esther John Irving did not write the sequel I expected, he did something better: he wrote a sequel that allows a reader unfamiliar with Cider House Rules to first read Queen Esther and then read the former novel as a sequel. It’s a gorgeous thing: the two novels fit together like two halves of one of those heart friendship charms girls in the 80s wore.
The things Irving has always done well with: voices, personalities, wry interiority, depth, he does well here, and that was a relief. I won’t spoil the plot, or even give anything away about the characters; if you want a synopsis there are plenty to be found elsewhere.
What stood out to me most was that like Cider House Rules, Queen Esther concerns itself with orphans, adoption, parenthood, identity, bodily autonomy, even as it strays far from New England and Doctor Larch, who is the center pin in Cider House Rules. And it does so both eloquently and with a pointed finger at the current United States, and Irving engages the reader in asking questions while he also entertains.
The story moves over the 20th century in a way that reminds me of maps shown on screen with journeys marked on them in old movies like Casablanca. We get all of it, smoothly be neatly. We also get what I think of as Irving’s face cards: wrestlers, a dog, readers and writers.
It’s a strange and familiar book, full of little mirrors for readers familiar with Irving’s other works. I highly recommend this one and look forward to discussing it with other readers when it comes out.

What a struggle this novel was for me. Grossly overwritten with pages and pages of information that had nothing meaningful to do with the story. In fact, some chapters seemed like they were written for a bad TV comedy. For a book that supposedly is about identity, it never established its own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC to read and review.

This was probably my least fav book by this Author. A bit draggy and a bit of the same old same old, His writing is good but the story was a bit flat for me

I've never read Cider House Rules and I don't know if that would have made a difference. This was slow for me and I never really connected with the story or the characters.

A fascinating work of historical fiction from an author who is beloved by so many readers. It is connected to the world and people of a previous novel, The Cider House Rules, and is the story of Esther Nacht, who comes to the US with her family as a child, and is soon orphaned. As she is coming of age, her benefactors finally find a family who will help her. The wealthy and influential Winslows take her under their wing, and for that, Esther is forever loyal, however well placed that loyalty may be. I look forward to recommending this to any reader who enjoys John Irving's other books, and to anyone who loves a great work of historical fiction.

DNF @45%

I wanted to love this. I haven't read ciderhouse rules but it's on my list, and the other two stories I've read by John Irving are..... Not my favorite things. I will say that the book is engaging enough, but it just didn't work for me. I think John Irving just isn't really my jam, and I think it's time for me to let that be okay.

Very lovely writing and strong, if flawed, characters. The plot just didn't grab me.

I got about a third of the way through and checked with my fellow NetGalley crew to see if my thoughts about this book were off base. What I found out was that their criticisms mirrored mine, so here goes. I loved World According to Garp and some of Irvings other books. As more of his books emerged, I got a little less excited, and this prepared me for Queen Esther. He hit the usual Irving tropes-New England, wrestling, LGBTQ, young men coming of age but added a new plot point-Judaism 101. Perhaps this all was big news for him and his fellow WASPS, but for me it generated Been there, Done that, Got the mezuzah. I didn't stick around long enough to tick off the bears.
I didn't care about the characters, there was no plot, and I was extremely disappointed. And if I heard "right you are Connie" or "little doll" one more time I know I would lose it.

I had never read John Irving until reading The Cider House Rules earlier this year. I ended up loving it even though there were some aspects of his writing that weren’t my favorite.

Queen Esther sadly has every aspect of John Irving’s writing that I didn’t enjoy without the parts that made Cider wonderful.

This one was just such a slog. The character development was awful and I didn’t understand any of them or why they did what they did. I didn’t really care about them and that’s kinda the whole point of a book like this.

I feel like maybe this guy needs to retire. Felt like an old man’s ramblings.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

If you like nuggets of interesting history and quirky characters who are living out quirky lives with no need of any clear sense of plot or direction for most of the journey, then this novel is for you. Character development has always been this author’s superpower. I usually find myself completely mesmerized by his unique style, but this particular story felt a bit off-putting at times, like the storyline was trying to roll along on four warped wheels, with bits and pieces of random information falling into the narrative. I found myself losing interest along the way and not invested in the outcome, which is highly unusual for me with this type of book.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of Queen Esther for my unbiased evaluation.  2.5 stars

John Irving never misses. He's an institution, as well as a master of character. Queen Esther -- both the character and the novel -- is -- are? -- no exception. In his latest, Irving revisits Dr. Wilbur Larch and his extraordinary orphanage, out of which he plucks one of his most enigmatic and fascinating characters to date: Esther Nacht. While she isn't, ultimately, the novel's protagonist, that would be her son, Jimmy -- but it's complicated. Jimmy's journey, then, is epic in the inimitable Irving way, and this reader was absolutely there for it.

Expect the typical Irving run-up before the inciting moment, as he steeps you in the world that creates Jimmy. If that's not your thing, or if world events have your attention span severely truncated at the moment, stick with it. As I said, John Irving never misses.

Wow! This was my first book to read by this author but definitely not my last! This book will leave you wanting for more and the characters and storyline stick with you long after you finish it. Do yourself a favor and pick up this page-turner!

I’ll admit that after reading a few reviews saying this book was boring and not entirely loving his last novel, I was anxious about reading this. But by the time I had reached chapter 3, I was in love with where this story was taking me and fully invested but open for whatever came next.

This might be one for only the hardcore Irving fans and I loved how the author wove the story in front of me in his inimitable way, I loved the *history aspect* of it, I loved the humor of it and the expected unexpected, I loved the on the page visits from *The Cider House Rules* characters; I just loved this.

While I knew that Mr Irving had planned on retiring from longer novels after his last novel I was immediately thrilled to have a new novel to read. I would be immensely sad if this is it for the longer novels, but I will remain forever grateful for *Queen Esther* and the collection of much loved past novels (I started reading Irving’s work as a teenager in the 80’s and fell in love with his writing). Finishing this one after smoking a little hash brought on this onslaught of emotion but I truly adored this novel and was and am so thankful for the invitation to read it.



Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the DRC

I always want to read a new book from John Irving, but I've had a terrible time figuring this one out. It jumps around, it dwells on some incidents for way too long, the family simply doesn't feel believable and I'm just not sure what this book is meant to say. There are parts that I enjoyed, but then suddenly the book would jump elsewhere and I had trouble keeping track of the characters. Maybe it is just me? It made me wonder if I'm losing my reading skills! Or maybe it needs some editing? I do think there is a story here, but readers are going to have to really work for it and I'm afraid that many will not.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I'm just not quite sure about it....

In John Irving’s novel, “Queen Esther,” 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.

Of this history, Esther said, “My mother didn’t live long enough to be a mother. I didn’t want to be someone my mother didn’t get to be. I’m just trying to be the best Jew I can.”

And with that, Esther decides to bring her son, Jimmy, into the world under the two-mom theory: Esther is the birth mother and her step-adopted sister, Honor Winslow, raises the child.

James (Jimmy) Winslow was sent to Vienna, Austria for a year abroad and had two roommates, Jolanda Lammers from Amsterdam and Claude Guilbert from Paris. His German language tutor was Fraulein Annelies Eissler who had a strong Austrian accent.
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Irving takes great pains to include German words in his characters’ dialogue but, in addition, he substitutes the Viennese word “Wiederschaun” instead of “Wiedersehen” which seems he is taking license with readers who can speak German but do not know Viennese colloquialisms (unless the reader happened to spend a year in Vienna).

Jimmy’s experiences in Vienna are uproariously funny especially regarding the German shepherd “Hard Rain.” The exception is a murder sequence handled with insidious aplomb.

Jimmy writes a book and goes to Israel for a book signing. It is here that John Irving drops the hilarity, replacing it with poignancy when Jimmy meets two central figures to his life.

It is only then that Jimmy begins to face the duality of his upbringing.

I cried.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon &Schuster for an advance copy.

I always enjoy reading John Irving novels which always tend to be a bit chaotic and with weird twists. This book was just a little too much of this. The pacing all felt weird. rushing through years and years then drawing out a brief period of time. It had some topical elements but I'm still confused about where her wants the reader to stand at the end. Trying to sell the as a Cider House Rules offshoot is a bit of a stretch that may leave readers feeling cheated.

As a great admirer of Irvings prior work, 'The Cider House Rules', I was excited about this prequel/sequel release.

Irving revisits the world of The Cider House Rules, returning to the orphanage of St. Cloud’s, Maine, and reintroducing Dr. Wilbur Larch in a new epic. This story follows Esther Nacht, born in Vienna in 1905. Orphaned as a child when her mother is murdered in Portland, Maine, Esther finds refuge at St. Cloud’s, before being adopted by a progressive New England family, who welcome her despite her Jewish heritage.

This narrative spans nearly her entire life, concluding in Jerusalem in 1981, with a poignant arc against the backdrop of a shifting global and cultural landscape.

This book is more about the historical events surrounding Esther's life rather than her story itself. I get what he's trying to do here, giving us a wide lens of the Jewish experience from the early 1900s to the 1980s, with all the struggles in between. However, he focused more on the history, which led this book to be read like a textbook, and spends lots of time on tangents related to historical events, not at all to Esther's experiences.

This book also doesn't know what it wants to be. Is this a tome about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict over the years, or a comparison of Esther to Queen Esther of the bible? There's also a large section about Jimmy's experience avoiding the Vietnam war.

Esther is such a great resilient, quirky character, we want more of her, and we want to know who she becomes and what she does with her life. The author failed to make her the endearing character we all craved.

I haven’t read a John Irving novel for years, and the concept of the biblical story of Queen Esther intrigued me. There was a large cast of eccentric characters cast into somewhat absurd relationships and circumstances. Many of the particulars mirrored aspects of Irving’s life and books. At first I thought the book was primarily about Esther, the orphaned Jewish girl who is adopted by the Winslows, an old New England family. Then the focus switched to Jimmy Winslow, whom Esther births but who is raised by the youngest Winslow daughter. Early in the novel there are long sections about nineteenth-century novelists as well as long discourses on Mandatory Palestine and the origins of the IDF. Once the novel focused on Jimmy Winslow, now a young man spending a year abroad in Vienna, I found myself wondering where the novel was going. Some of the absurdity seemed overwrought, its purpose not clear. In the latter part of the novel, as Jimmy achieves literary success, the book returns to Israel and the Israeli—Palestinian conflict circa the 1980s. We are left with a reflection on remaining hidden—the biblical Queen Esther hiding her identity and the Esther of the novel advising Jimmy to hide his Jewish identity as a means of self-protection. However, the Esther of the novel has spent a lifetime pursuing her own Jewish idenity. The novel is not without merit, but a more critical edit may have brought it into sharper focus.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy.

I shouldn't have requested this one. I loved John Irving so much, and his last 4 or 5 books just have been , well chaotic and bad. this at least wasn't 900 pages. I wanted a lot more of Larch, and less of Winslow.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free ARC ebook of <i>Queen Esther</i> from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
I started this book three times, never getting past 30%. Irving's past works are old favorites with memorable characters. Unfortunately, in this novel, readers are held at a distance from Esther. Her actions, her quirky personality, and her independent streak are reported by other characters. I never got a sense of her soul.

2.5 stars

You don’t know how it kills me to give a book by the wonderful John Irving a rating of only 2.5 stars, but this….well, it’s just not his best work.

Dr. Wilbur Larch (and his nurses) from THE CIDER HOUSE RULES makes a cameo appearance here as he has charge of Jewish orphan Esther, who was placed with him when her father died on the voyage to America and her mother was killed as a result of anti-Semitic violence. Esther finds a place with the non-Jewish Winslow family in New Hampshire. She’s not exactly adopted, but fostered, as has been done with three other young women before her. They are to act as nannies for the Winslows four daughters, each daughter has her own during the appropriate years. This sounds like servitude, but it’s not portrayed that way; each girl is sent to college after and is treated very well. Esther loved the Winslows all her life.

Despite the title, the book is primarily about Winslow grandson Jimmy Winslow, son of Honor, the youngest child, Esther’s charge. The rest is a mishmash of a story about Israel, Vietnam, Europe after World War II and Jimmy’s year abroad in Vienna. It’s overtly political, which is to be expected from Irving, but I have to be honest and say that though it’s clearly about identity, I’m not sure how much was made clear by the end. There are some memorable characters, which definitely save the book, but it never coalesced for me, and I can’t say that I even loved reading it. I may be being generous rounding up to three stars, but I feel like I can’t forget that this is the man who gave the world Owen Meany.