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If some writers enjoy an imperial era, during which they hit the summit time after time, then American author John Irving’s lasted through a series of four long, gratifying novels, from his 1978 success Garp to the 1989 release Owen Meany. Such were generous, funny, big-hearted books, tying figures he refers to as “misfits” to social issues from feminism to abortion.

Following Owen Meany, it’s been declining results, aside from in page length. His last work, 2022’s His Last Chairlift Novel, was 900 pages long of themes Irving had explored more skillfully in earlier works (inability to speak, dwarfism, trans issues), with a 200-page script in the center to fill it out – as if extra material were necessary.

Thus we come to a recent Irving with care but still a faint flame of expectation, which burns stronger when we discover that His Queen Esther Novel – a just 432 pages in length – “goes back to the universe of The Cider House Rules”. That mid-eighties work is among Irving’s finest works, located mostly in an orphanage in the town of St Cloud’s, operated by Dr Larch and his apprentice Wells.

This novel is a letdown from a novelist who once gave such pleasure

In His Cider House Novel, Irving wrote about pregnancy termination and acceptance with colour, humor and an comprehensive compassion. And it was a important work because it left behind the subjects that were evolving into tiresome patterns in his books: grappling, wild bears, Vienna, the oldest profession.

Queen Esther begins in the imaginary community of Penacook, New Hampshire in the beginning of the 1900s, where the Winslow couple take in teenage ward Esther from the orphanage. We are a a number of years ahead of the events of The Cider House Rules, yet Dr Larch remains familiar: already dependent on the drug, beloved by his nurses, starting every speech with “At St Cloud's...” But his role in Queen Esther is limited to these opening scenes.

The Winslows worry about bringing up Esther well: she’s of Jewish faith, and “in what way could they help a teenage Jewish girl find herself?” To tackle that, we flash forward to Esther’s grown-up years in the Roaring Twenties. She will be a member of the Jewish exodus to Palestine, where she will join the Haganah, the Zionist militant force whose “goal was to protect Jewish towns from hostile actions” and which would eventually become the basis of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Such are huge themes to take on, but having introduced them, Irving avoids them. Because if it’s regrettable that this book is not really about the orphanage and the doctor, it’s even more disappointing that it’s additionally not really concerning the titular figure. For reasons that must involve story mechanics, Esther becomes a substitute parent for a different of the family's daughters, and gives birth to a male child, the boy, in World War II era – and the bulk of this book is Jimmy’s tale.

And here is where Irving’s fixations come roaring back, both common and specific. Jimmy goes to – where else? – the city; there’s mention of evading the draft notice through self-mutilation (His Earlier Book); a dog with a significant designation (the animal, meet the earlier dog from His Hotel Novel); as well as grappling, prostitutes, authors and male anatomy (Irving’s throughout).

He is a less interesting character than the heroine hinted to be, and the minor figures, such as pupils the pair, and Jimmy’s instructor Annelies Eissler, are underdeveloped also. There are some amusing episodes – Jimmy his first sexual experience; a confrontation where a couple of thugs get beaten with a crutch and a air pump – but they’re brief.

Irving has not ever been a delicate novelist, but that is isn't the issue. He has consistently restated his ideas, hinted at narrative turns and let them to build up in the audience's mind before bringing them to resolution in extended, surprising, amusing sequences. For instance, in Irving’s works, physical elements tend to go missing: remember the speech organ in The Garp Novel, the digit in His Owen Book. Those losses resonate through the story. In the book, a key person loses an upper extremity – but we just discover 30 pages the finish.

Esther comes back late in the story, but just with a eleventh-hour sense of wrapping things up. We do not do find out the complete account of her life in the region. This novel is a disappointment from a writer who previously gave such pleasure. That’s the negative aspect. The upside is that His Classic Novel – revisiting it together with this work – still holds up beautifully, after forty years. So choose that as an alternative: it’s double the length as the new novel, but far as good.