Rating: 
Summary: Unforgettable, beautiful, wonderful
Review: I read this book for the 1st time about 17-18 years ago, and I've thought of it many a day since then. It is still one of the only books I've ever read that I felt so fortunate to read, one of the only books that made me laugh out loud several times, and for all the comedic passages, there is a poignancy and sadness about this story that grounds it beautifully. I feel truly sorry for the people who have come away from this book with disappointment or dislike; I think they've missed the point and the world is probably a greyer place for them, than for me.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and profound
Review: The story of a bear who is hauled around as if he were human shows off the great narrative qualities of john irving, one of my best loved authors. parts of this book made me laugh to tears and other shook me up in their profoundness. a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Irving's saddest hour?
Review: Those readers with the stomach to wade through all the pathos of this decades spanning tale will be rewarded with a rich reading experience. For those who wimp out, you don't know what you are missing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but a disappointment considering it is Irving
Review: "The Hotel New Hampshire" is an enjoyable novel, but it falls far from being memorable. Perhaps one of the reasons is that its structure, themes and even settings are very similar to "Garp", his previous masterpiece. In fact, this novel could very well be called "The World According to the Berry Family". Unfortunately, what worked well in "Garp" seems repetitive and somehow tiresome in this novel. First of all, there is the issue of Irving's constant recurrent motives. I understand that every writer has his fixations. However this novel seems to be driven more by these themes (Vienna, bears, prep-schools, prostitutes, rapes, ...) than by the characters themselves. I mean, didn't anyone find the whole Vienna section horribly tedious? Did anyone really cared about the prostitutes or the radicals? And yes, these characters are really bizarre, but was there really any substance behind? Not really. Another thing that really annoyed me is the irritating dialogue, which is really a repetitive set of one-liners. This worked well in "Garp", but here it is derivative and tiresome. Yes, Mr. Irving, the characters are bizarre, but it would have been nice to include some more dialogue to get to know them a bit better. And what about the ineffectual narrator? I would have preferred Frank, Franny or Lilly as a narrator, since John was very unappealing. Also, Frank was very underdeveloped. Having said all this, I must say that the novel does have its charms. Some characters, like Iowa Bob, Lilly, or even Egg, are delightful. I enjoyed the part of the novel which takes place in The First Hotel NH, and the ending was quite heartbreaking. Most of all, I liked the loving, warm, cosy feeling of family unit that flows from the story. "The Hotel New Hampshire" is an entertaining and original novel which could have been much better.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome To John Irving's Hospitality Suite!
Review: I have really puzzled over some of the comments other reviewers have made about this book, and wonder if they read the same one I have read (and reread several times). First of all, Irving is known for his strange, evocative and surreal sensibilities; witness the bee sting killing in "Setting Free the Bears" or the ritual tongue-surgeries in "The World According to Garp". Criticizing him on that level means the reviewer is really not too familiar with the corpus of Irving's work, so probably doesn't "get" what it is Irving is saying. Also, it is in the face of such absurdities that all of us must, at least according to Irving, try to find the meaning and purpose of our own lives, like Garp or any of the other figures on the proverbial journeys he sets them on. Finally, Irving's duty isn't to just entertain the reader in a predictable way, but rather to play artfully with the notion that he can create a surreal world that in its own fashion represents a truer & more understandable world than the one we so drunkenly and absent-mindedly habituate every day. That's what some folks call art. Given all that, perhaps it is more useful to try to discern what it is Irving is trying to say so artfully and colorfully in each of his novels, rather than compare one to another or make comparisons among them. I remember reading once that great novels were like fantastic gems, many of them flawed, but all of them brilliant, colorful, and beautiful to the well-trained eye. So viewed, so is this book brilliant, colorful, and beautiful. This is the tragicomic story of a family trying again and again, regardless of the personal consequences or absurdities of fate, to get it right, attempting to live one after another of their father's fatally flawed dreams, and finally coming to terms with what it most important, most lasting, and singularly true for them as people and as a family. In my humble opinion, the last few pages of this novel read as poignantly, as meaningfully, and as beautifully as anything anyone has been writing for the last half century in so-called contemporary fiction. Who but John Irving could essay with such whimsy and wile to invoke the strange totem powers of his ever-present bears to conjure up whatever magic it takes for each of us to be kind and strong and present for each other in our mutual times of need, to ask each of us to care? What he has to say about the contemporary state of relationships in our times, and about the obligations, joys and pains of living purposefully, meaningfully, and for the long haul as a loving and understanding family is as dead-on inspiring as I have ever read. How do you live meaningfully in a world full of horror, unexpected tragedy, and overwhelming purposelessness? Perhaps in the world according to John Irving, as a loving family. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome... Again
Review: Right of the Bat, I don't rate this book as highly as "The World According to Garp" or a "Prayer for Owen Meany" but lets face it, no other two books are ever going to be "that" good. This story is just so incredible, and it does manage to capture the magic of Irwings other classics, I for one love his continued obsession with Bears and Vienna, and I pity people who feel he is being narrow. His imagination for an off the wall eccentric sorry is just phenomenal. I think this book started well, it lost something in the middle with the early years in Vienna, but the end was wonderful, and so typically heart wrenching. Finally, John Irwings stands alone in development of colorful characters; right now the world is obsessed (and rightly so) with the wave known as Harry Potter, but I feel even JK Rowlings has a distance to go before she achieves what Irwing achieves with his characters... Here we have prostitutes, quarterbacks, writers, terrorists, an elusive man in a white jacket, midgets, and not forgetting a talking bear... what could be better?
Rating:
Summary: My favorite John Irving work
Review: Word for word, I believe this stacks up as the pinnacle of Irving's achievment, despite its original reception as a monied followup to Garp. The themes, the images, the locations come together here in the ultimate Irving expression.
Rating:
Summary: Dairy, New Hampshire...top of the food chain!
Review: I loved this book and finished in within a week by puttingaside all my other reading. I enjoyed the humor and as always, thedark twists of fate that befall Irving's characters. Each Irving book contains main themes; the big ones here are rape, incest, and the family unit. How someone could conceive of incest as a way to help a rape victim heal their wounds sounds incredible, but Irving pulls it off. There are several characters in the book that I couldn't help but chuckle at, like Iowa Bob and Egg. One reason I like his books so much is because of the comic relief his characters provide. Egg's deafness causing him to ask "What?" all the time was very similar to Homer Wells saying "Right!" all the time in Cider House Rules. Overall, I'd say this is my 2nd favorite Irving book behind Prayer for Owen Meany.
Rating:
Summary: One of the All Time Best Novels of our Time
Review: As a native of New Hampshire, the descriptions of the areas of New England were wonderful to read. His flare the the unusual is beautifully expressed. His characters come alive and although they are some strange characters, you can still relate to them and feel for all of them. If you are looking for something different and for a novel which you will not forget, you must read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, humane, and endearing.....
Review: I read a good portion of this book on the 9 hour ride home from college during a break. The thing I liked best about this book is the expression on my friend's face as I described the plot to him on that ride home from school. The plot is so bizarre (but nothing seems unrealistically eccentric), but it makes sense and you can't help but empathize with the characters. This is one of the funniest books I've ever read, but also one of the most endearing. It's also the first of Irving's books that I've read, but I think I've become a devoted fan.
|
