ARTS Thursday, June 20, 1985 0 Page 6 The Michigan Daily 'Cider House' enjoyable but unbalanced The Cider House Rules present in the last two books in order When Irving devotes his attention to By John Irving to further his theories on abortion. characterization the results are Morrow, 560 pages, $18.95 Thus the book reads somewhat like a terrific. Larch is a wired ether addict fictional treatise, or perhaps a who learns to love by loving Homer cautionary tale. Wells. The growth of his love and need T HE FIRST THING readers of Those who had a hard time with the John Irving should know about violence and graphic detail of Irving's The Cider House Rules is that it is not earlier books should be forewarned. In advancing his theories Irving demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the technical aspects of abortion. In .....,, ~addition, he straightforwardly J .11 presents the ills that occur in a T By John Logie choiceless community. This is not beach reading. Cider House is the story of an or- chapter three of The World According phanage in St. Cloud's Maine, and the to Garp at the Hotel New Hampshire. lives of its inhabitants. William Lar- While Irving's last two novels are ch, the orphanage doctor and illegal peas in a pod, with their patriarchs, abortionist, becomes attached to bears, and Viennese whores, Cider Homer Wells, a bafflingly unadop- House is in a different pod. Even so, table child. Larch gradually developsI the book is part of the same plant. a paternal desire to have Homer In Cider House, Irving sacrifices a follow in his footsteps at the hospital. certain "literariness" that was For Homer, growing up in an or-E phanage has made abortion distasteful. He sees Larch's patients No one faces cancer alone. come and go, having "an abortion or Callus. an orphan" as Larch puts it. Homer AMERICAN CANCER oci~ry, has to face not only the pressure that Larch puts on him, but also the un- deniable pull of the orphanage. St. for Homer is at odds with the physical Cloud's is home for Homer. and mental decline Larch experien- ces, and each lends urgency to the other. Larch's deterioration is LESBIAN-GAY PRIDE WEEK '85 ANN ARBOR palpable. Cider House is stuffed with Ir- later. His writing captures the quiet vingesque characters, quirky people. echoes which sometimes startle us, Irving uses a minimal amount of the minute allegories and metaphors description. The characters achieve that travel with us. In Cider House, full development only in the reader's his treatment of abortion does not observation of their actions. It is receive the same delicacy and sub- almost as if Irving creates a vague tlety. It looms over the novel, constan- sketch, and tells the reader to paint tly making such a bold statement that over it. the book loses persuasiveness. A Because characterization is a balanced treatment would probably collaberative effort in Irving novels, it make Irving's point quietly, but suf- is frustrating when Irving bends the ficiently. rules, forcing characters into unlikely This having been said, there is cer- situations and reactions. Even though tainly enough that is right with this the characters are certainly the novel to make it entertaining reading. author's, and the author has the right, Irving manages to create in the if not the obligation to challenge both reader a deep running concern and the reader and the character, one sympathy for his protagonists. feels at times cheated by Cider House. And now a word or two about David The reader, unable to identify Copperfield. Garp bore significant motivation, loses understanding of the structural similarities to Dickens' character. novel, Hotel bore fewer, and Cider While I am sympathetic toward Ir- House bears fewer yet. Nevertheless ving's need to do something about Irving continually injects the book what he sees as a great social in- into.Homer's life, constantly forcing justice, I am not sympathetic with his the reader to make comparisons bet- doing so at the expense of charac- ween Irving characters and Dicken- terization. The people in Cider House sian characters. stop short of the fullness that Irving The characters in this novel are im- invested in the characters of his peded by these forced comparisons. earlier novels, paving the way for a Cider House has no characters on the discussion of abortion which ranges order of Copperfield's, and it probably from compassionate to heavy-handed. shouldn't. Irving is a delicate writer, weaving good diatrihe. As a diatrie, it is com- threads, sometimes dropping on pelling, frustrating, and at times only to pick it up hundreds of pages fascinating. kI ih Ad June 16 - 22, 1985 "Unity Strength and Love" Wed.-Thu. June 19-20, 7:00 & 8:30 p.m. Pride Week Workshops MICHIGAN UNION, MAIN FLOOR NEAR U CLUB PRIDE Wi EEK SPONSORS INCLUDE: GLF, MGU, MSA Information, incl. future events: 763-4186 Say...M6 q :m-w DICOUTMUFFLERS AME R ICAN AND FOREIGN CAR SPECIALIST FROM AS * FITS MANY installed by LOW AS... SMALL CARS TFrae 9 RAT s s PARTICIPATING Installed Featuring... "One of the finest names YPSILANTI " "tm"'* ar" 2606 Washtenaw Avenue (11I Mi. E. of US 23)......................572-9177 TAYLOR 14250 S. Telegraph Rd. (1 BIk. N. of Eureka Rd.)....................946-8470 Individually Owned & Operated IN AND OUT IN 30 MINUTES IN MOST CASES OPN DAILY AND SAT.8-6 PM Copyright 01985 Meineke Wz"l ,,, Mr.,.11 I I uv VUrc sk)w art U uo3unUu True West brings their guitar-laden sound to the Blind Pig tonight. Staff writer John Logie spoke with co-lead guitarist Russell Tolman. Daily: What does the band sound like? Tolman: Lots of guitars, big huge slabs of guitars with hopefully a lot of really good songs underneath. D: When you're compared to other bands, who do you like to be compared to? T: If I have to be compared to another band - like compare me to another band or cut my arm off - I'd have to say the Byrds, Yardbirds, Television, bands like that. Guitar bands. D: Writers often say you're just around the corner from signing with a major label -.. T: We've had so many big labels come and do a one night stand with us, but not want to marry us that you can't imagine. .. Finally it comes down to "Well, we don't know how to package you.' and 'We've never had anything quite like you. We need to know what to do.' D: True West seems to get lumped in with '60s revival hands ... T: Whenever people hear guitars that aren't like, Les Pauls through Marshalls on '10,' with that fuzz sort of sound, they think, 'This must be '60s, it's jangly soun- ding!' We all like the Byrds, we all like Dylan, the Yar- dbirds, but we're not trying to revive anything. We're not trying to carry a torch, we're just taking little bits from what we like. D: Both you and Richard McGrath play lead guitar? T: We switch back and forth ... He's technically a much better guitar player than I am. When we were in England there was all this talk about him being one of the top five guitar players in the world. We all had a great laugh about it, it's a pretty strong statement . .. he was always my guitar God when I was just a wee lad. D: Guitar music seems to be riding a wave of popularity these days ... T: Yeah, it's the flavor of the week ... guitars sound great. You can express a lot more emotion on a guitar than you can on a stnthesizer. A guitar is like a Ford - it's dependable. It's gonna be there when you need it. D: What sort of guitar sound does the band have? T: I play more jangly, and Richard has more of a sustaining sort of sound. The reason why I wanted Richard in the band is he's the only guy I know who could play a guitar and make it sound like it was on tape running backwards while he's actually playing forwards. D: Does he give lessons? T: He won't even teach me anything. Actually we have kind of a rivalry. I'm the kid who can't play, and he's the guy why really can play, and so my purpose in life is to try and be the bee in his bonnet, kick him in the butt, make my playing piss him off enough that he'll do something dif- ferent. D: Have you ever been asked to keep a lid on the volume? T: We've never been able to play at a tolerable level, that's why we had to leave our hometown. D: Do any of the band members have any hearing loss? T: Richard... I don't think he can hear anything above 15kHz, in fact he can't hear 15kHz ... most people can hear 20kHz. D: Is he considering ear plugs? T: Earplugs don't work at all when you play guitar. You just can't hear the tone of the guitar right, and that's the most important thing. I haven't noticed any real hearing loss on my part . . . it might be creeping up on me, but it's worth the price, right?