Book Review: Queen Esther

I did not receive an advance reader’s copy of Queen Esther by John Irving. I emailed the bookstore in the county seat to make sure they would have it on publication day. On Nov. 4, I drove there and parked on Iowa Avenue, the same Iowa Avenue Irving described in The Water Method Man. I walked to the bookstore and couldn’t find it among new arrivals. After my inquiry, a sales associate found it in the back room and I bought it.

After Saul Bellow and Joan Didion died, Irving became my favorite author. I thought The Last Chairlift was his final novel and was pleasantly surprised and hopeful about this new one. It did not disappoint.

Anyone who lives in modern society has some familiarity with the issues that brought about the Hamas-Israel war. No book on those issues will have universal support, much less fiction. It seems risky for Irving to have tackled that and I admire him for it. Frankly, successful at age 83, what does he have to lose?

As someone who began reading Irving more than 40 years ago, I highly recommend Queen Esther. It is classic Irving.