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Until I Find You: A Novel Audiobook
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(3.00) - 14,065 listener ratings
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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.
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"As always, I really like John Irving, but I found that this book didn't move as well as some of his previous novels. It kept me reading and kept me guessing though. I love his rich characters, full of sympathetic dysfunction."
— Keely (4 out of 5 stars)
Until I Find You Listener Reviews
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" Hard to get through...enjoyable at times while a chore others. "
— Sarah, 2/20/2014 -
" Another great work that takes you on a worldwide journey. If you've ever been to the cities, Irving's attention to detail are spot on. "
— Aj, 2/11/2014 -
" As much as I love John Irving this book really ticked me off. I read all 840 pages with ambition and interest only to be terribly disappointed by the ending. I recommend the read, but don't expect a climatic climax, you won't find it here. "
— Jeannette, 1/31/2014 -
" I don't know what happened to my favorite author during the writing of this book...but he was definitely lost! Did not care for it. "
— Robin, 1/31/2014 -
" What happened to the John Irving I used to love? This book was tough...a jillion characters, characters musing about other characters and tangents and I could not get into the story at all. I gave up early on...maybe it gets better but I didn't have the stamina to read a big ol beast of a confusing novel like this. "
— Selena, 1/30/2014 -
" I wanted a comfortable book that I could curl up with for an extended period of time and this fit the bill. John Irving is such a wonderful story teller. "
— Jessica, 1/18/2014 -
" Though I really like Mr. Irving this book was difficult for me to get into. I tried, I really did, but it just didn't hold me long enough to want to find out what happens. "
— Alexandros, 1/18/2014 -
" Incredibly long and a bit slow at times, but I thought it was worth the patience. "
— Lindsey, 1/14/2014 -
" I'm not far enough into the book to have much to say about it yet, but it's Irving's usual lush writing. More to come. "
— Maura, 1/13/2014 -
" I made it about three-fourths of the way through this book - the plot is a strange combination of detailed histories of organ music and tattoo artistry, placed on top of a dysfunctional family with father/son issues and a mother who is truly tragic. I couldn't do it. Sorry Mr. Irving. "
— Stacey, 1/13/2014 -
" i love john irving but this book was 200 pages too long. sorry buddy. "
— Heather, 1/11/2014 -
" John Irving is a modern master. This work is transparently self-referential. It's like he read his Wikipedia entry and then whipped it out. "
— Hugh, 12/19/2013 -
" A great read if you have the time to invest in it. I was engrossed in the book while traveling through Europe (many long train rides). It was an interesting story with great detail. "
— Rachel, 12/10/2013 -
" this one seemed full of familiar characters. "
— Julie, 10/20/2013 -
" Loved this book. It is amazing to see a person's life as they remember it from when they were young and then going back to that period of time and seeing what really happened. "
— Maya, 5/28/2013 -
" This can be disturbing at times. In the beginning, the main character, Jack, is molested by older girls and women. It begins when he is 6 or 7 and continues during his childhood. It is a very good read tho. "
— Marilyn, 10/28/2012 -
" i love irving and his twisted wonderful melodramatic tatooed characters! "
— uroosa, 4/15/2012 -
" Incredibly disappointing. When I got to the end I was kind of angry. "
— Logan, 3/12/2012 -
" I wasn't enjoying it -- and it was really long -- so I gave up. "
— KamakuraKate, 11/19/2011 -
" I wanted to like this book. Interesting coverage of tatoos. Didn't want to read all the child sex content. "
— Pamela, 10/10/2011 -
" I really didn't like this book. It's needlessly repetitive and non-linear and I didn't really care about any of the characters or what was going to happen. I just wanted to get through the damn 900 page thing. Bah. Waste of my time, really. "
— Margret, 8/29/2011 -
" I actually really enjoyed this book it was my first John Irving book so I didn't have extremely high standards I though tit had a slow start but towards the end it was very good. "
— Emma, 7/15/2011 -
" I read this while traveling Italy by train, which was kinda a strange trip. I'm not sure if the book is really strange, or my vacation was. That's not much of a review, but I can't think about this book without thinking of the strange hostels I stayed in... "
— Sarah-Anne, 5/20/2011 -
" Too long in places but a terrific masterpiece. Owen Meany-esque--great characters, crazy plot twists and the tattoo subculture made for a great read. "
— Amy, 4/28/2011 -
" I learned more about tattoos reading this book than I ever intended to learn. Still, it was a quirky good read, although it is no match for The World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany. "
— Sister, 4/26/2011 -
" Not the best of Irving's books, but lots of twists and turns. Pretty bizarre, like most of his novels. Enjoyed reading it. "
— Mimi, 4/22/2011 -
" Different from other Irving books...though it has so many of the same themes. Enjoyed it, but wouldn't reread it (the way I do Cider House Rules or Prayer for Owen Meany). "
— Christina, 4/18/2011 -
" I had to return it to the library 1/2 way through. I enjoyed reading it when I picked it up but couldn't seem to get through it even though I'm an Irving fan. The story was, of course, completely unique but I could not connect with the characters. "
— cassie, 4/8/2011 -
" One of the best books I have ever read about a single mom/tatoo artist in search of the father of her boy. There is a period they spend in Toronto near Casa Loma. <br/> "
— Jennifer, 3/23/2011 -
" I am a big John Irving fan. This wasn't one of of my favorites but it was still a very good read. I enjoy reading books (partly) set in Toronto and learning about the history and subculture of tattoo artists was interesting. "
— Laura, 3/17/2011 -
" Certainly not his best book, but fun to read as parts of it take place in Helsinki and other Baltic cities. But definitely not worth reading a second time which is what I did. "
— Lili, 3/13/2011
About John Irving
John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp, which became an international bestseller. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novels have been translated into thirty-five languages.
About Arthur Morey
Arthur Morey has won three AudioFile Magazine “Best Of” Awards, and his work has garnered numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and placed him as a finalist for two Audie Awards. He has acted in a number of productions, both off Broadway in New York and off Loop in Chicago. He graduated from Harvard and did graduate work at the University of Chicago. He has won awards for his fiction and drama, worked as an editor with several book publishers, and taught literature and writing at Northwestern University. His plays and songs have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Milan, where he has also performed.