The Cider House Rules
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The Cider House Rules
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Narrated by:
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Jared Zeus
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By:
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John Irving
About this listen
The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud's so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer's intention to make St Cloud's his home.
Homer Wells' odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud's orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage's founder - a man of rare compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend.
©2020 John Irving (P)2020 Orion Publishing GroupListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Cider House Rules
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ms
- 23-01-22
Pro-choice essay wrapped up in a fabulous story
Whoops, my review headline is very off-putting but this is one of my favourite ever books. I always love John Irving's understated writing style as he tells overblown Dickensian tales. As in many other of his books, he wraps his message up in a compelling and entertaining read. Set about 100 years ago and written about 35 years ago, the book's central theme of women's right to choose abortions, is still a very current topic. I love the tenderness of many of the relationships between John Irving's characters, especially those between parents and children.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rainbow Cool Stuff
- 01-03-23
Excellent
What a great book! It doesn’t really fit into any main genre. It is simply a good story, well told. The book is strong at the beginning, middle and end and is well paced throughout, developing plot and characters naturally and believably. There are some complex relationships that are interesting and the narration is excellent. Some books are hard to keep track of the characters but that is not the case here. Each character is well defined and separate. I really enjoyed this and will now read more by this talented author
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 30-06-22
SCOTUS essential reading
it's unbelievable that we are in a world that has made the subject of this great novel, a subject it had presumed was confined to history, relevant again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- GNOME
- 09-01-23
American writing at its best
Do we all stretch the rules to suit our own agendas? The cider house rules are written and reprinted every year and every year they are ignored. The essence of this story is set round an ageing community in an orphanage, where illegal abortions can be obtained. Rules are broken every day and lives changed by the rules that are adhered to and those of society that are ‘bent’ or ignored. This story of the life of an orphan and the people who touch and influence his life is well written and you can imagine that Dickens may have been an influence in the tale. As enjoyable as Steinbeck for the storytelling but, much less descriptive in style. Excellent book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- G M F
- 27-06-24
Beautiful
Simply a beautifully written story, read perfectly. It wants for nothing. I've listened to it twice and will again.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ed Crewe
- 10-02-23
Great US 1940-50s story woven around abortions
Great story, although the political mindset of the author feels like that of his 1940s Dr Larch character. Good intentions and radical in many ways, but fundamentally as bigoted as the times he grew up in.
So surprising that it was written in the rather more enlightened 1980s.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-07-24
the idea of being a hero to those who matter
at times baffling in its tendency to dwell on the meaningless, it never the less reveals that anything and anyone however small or unimportant can hold significance. A beautiful story,
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- KLong
- 16-11-20
Irving always delivers
At once intimate and humane, this book gets to the heart of love, life and all the moral dilemmas we can face, and as a consequence the messy ‘imperfect’ lives we lead. How we all rub almond together, accepting or fighting one another, trying to do the best we can.
The narrator was brilliant, at times I thought we had a bigger group of readers... a prayer for Owen Meaney remains my favourite Irving.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jjr101
- 15-03-21
Review for whole book
I read this years ago and had, mostly, forgotten it.
It is a beautiful book extremely well rendered and performed. It’s slow and ponderous pace highlights the beauty and tragedy of everyday life, or at least every day life of the time.
I’m 50 and I still cried at the end, just like I did with the book 20 years ago.
Beautiful.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- G. M. Booth
- 02-02-23
Excellent!
This was an epic listen and well worth it. Such a good story and well told.
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