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The Cider House Rules

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The Cider House Rules

By: John Irving
Narrated by: Jared Zeus
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About this listen

The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud's so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer's intention to make St Cloud's his home.

Homer Wells' odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud's orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage's founder - a man of rare compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend.

©2020 John Irving (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Heartfelt Feel-Good Thought-Provoking

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All stars
Most relevant  
Whoops, my review headline is very off-putting but this is one of my favourite ever books. I always love John Irving's understated writing style as he tells overblown Dickensian tales. As in many other of his books, he wraps his message up in a compelling and entertaining read. Set about 100 years ago and written about 35 years ago, the book's central theme of women's right to choose abortions, is still a very current topic. I love the tenderness of many of the relationships between John Irving's characters, especially those between parents and children.

Pro-choice essay wrapped up in a fabulous story

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What a great book! It doesn’t really fit into any main genre. It is simply a good story, well told. The book is strong at the beginning, middle and end and is well paced throughout, developing plot and characters naturally and believably. There are some complex relationships that are interesting and the narration is excellent. Some books are hard to keep track of the characters but that is not the case here. Each character is well defined and separate. I really enjoyed this and will now read more by this talented author

Excellent

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it's unbelievable that we are in a world that has made the subject of this great novel, a subject it had presumed was confined to history, relevant again.

SCOTUS essential reading

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Do we all stretch the rules to suit our own agendas? The cider house rules are written and reprinted every year and every year they are ignored. The essence of this story is set round an ageing community in an orphanage, where illegal abortions can be obtained. Rules are broken every day and lives changed by the rules that are adhered to and those of society that are ‘bent’ or ignored. This story of the life of an orphan and the people who touch and influence his life is well written and you can imagine that Dickens may have been an influence in the tale. As enjoyable as Steinbeck for the storytelling but, much less descriptive in style. Excellent book.

American writing at its best

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Simply a beautifully written story, read perfectly. It wants for nothing. I've listened to it twice and will again.

Beautiful

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Great story, although the political mindset of the author feels like that of his 1940s Dr Larch character. Good intentions and radical in many ways, but fundamentally as bigoted as the times he grew up in.
So surprising that it was written in the rather more enlightened 1980s.

Great US 1940-50s story woven around abortions

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at times baffling in its tendency to dwell on the meaningless, it never the less reveals that anything and anyone however small or unimportant can hold significance. A beautiful story,

the idea of being a hero to those who matter

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As relevant as ever, a moving story across decades dealing with a subject still politically and morally challenging.

Captivating and moving, beautifully read.

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At once intimate and humane, this book gets to the heart of love, life and all the moral dilemmas we can face, and as a consequence the messy ‘imperfect’ lives we lead. How we all rub almond together, accepting or fighting one another, trying to do the best we can.
The narrator was brilliant, at times I thought we had a bigger group of readers... a prayer for Owen Meaney remains my favourite Irving.

Irving always delivers

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I read this years ago and had, mostly, forgotten it.

It is a beautiful book extremely well rendered and performed. It’s slow and ponderous pace highlights the beauty and tragedy of everyday life, or at least every day life of the time.

I’m 50 and I still cried at the end, just like I did with the book 20 years ago.

Beautiful.

Review for whole book

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