Turned out to be an entirely different book than I remembered. I thought Homer and Candy had several children, and everyone thought Wally was the father, except Wally, who knew he was sterile. I also thought Olive and Ray would get married, so when they both suddenly dropped dead, it was quite a shock. Obviously I was thinking of some other book, but I have no idea which one.

It's a good book, but as is often the case with rereads, you take the good stuff for granted and are particularly picky with the bad points. For example, the whole orphanage in the middle of nowhere with a 90-year old doctor and 60-year old nurses, and orphans living there until their mid-twenties, is just too unrealistic. But, overall, it's still one of Irving's better works.

I didn't go see the movie when it came out, but I'm kind of curious how you can make a movie out of material that stretches almost 50 years. Obviously they've chosen to concentrate on some part of Homer's life, his early twenties judging by the book cover featuring young-looking Tobey Maguire, but if they've done that, it's an entirely different story.