QUEEN ESTHER

3 stars out of 5

I’m starting this review a way I never do and hope I never feel compelled to do again: with something personal. After losing someone with whom I shared a home for the past 63-or-so years, I’m just beginning to get my new life back together and, not surprisingly, my enthusiasm for life in general – and reading in particular – isn’t quite back to where it used to be. That’s a long way to say that when I just couldn’t seem to “get into” this novel despite its top-of-the-crop author, I thought it was just me. For days, I struggled with it, sometimes inventing something I needed to do in an effort to avoid booting up my Kindle. Keep plugging away, I told myself; you’re getting better every day, and so will the book.

I told myself that right up to the 60% mark, when I finally realized that despite some excellent writing – almost exquisite in many places – the story simply wasn’t going anywhere I cared about going (or more to the point, the mostly unlikable characters didn’t seem to know where they were going, and I really didn’t care to go with them no matter where they ended up).

The book is, according to the official description, a extension of sorts of the author’s 1985 best-seller, The Cider House Rules, which features Dr. Wilbur Larch, the director of an orphanage in Maine. While I’m pretty sure I read it, at this point I don’t recall much of anything about it (it doesn’t help that I’m now an octogenarian, so my memory isn’t at its peak) – so all that background is totally lost on me. One of the orphans the often not-so-good doctor takes in, apparently, is Esther Nacht, a Jewish girl born in Vienna in 1905.

Here, Esther has been adopted at age 14 by a wealthy non-Jewish couple, James and Constance Winslow, who are horrified by anti-semitism. They’re also one of the quirkiest couples I’ve had the displeasure of meeting. Back in the day, I, too, would have gone to some length to keep my husband from being drafted (fortunately, his status as a teacher and father made him exempt); but never in a million years would I have considered the tactics this wacko family conjured up).

The story follows Esther’s determination to get to Vienna and immerse herself in her Jewish heritage; at the end of the book, she’s made it to Jerusalem and is 76 years old (or so I read elsewhere; I called it quits while she was still in Vienna and she and her quirky friends were dealing with the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy).

No doubt those who loved this book’s predecessor will love catching up with Esther in this one, but it really wasn’t my thing. Still, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to give it a go – and I’m sorry it just didn’t work for me.

Queen Esther by John Irving (Simon & Schuster, November 2025); 432 pp.

THE LATECOMER

5 stars out of 5

At not far from 500 pages, this book isn't a quick read. But if you choose to read it - and I highly recommend that you do - set aside even more time because you don't want to skim over a single word of the exquisitely woven story and amazingly detailed character development. The author blew me away last year with the first of her books I've read - The Plot - and this one is no less impressive.

Born thru in vitro fertilization back when the procedure was relatively in its infancy, the story focuses on triplets - Harrison, Lewyn and Sally - and Phoebe, who arrived via the same means by way of a single leftover unused but still viable egg 20 years or so later (making them all, in scientific fact, quadruplets). Needless to say, the first three have a tough time wrapping their heads around that - as did I - but therein lies the intriguing story of the "latecomer" and what happens in and to the rest of the family thereafter.

I'd describe it as a coming of age tale, except to me, the initial three, at least, seemed to behave (or misbehave) like old souls pretty much from the beginning. Whether or not that can be attributed to their acknowledged but rarely practiced Jewish heritage, parents who may or may not actually have loved them, or their Petri dish origins, I'm not sure. All I know is that from the beginning, the triplets were at loggerheads with each other; even on their once-a-year birthday when their mother, Joanna, insisted that they pretend to coexist peaceably, they (as my late mother was fond of saying) held hands to keep from fighting.

Phoebe's birth, obviously, throws a bit of a monkey wrench into their disdain for each other and Phoebe (do we like her? Hate her? Refuse to acknowledge her existence?) That said, the story weaves into and out of each character's thoughts, behaviors and interactions with the others (to the extent that there were any), mostly leading up to Phoebe's rather untimely birth - with an explanation, of course, as to why she happened when she happened. It touches on infidelity, deception, wealth, religion (or the lack thereof) and, perhaps most importantly, Phoebe's efforts to bring them all back to some semblance of a real family. You'll have to read it to find out the extent of her success - which comes with some unexpected twists and turns that made me shake my head in awe of how anyone could possibly come up with such an intricate plot. In short, this is a winner in my book - and I thank the publisher for the privilege of reading a pre-release copy. Outstanding!

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon Books, May 2022); 368 pp.