I've been a fan of John Irving for a very long time - "Garp", "Hotel New Hampshire", "Cider House Rules" and even older, odder books "158 Lb. Marriage" and "Setting Free the Bears".
I certainly waited for his latest book "Avenue of Mysteries". The book is based around a pair of kids growing up in a garbage dump in Mexico, the main character is a boy of about 14, and his younger sister. The sister has some psychic ability to read minds, and some ability to see the future, but only speaks to her brother - nobody else can understand her.
The dump kids have few options - they can live in the dump or get taken in by the orphanage run by the church.
The main character is a reader - he rescues and reads books from the dump, and can read and speak multiple languages.
The story is in two timelines - the young boy and sister, which is in the past, and the older boy, now an older man, who is an accomplished author.
What is fun for an Irving fan is that the author refers to his earlier books and references a book on abortion (which causes him arguments with his church-based friends), a book about a man with a urinary tract infection, a "circus" book based in India (there may be more). As a long time reader of Irving, these books are "Cider House Rules" which is based on a boy growing up in a "wayward girls" clinic where they perform abortions in years past, and "the 158lb. Marriage" where the main character, a male (among other things) has a tendency to get urinary tract infections and has to choose between having surgery to "straighten" his tract, or make sure to drink lots of water to keep the area cleansed, particularly after sex. The "circus" book is "Son of the Circus" which is based in India.
So the book has some autobiographical references to some of Irvings own writings, which is kinda' fun.
Overall, the book was good, but I can't say it grabbed me like some of his other works. Worth reading, yes, but maybe OK queued up behind some additional pressing reading material.
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