Until I Find You

A Novel

By: John Irving

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 35 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns–his life, loves, celebrity, and astonishing search for the truth about his parents.

When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead–has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or “scratcher.”

Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England–including, tellingly, a girls’ school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women–from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda’s, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym.

Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack’s hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, “sleeping in the needles” and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist’s unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can’t get rid of.

Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older–and when his mother dies–he starts to doubt the portrait of his father’s character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force.

A melancholy tale of deception, Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life’s hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving’s great novels, and restates the author’s claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.

©2005 John Irving (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“As ever, Irving is at his best with the family relationships he creates. They are simultaneously touching and infuriating. It is with these relationships that Irving firmly grasps universal truths and puts a chokehold on his readers…. Irving’s descriptions are distressing to read, but they force the reader to relate to the characters in a way they would not in most works of fiction.”–Calgary Herald

“Bittersweet . . . moving.”–People

“Until I Find You . . . cuts closer to the bone than any of [Irving’s] previous works.”–Ottawa Citizen

It ended too soon.

I have enjoyed a good number of John Irving’s books. I did not anticipate it’s ending when it’s did. I was surprised and disappointed I wanted the book to continue on.

Not for me

I read this book a long time ago, and thought I'd give it another twirl. It isn't for me. He spend an awful amount of time with pedophilia. Makes you wonder what that is all about. Can't recommend it.

A love hate relationship

At times, I loved this book. At times, I absolutely hated it. The main character, Jack Burns, is a jerk and he has no right to blame his family for his issues of isolation and loneliness.

The performance was good.

The story was banal and contrite. I especially hated the Hollywood name dropping.

Long and drawn out

I got tired of hearing about Jack’s penis. Felt like it was the central character.

I GAVE UP

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I gave up, I'm not a quitter when it comes to reading or listening to a book and I LOVE John Irving's books, I've read almost all of them - which is what lead me to purchase this one as I'm running out of titles. But as much as I tried I couldn't relate or learn to care about this story line or these characters. It dragged on and on, I don't care about hookers or tattoos or this woman's obsession with a worthless man who fathered her child then left. Give it UP! And the dregs of society - please. As an artist myself I realize they can't all be winners, but life is too short to waste time listening to this pointless tome.

John has turned into a perverted hateful man.

What would have made Until I Find You better?

John has turned into a perverted hateful man. this is the most hateful book i have ever read, John Irving has written the opposite of most of his previous themes of hope and the tough it spirit of people.

Disappointed fan

I am a huge John Irving fan. I often list him as a favorite author and have devoured every other book he's written. I wish I had read some of the other Audible reviews before I gave up 2 credits and 32 long hours of my life to this book, but I just assumed I would love it as well.

I waited forever for the plot to grab me, but it never did. In telling the story he lists endless irrelevant details. With most audio books when temporarily distracted, I rewind a little to hear what I missed. Not this one, I couldn't wait to get through it, and had quickly learned that none of the details mattered anyway.

Sorry, John, it pains me to say it, but this book does not live up to your many other masterpieces.

Huge disappointment

I have read and loved many John Irving novels over several decades. I've always enjoyed them, accepting and appreciating their quirky themes. I loved that Irving does such a wonderful job of bringing his endearing characters to life. I've come to recognize and accept the sometimes odd pattern of themes which are common throughout his novels; single, female parent with a male child, boarding schools, theatrical involvement, and an "assortment" of sexual content. This book, however, just takes it too far. Chapter after chapter of child sexual abuse, explained and excused as "nurturing" and "mothering," completely turned me off. Repeated, detailed descriptions of tattoos of the female vagina became nauseatingly boring. I was unable to engage with, nor develop a liking for any of the characters. The plot became more and more disconnected, absurd and obscene as the story wore on. Not Irving's best effort, in my very humble opinion.

A muddled mess

The narrator’s pronunciation of even simple words would lead one to believe he was born and raised on another planet. He also seems to suffer under the illusion that a speech impediment is best performed as a bad case of lock jaw.
The writing itself is a series of deus ex machina. It feels like a book written because it had to be to fulfill some monetary obligation. There is nothing to enjoy. It just jumps from one scene to another with no depth of character that Irving is known for. I love many of his other books but this is no Garp or Owen Meany.

A disappointed Irving fan

John Irving is my favorite contemporary author. I have everything he's written, including his pre-Garp books. And typically, I finish a book even if I'm not enjoying it. I want to give the author a chance to turn it around for me. This is one of the few books that I just couldn't finish. I particularly wanted to extend the benefit of the doubt to my favorite author. I managed to get through most of the first two parts and just couldn't take the idea of sitting through another 16 to 18 hours. The first several hours are devoted to Jack and his mother moving from town to town searching for his father with the same result and recycled characters in every town. That part could have easily been condensed to one or two chapters without losing any critical plot points. The story simply takes to long to advance. Along the way, the protagonist encounters so much sexual exploitation that it made my head spin...and I work in child welfare. Irving's books are always full of deviant and bizarre behavior. But my favorite thing about him is that by the time the character commits such behavior, the reader has such a through understanding of them that their actions seem quite reasonable. Irving makes us understand that we can understand just about anyone once we hear their story. But in the case of this book, I couldn't even care about the main characters. My primary thought while listening to the first half of this unreasonably long book was "please...just get on with it."