The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules is a 1985 novel by John Irving. It has been adapted into a film of the same name and a stage play by Peter Parnell. Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood "being of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women ... more

The Cider House Rules is a 1985 novel by John Irving. It has been adapted into a film of the same name and a stage play by Peter Parnell. Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood "being of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as an obstetrician and then comes to love him. Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by the fact that the former is also secretly an abortionist. Wilbur comes to this work reluctantly but is driven... less