This is the richly detailed, convoluted tale of Juan Diego Guerrero, who was raised a "dump kid" in Oaxaca, Mexico with his younger sister, Lupe, a mind reader with a speech impediment who thinks she knows the future. Juan Diego teaches himself to read in both Spanish and English from books he salvages from the flames of the dump and ultimately becomes a rather successful author. The story jumps between Juan Diego's life as a boy in Oaxaca, the accident that left him with a crippled foot, to his trip to the Philippines as an old man with a few stops in his brief encounter with a circus and his life in Iowa after being adopted by Eduardo, a former priest wanna-be and his transgendered partner. Then there are the two mysterious women who take control of Juan Diego and interrupt his visit with a former student in the Philippines. Throughout the novel there is much discussion and argument about various facets of the Catholic religion and the worship of Mary/Our Lady of Guadalupe along with a "miracle" or two. Much of the story of Juan Diego's childhood is in the form of the dreams he has when he doesn't take his beta-blocker prescription. He also gets much use from his Viagra prescription with the mysterious mother and daughter. Irving has filled this novel with a wide assortment of characters all of which add to the tale of Juan Diego. The book got mixed reviews but I liked it.
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