It doesn't take a cryptographer to decipher the meanings in John Irving's sprawling picaresque allegories. But a reader who wants to savor them must be willing to suspend a psychoanalytic view of human nature descended from Freud through Oprah and surrender to an imagination that is more Dickensian than Freudian. Once you give up those expectations, a visit to the world according to Irving is a little like touring a parallel universe where fate is determined not so much by abusive parents as by wondrous tragicomic events beyond the realm of psychology.

I can't think of a better filmmaker to guide us through that world than Lasse Hallstrom, the director of "My Life as a Dog" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"," two grown-up movies that share Mr. Irving's adult-child sensibility. In Mr. Hallstrom's lovely adaptation (with a screenplay by the author) of Mr. Irving's sixth novel, "The Cider...