Xianya Wang Wang من عند نيويورك
Take all the repeating themes from Irving's previous books (young men seduced by older women, prep schools, seedy underside of European cities, and I don't remember but probably a dancing bear) and rearrange them in an even longer novel. Voila!
Sometimes, books come along that I like, but which I put down one afternoon, and don't pick up again. This was one of them. It's still in a very special section of my bookshelf -- the "WHY are you going to the bookstore again!?? You should read us first!" section. In other words, I liked it. I really did. It has a good beginning. But somewhere along the way, the narrative lost the forcefulness it began with, and I lost interest. Perhaps I shall find it again soon.
Not really my style of writing... that's why I never finished it.