The Cider House Rules by John Irving

The Cider House Rules

by John Irving

I loved everything about this book!

Homer Wells is an orphan growing up in St. Cloud's, a small town in main, under the care of Dr. Larch and his nurses Angela and Edna. Dr. Larch is an ether addict and abortionist, which is illegal in Maine during the story.

Homer knows he belongs in St. Cloud's and has several failed foster placements, always ending up back in the orphanage. Dr. Larch decides Homer should be of some use, and teaches him all about obstetrics, how to deliver unwanted babies that will end up staying at the orphanage, and how to provide abortions to those women who want them and are not too far along in their pregnancies. Unlike Dr, Larch, Homer decides, as he is older, that he believes abortion should be legal and women should be able to choose to have them, but that he will not be performing them.

As a young adult, still living and working at the orphanage and hospital, Homer meets Candy and Wally who arrive because Candy wants an abortion. She and Wally are fairly well-to-to where they live in the Heart's Haven/Heart's Rock area, and they (Candy, specifically) do not think it is the right time to have a baby and be married. Dr. Larch senses an opportunity for Homer to have some benefactors and convinces the couple to take Homer back with them for a month or so to get some worldly experience and to meet people of means who can help him become a doctor, which is what Dr. Larch wants for Homer's future, so that Homer can work with him and take over for him when he is old.

Homer goes with Candy and Wally and lives with Wally, working on his families apple orchard. They all three become best friends and Homer falls in love with Candy. When Wally enters the war, Candy and Homer start a relationship, believing that Wally (missing in action) has been killed. Candy becomes pregnant and Homer takes her to St. Cloud's to cover up the delivery, saying he has adopted a baby, which he brings back to the orchard. Wally returns and the relationship becomes a secret. Candy stays with Wally, now paralyzed, and Homer brings up his son, Angel, in Wally's house where he has become a fixture.

Homer takes over the running of the orchard and 15 years passes. Dr. Larch becomes very old and is under scrutiny by the orphanage's board of trustees. Larch hatches a plot to get Homer to replace him as doctor there under an assumed name of one of the orphans who had long since passed away. Homer keeps telling himself he does not want to be a doctor, but through a series of events at the orchard finds himself performing an abortion he swore he would never give. He realizes the necessity of abortion-providing doctors, and when he learns of Larch's passing, decides he will return to St. Cloud's under the assumed name and take over.

The Cider House Rules was fun, funny, serious, heartwarming, sad, and beautiful. It is easily a 5-star book. The writing was superb, with just the right touch of whimsy. The characters were fun to read about and, whereas with Dune it bothered me to jump around from pov to pov, it was done excellently in this book and nothing was lost through that style. The interweaving of the various storylines was wonderfully choreographed and played on one another to the perfect effect. Everyone's personality was distinct and I felt empathy for all of the characters, even the ones who were not so nice. Except maybe Mr. Rose. This was a fun and enjoyable experience that ruminates on love and belonging, and our purpose in the world. Our right to choose the life we want to have and what it means to give in and give back to those who have provided for you.