A tough road worth travelling
Marvellous characters come along for the ride in John Irving’s latest
It’s always wonderful to see an author evolve. John Irving, the creator of characters such as Owen Meany and Garp, takes on a few more travellers with each new novel he writes, and what marvellous travellers he creates. In Avenue of Mysteries, his latest novel, precocious children, lions (usually there are bears), circus performers, dwarves, Jesuit priests, strong women and transgender people all join the journey as if they’ve stepped out of Irving’s other novels.
Avenue of Mysteries is the story of two children — Juan Diego, 14, and Lupe, 13 — who inhabit a community for dump workers in Oaxaca, Mexico. Despite their squalid surroundings, Juan Diego thrives, an avid reader of books donated by a Jesuit teacher. The story is told through Juan Diego’s dreams, when as a 54-year-old writer he travels to the Philippines. Along the way, he encounters a mother-daughter duo with whom he has numerous sexual encounters. As Juan Diego dozes on the plane and in his hotel rooms, we learn his story.
Irving fans need to know this book is not as easy to read as his others. Usually, when you sit down to read a John Irving novel the hours fly by, but his descriptions of the Mexican dump are so gritty I needed to take the book slowly.
Still, Irving is such a gifted writer he can have you in tears in the turn of a page. An encounter with a former childhood bully is one of the most moving scenes of the book. He uses his characters wisely to tackle everything from the Catholic Church to abortion and discrimination against the transgender and gay communities. Irving fans will also love his revelations about the writing life sprinkled throughout.
In the final scene of the movie Big Fish, Albert Finney is surrounded by all of the characters of his life. In Avenue of Mysteries, Juan Diego, who feels so much to be Irving himself, is surrounded by all of the characters of his novels, albeit in different forms.
Avenue of Mysteries feels poignant, funny and political, which is what John Irving does so well. The journey is a little tougher than usual but you can’t beat the travelling companions. Georgie Binks is the author of A Crack in the Pavement.