Rating: 
Summary: Just a memory...
Review: I surprise myself that, some twenty years after I read "The Water-Method Man", I am about to write a review of it. I actually remember very little of the plot, not much of the characters. I can no longer tell you how the story ends.What is indelible in my mind is the construction of the novel. There are two totally independent threads, as if isolated in two time-separated universes. Irving switches between them at will and for much of the time, it feels like they could be two separate books. The reader tries to connect the stories but the threads between them just aren't there. It has a bewildering quality and if the reader stops halfway through the book, it becomes a frustration, a waste of reading time. Then some hints appear; some commonalities suddenly pop out between the two story lines. There is no obvious blending, but by the end of the book there is only one story. It's as if there was once some vanilla batter and in another kitchen some chocolate batter, but at the end there is an integral marble cake. After the final word is read, one can only sit and contemplate: Just how did John Irving pull this off? "The Water-Method Man" is just a decent story, but it is truly an amazing novel.
Rating: 
Summary: So-so Irving
Review: I've read several books by Irving, and I recently finished "The Water-Method Man". Quite a disappointment, after reading the magnificent "A Prayer for Owen Meaney". This was Irving's second book, and you can see the beginnings of "The World According to Garp" in some of the characters and situations. There are some extrememly funny moments, though, and the jumping from 1st to 3rd person points of view, and from the present to the past, in each alternate chapter, is amusing. However, the first half of the book is hard to slog through, with chapters written as letters -- an annoying contrivance. It's also hard to follow what's going on, or why we should care about these characters, at least until the episodic plot is set in motion at the half-way point of the book.
Rating:
Summary: So-so Irving
Review: I've read several books by Irving, and I recently finished "The Water-Method Man". Quite a disappointment, after reading the magnificent "A Prayer for Owen Meaney". This was Irving's second book, and you can see the beginnings of "The World According to Garp" in some of the characters and situations. There are some extrememly funny moments, though, and the jumping from 1st to 3rd person points of view, and from the present to the past, in each alternate chapter, is amusing. However, the first half of the book is hard to slog through, with chapters written as letters -- an annoying contrivance. It's also hard to follow what's going on, or why we should care about these characters, at least until the episodic plot is set in motion at the half-way point of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not His Best
Review: If I had read this book first, I would never have read all the other wonderful things from John I's brain. Yes, Trumper was interesting and pathetic, but the overall story got more and more boring. I sympathize with his penis problem. All I could see as I read it just recently was Robin Williams, Robin Williams, Robin Williams. Has this been made into a movie yet.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing . . .
Review: If this had been the first Irving book I'd read, I would not likely read others. This was a somewhat dis-jointed read; I never connected with any of the characters or cared much for their fate. I can somewhat dismiss this as an early effort by Irving & stick to his more recent works.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps Still His Best Work
Review: In 1981 John Irving told me that after five novels many people still thought The Water Method Man was his best. Now it's 19 years later and perhaps it's still true. I don't mean that it's his most elegant or deep novel -- but it has an element of optimism about humanity that is purer than in any of his other work. I laughed out loud more when reading this than any of his other books -- and I'm a big fan of his; I like all of his works. In the end, who cannot help loving and sympathizing with poor Fred Trumper, bumbling his way through love, death and honesty as we all do?
Rating:
Summary: The World According to Bogus
Review: It would seem that John Irving has always been a self-assured author. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, is a very unlikely "first" work. It is a very complex work, with a narrative that interweaves the Austrian Anschluss, Balkan partisan politics, war, love, "Easy Rider" romanticism and the freeing of the animals from Vienna's Hietzinger Zoo. Hardly the stuff expected from a "new" writer. And although Irving was quite successful in handling the complexities of his narrative, the novel suffered because of weak character development. The characters of this first novel never came to life; in fact, it was all too easy to confuse the various characters because they resembled one another so much. In this novel, Irving took the narrative lessons learned from his first novel and set about to create a more complete work, one in which the readers would remember the characters as much as the masterful narrative techniques. With Fred "Bogus" Trumper, Irving succeeded in creating the first of the unforgettable characters who would populate all his later novels. The novel involves the life of one Bogus Trumper as he sets about trying to make a life for himself amidst uncontrollable chaos, disappointment, and the pain and agony caused by an abnormally narrow urethra. While his narrow urethra can be attributed to genetics, the other hurdles that he confronts are more or less of his own making which gives Irving license to hone his ironic and satirical gifts. Generally inept in his dealings with his family, friends and life's other complexities, Bogus has a gift for languages and uses this gift to extend his studenthood into the labryrinth of graduate school. Never has the life of a graduate student been so accurately portrayed (compare this novel with Larry McMurtry's failed attempt in his Moving On) revealing the frustration, humor and general penury that is so common to that bewildered group. But Bogus, in spite of his faults, is lovable and has a loyal group of friends who try to help him along. His childhood friend, Couth; the Bohemian diabetic, Merrill Overturf; his first wife, Biggie; his second wife, Tulpen; and the independent film director, Ralph Packer, are all developed nicely and lend their own personalities to the novel. In many ways, this book could be considered Irving's "happy" novel. Those readers who read this book after reading some of Irving's other works will notice the absence of the indiscriminate violence (the violence in this novel is limited to Bogus' PhD dissertation, the translation from the Old Low Norse of the saga of Akthelt and Gunnel) that confronts many of his characters in his other novels; those characters so lovingly developed then abruptly snatched away by the author. And while the ending to The Water-Method Man might be considered to be too nicely rapped up, a little too conveniently summed up, there is an element of that old Irving fatalism that creeps in and reminds the reader that universal forces, be it the Under Toad or the gods being gratulated by the Feast of Throgsgafen Day, are really in control.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Irving book
Review: It's interesting that I seem to be in the minority in considering this Irving's best work. By comparison, I feel that the more popular _Garp_ and _Owen Meany_ are overly contrived, needlessly wordy and take themselves too seriously--especially the latter. I would even describe _Owen Meany_ as self-important and pompous. _The Water Method Man_, on the other hand, has all of John Irving's signature style--irony, wit, creativity, intriguing characters, eloquence, and bizarre events (the ones that are so highly improbable--yet you're forced to admit--while laughing til you cry--well, that COULD happen!) Plus, it's endowed with a light touch, an easygoing feel, and a final realistic optimism--a sense of a profound potential for goodness in life despite all the pain and ridiculousness and humiliation that may come along. This isn't an uncommon theme for Irving but he achieves it here with the greatest clarity and simplicity. I would recommend this over any of his other novels, particularly for a first-time reader of Irving. _Garp_ and others have many pleasures, but to me, _The Water Method Man_ is Irving's best.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: John Irving is such a good author that you can't really talk about his books afterwards, because of their ambient, atmoshpheric tone. This one, the water method man is great, i read it after Garp and Meany and while I liked those two(Garp more than Meany) Water Method man, really pulled together the learning how to be adult theme. Another great book, Irving is just incredible because of his honesty.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-rending lunacy and sadness in one man's life
Review: John Irving's second novel has been lost in the wake of "The World According to Garp" and "A Prayer for Owen Meany," the successful Irving novels that it most resembles. A pity. For Bogus Trumper in "Water-Method Man" is a lost, beautiful soul -- desperately trying to find, or create, a self amid the challenges of early adulthood. Here we have some of the finest prose and most entertaining idiosyncrasies of any Irving book, and -- in Biggie and Tulpen -- two of his best female characters. Incredible real-world humor in the title character's letters to friends and bill collectors, as well as the film documentary of his life and its reviews -- and a Thanksgiving that features the most sweet-sad-honest portrait of rebirth in the author's collected works. "The Water-Method Man" is an underrated pleasure.
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