Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This is now possibly one of my favourite books ever along with Great Expectations and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It is incredibly funny, gripping, touching and imaginative. Go read this book now and you won't be disappointed. (Don't read it in too public a place though because people will start giving you funny looks when you start laughing out loud!)
Rating: 
Summary: Tragically amusing
Review: This is my second Irving, and I guess I'm going to have to read all the others. This one wasn't as good as Garp (thus 4 stars) but still a very good read. Irving creates some of the most fascinating characters I have ever read, just really understandable yet dynamic. Take that, add an interesting but strange story and lots of 'sorrow' you get an amazing read that leaves you bewildered but amused. Irving's most amazing talent is to turn tragedy into humor (sorrow floats) but not being overly flippant or mocking about it. He take serious topics and while being serious about it, shows some of the stranger/amusing aspects of it (politics of a rape help center?). A really engrossing book, that is well worth reading.
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Summary: Irving's treatment of suicide and death
Review: There are many reasons that I did not like this novel, but I was particularly disturbed by the seeming inevitability and even nobility of Lilly's suicide. For anyone who has ever contemplated suicide, the fact that Lilly was somehow destined to die is a disturbing thought. I don't think that people should blame themselves when family members commit suicide, but they don't have to accept it with such equanimity either. Perhaps if Lilly had had counselling (or some other kind of therapy), she could have learned to accept her cirumstances and gone on to lead a fulfilling life, even if that didn't include a successful writing career. I think it's worrisome that none of the other characters even contemplated this. My main gripe about this book is the characters' failure, in general, to appreciate and to truly mourn death; the death of not only Lilly, but also Egg, Mother and Freud.
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Summary: why not try....
Review: I am a big fan of John Irving and have just read a Japanese novel which reminded me of his work.The House Of Nire by Morio Kita is a epic yet subtle comedy set in a Tokyo mental institution between the wars. In places Iriving, in others Dickens, even a bit of Mervyn Peake at times. I am sure Irving fans would enjoy it so I urge you to give it a go.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Wonderful Book
Review: I am young, only 14 but I know a good book when I read it. This is by far my favorite John Irving book. His charicatars and familys are very bizzare but realastic at the same time. He makes you fell like you are actuly there with the family experiencing their unconventional lives. I loved this book and could not put it down the first time I read it...and have read it numerous times since. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: This is the fifth Irving novel I've read. I loved The World According to Garp, and I didn't read another Irving novel for 6 years, assuming that nothing else he wrote would be as good. I was right, but a friend urged me to read Owen Meany, and I did. I rate Owen almost as highly. And while I didn't personally really LIKE Cider House Rules or A Widow for One Year, I didn't think they were BAD. The Hotel New Hampshire is a bad novel. Perhaps I've gotten too used to Irving, but every plot point seemed taken from an earlier book (most from Garp). The only really new storyline involved incest, which I found disturbing and (worse) uninteresting. Everything in this novel felt predictable and boring, and whether that is because most elements were recycled or because Irving foreshadows every event so obviously, I couldn't say. I found his writing clumsy and heavy-handed. I knew the book had failed when the death of Mother and Egg provoked no emotional reaction whatsoever, when Walt's death in Garp is the only fictional death that has ever made me cry. Please don't read this book as an introduction to Irving. Read Garp or Owen Meany instead.
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Summary: How I Became A Huge John Irving Fan....
Review: ....I went to the bookstore, itching for something to new to read and stumbled on John "Garp" Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" in hardback sometimes in the late 80's. I was already good to go with Irving's penchant for bears, performers in bear suits, preppies, Vienna, hotels, wrestlers, circus acts, bizarre personalities and Dickens like stories and was well pleased with what he was starting to present here. And like I've said in relation to many, many items I've reviewed ..."you just have to be in that quantum packet..." The quantum packet I speak of here is one that is attuned to life, baby, life--and the human drama.... So those who have already read THNH knows that the story takes an immediate, early change of direction .....yes, that's the one, the crash...and you find yourself pulling for the family Berry trying to move and grow and go on as always--except, these are unusual kids, an unusual family. And that "usual" for them would make Jerry Springer guests look normal...Let's say, they are not exactly a dysfunctional family--(Who has so called normalcy in their family anyhoos? Mostly folks in TV commercials and Make Space for Daddy style moovys and sitcoms of the 40s-50s-60s. And THEY had problems keeping it normal.)---but unusual, nonetheless. And, in all the kids adventures and misadventures and whatever effects being in this crazy hotel resort has....the father puts on a good showing. No, he doesn't, on second thought--he loses his sanity and goes along with things for the sake of the rest of the family. And Irving handles this quite subtly and endearingly and with that twist of that "whatever you want to call" thing it he does. The characters are like cartoons he's created that eventually become more and more real and more human to us the more we stay with them and their idiosyncratic turn of events. Irving's other great talent is in making the reader wanna cry and laugh at the same time.... Anyway, this story sure did it for me, I was hooked--it was, needless to say, great reading for me. I found myself diggin' the man's style of literature and greedily, ravenously getting all his successive works. This and "The Cider House Rules" are my favorites of his to this day. I, however, enjoy reading and rereading them all...do yourself a favor and try Irving out!
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Summary: As always, bizarre, dysfunctional, yet loveable characters!
Review: I loved Owen Meany, but there were even more characters in this book to love. Irving is incredible. He always finds that spot...you know, the one that makes you really relate to his cast regardless of how off the wall they are. His books force one to find empathy, compassion, and soul in oneself, no matter how deeply it's been buried. He'll make you laugh, cry, and bleed. His books are meant to be read and re-read - they are "keepers."
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Summary: The Hotel New Hampshire
Review: I loved The Hotel New Hampshire. It kept me on my toes, constantly reading this novel trying to figure out where it goes next. This novel went over so many different things that can change someone's life so very much, "The Hotel New Hampshire explores adult issues like incest, terrorism, suicide, freakish deaths, and gang rape all infused with Irving's trademark macabre humor". Even though most of Irving's novels travel to Vienna, The Hotel New Hampshire shows us the dark side of Vienna where his other novels show how beautiful Vienna is. As for the three hotels, "According to Irving, the hotels are symbols for the passage from infancy to maturity". The Hotel New Hampshire takes you through the three stages of growing up. The first hotel is childhood, the second is adolescence and "the last Hotel New Hampshire was never- and never will be a hotel" (pg. 386). This is where John and father get better again. John Irving takes us through another one of his families growing up in 1950 America. This novel starts out with a brief history on how the Berry's first met, then to present time where the Berry family has eight members; Winslow (father), Mary (mother), Frank, Franny, John (narrator), Lilly, and Egg. The Berry's start out in there mothers home in which they sell to have enough money for their first hotel the original Hotel New Hampshire. When this is a flop they are called to Vienna where they are to start another hotel on the way here Mary and Egg are both killed in a plane accident. In Vienna the second Hotel New Hampshire turns out to be nothing but a whore hotel. Once this has flopped what is left of the Berry family then moves back to America. Now here the third Hotel New Hampshire, which isn't really a hotel is redone and this is where Winslow and John live. The Hotel New Hampshire had the "You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed" (pg. 419) feel to it. I absolutely got obsessed and stayed obsessed. I loved this book and recommend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Another Entertaining Read
Review: I have been reading the other reviews of this book and am suprised that so many people seem to have found it disapointing. Last month I stayed awake until about 6AM reading The Cider House RUles (sometimes it takes a hit movie to introduce you to an amazing author), and then the week after reading The World According to Garp, I've been hooked on Irving since and have not been disapointed most especially not when reading the Hotel New Hampshire. This book was full of the off the wall humour I expect as well as the touching sentimentality that drove me to tears in Garp. Irving in New Hampshire has created an unusual depth in his characters while at the sime time spinning a captivating, heartbreaking, funny, and serious story. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this book as well as all Irivings novels. His books will last because his characters with all their flaws are timeless.
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