As a self-described John Irving fan, I come to each of his books with not only a positive bias but also an expectation and an anticipation.

You might even call it a desire --- a desire to read the recognizable, delight in the “aha” moments, and experience the newness he still manages to bring to the tried-and-true recurring themes of his writing. In this, QUEEN ESTHER fulfills all that I want and need from John Irving.

To my delight, the book gives a nod to one of Irving’s masterpieces, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. Born in Vienna, Esther Nacht is a parentless child who finds herself at St. Cloud’s in Maine at the age of three, going on 33. Self-possessed and strong-willed, she becomes a favorite of Wilbur Larch, the memorable proprietor of the orphanage, as well as all the staff and the other children. Esther is a woman-child who knows who she is --- a Jew --- and embraces her culture and religion as fully as she can in a community that lacks model representation. Her commitment to learn more about her origins and her people is a constant throughout her life.

"QUEEN ESTHER fulfills all that I want and need from John Irving.... Like all of Irving’s best work, [it] is family-focused, even if the families aren’t the traditional 'mom and pop' variety."

When Tommy and Connie Winslow of Pennacook, New Hampshire (of course), need a nanny for their fourth child, Honor (the “oops” child), they turn to the teenage orphans who have served their other children so well --- and have served Irving so well in many of his writings. Enter Esther, who is now 15. Like the nannies before her, she is embraced by the unconventional and loving non-Jewish Winslow family.

Honor and Esther form a lifelong bond that ultimately leads to Esther, who wants to experience pregnancy and childbirth, having a child for Honor, who wants to be a mother without experiencing pregnancy and childbirth. There’s a hint here of the asexual Jenny Fields, another beloved Irving character, from THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. And the father is… you guessed it, a wrestler and a transient young man named Moshe. What would an Irving tale be without a wrestler?

The focus of the novel then becomes Jimmy Winslow, Honor and Esther’s love child, of a sort. Jimmy grows up in Honor’s hometown, the only boy in a family of doting women. It should come as no surprise that the devotion of all these ladies results in his own search for love. As a junior at the University of New Hampshire (Irving’s alma mater), Jimmy --- at the advice of his mother, an obstetric nurse --- goes to Vienna as he looks for someone to “knock up” so he can avoid the Vietnam conflict.

Like all of Irving’s best work, QUEEN ESTHER is family-focused, even if the families aren’t the traditional “mom and pop” variety. Jimmy builds his own nuclear unit with a Vienna roommate and her girlfriend. Fatherless, he seems to be seeking to live that role himself.

If I have one critique of the book, it is only that Esther calls out for more page time. She is a formidable, likable character who should be developed even more. For large sections of the novel, Esther either disappears entirely or becomes a passing --- and very mysterious --- mention. Much like Wilbur Larch is absent in much of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES.

If there’s another story in John Irving (and I am sure there is), I hope that it focuses more on Esther’s travels to her homeland of Jerusalem and what this orphan finds of true family. This would be a fitting resurrection of a character who already is a memorable and engaging Irving leading lady.