I didn't know much about this book when I saw it for sale at my local library, but I figured it's John Irving and it's only a quarter so why not? This was his 9th novel, published in 1998, and you can definitely see he's starting to run out of ideas and repeat themes from prior work. Still, Irving writes such detailed characters that even when the plot/themes repeat it still feels somewhat fresh. Not his best, but I still really enjoyed it .