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If certain novelists have an golden phase, where they reach the pinnacle consistently, then American writer John Irving’s ran through a run of several substantial, satisfying books, from his late-seventies breakthrough The World According to Garp to 1989’s Owen Meany. Those were rich, funny, big-hearted novels, linking figures he calls “outliers” to cultural themes from feminism to reproductive rights.

Since His Owen Meany Novel, it’s been declining outcomes, except in word count. His last work, the 2022 release His Last Chairlift Novel, was nine hundred pages of subjects Irving had explored more skillfully in earlier works (mutism, short stature, gender identity), with a 200-page screenplay in the center to fill it out – as if padding were needed.

Therefore we come to a latest Irving with reservation but still a faint glimmer of expectation, which glows hotter when we discover that Queen Esther – a mere 432 pages long – “goes back to the universe of His Cider House Rules”. That 1985 novel is among Irving’s very best works, located primarily in an children's home in the town of St Cloud’s, operated by Dr Wilbur Larch and his apprentice Homer Wells.

Queen Esther is a failure from a novelist who previously gave such joy

In His Cider House Novel, Irving wrote about termination and acceptance with richness, humor and an comprehensive empathy. And it was a important book because it moved past the subjects that were turning into repetitive habits in his books: the sport of wrestling, wild bears, Vienna, sex work.

This book opens in the fictional town of New Hampshire's Penacook in the early 20th century, where Thomas and Constance Winslow adopt 14-year-old foundling the title character from St Cloud's home. We are a few generations prior to the events of Cider House, yet the doctor remains familiar: already using ether, beloved by his staff, opening every address with “Here in St Cloud’s …” But his appearance in Queen Esther is confined to these opening scenes.

The family are concerned about raising Esther well: she’s of Jewish faith, and “in what way could they help a young girl of Jewish descent understand her place?” To tackle that, we move forward to Esther’s later life in the Roaring Twenties. She will be a member of the Jewish migration to the area, where she will become part of the Haganah, the Zionist paramilitary organisation whose “goal was to protect Jewish communities from hostile actions” and which would eventually establish the core of the IDF.

These are massive themes to address, but having introduced them, Irving avoids them. Because if it’s disappointing that Queen Esther is not actually about St Cloud’s and Wilbur Larch, it’s all the more upsetting that it’s additionally not really concerning the titular figure. For reasons that must connect to narrative construction, Esther turns into a substitute parent for a different of the couple's daughters, and gives birth to a son, the boy, in the early forties – and the lion's share of this novel is his narrative.

And here is where Irving’s fixations return strongly, both common and distinct. Jimmy goes to – of course – the city; there’s mention of dodging the military conscription through self-harm (Owen Meany); a pet with a significant title (the animal, meet Sorrow from His Hotel Novel); as well as the sport, sex workers, novelists and penises (Irving’s recurring).

He is a more mundane persona than the heroine promised to be, and the supporting characters, such as students Claude and Jolanda, and Jimmy’s teacher the tutor, are flat too. There are several amusing set pieces – Jimmy deflowering; a confrontation where a few ruffians get assaulted with a crutch and a tire pump – but they’re brief.

Irving has never been a nuanced novelist, but that is isn't the issue. He has always reiterated his arguments, foreshadowed plot developments and let them to gather in the viewer's imagination before bringing them to fruition in long, surprising, entertaining scenes. For example, in Irving’s works, anatomical features tend to go missing: recall the tongue in The Garp Novel, the finger in Owen Meany. Those losses reverberate through the plot. In the book, a key person suffers the loss of an arm – but we merely discover 30 pages later the conclusion.

The protagonist comes back toward the end in the novel, but merely with a final feeling of wrapping things up. We do not learn the entire story of her life in the Middle East. The book is a disappointment from a author who previously gave such delight. That’s the bad news. The upside is that Cider House – upon rereading in parallel to this novel – still stands up beautifully, after forty years. So choose that as an alternative: it’s double the length as this book, but a dozen times as great.