Rating: Summary: John Irving is Wonderful, but this is a little out there. Review: I love John Irving's work, but the characters in The Hotel New Hampshire are just a little too far out there. Still a fun story, but definitely odd.
Rating: Summary: Not Irving's finest work Review: Irving's HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE may very well be his most disappointing novel. His keen sense of the absurd displayed in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY is absent here. The characters are so bizarre that they border on self-parody. They are flatly drawn and one dimensional. The book felt like a novel version of one of T.S. Garp's second rate short stories.
Rating: Summary: Second only to Owen Review: The Hotel New Hampshire is not only one of the most heartbreaking books ever, but it is fabulously entertainging. Franny made me cry, Sorrow made me laugh, and Junior Jones restored my faith in men. If it weren't for that pesky Owen Meany, The Hotel would be my favorite book.
Rating: Summary: Maybe sorrow floats because its pure Review: Tragi-comic farce about the implausible adventures of an eccentric family of hotel owners. Irving creates some memorable scenes, and the book is at its edgy best when depicting the incestuous sexual tensions. But all of this is done much better in A Prayer for Owen Meany, so if you've already read Owen Meany you will only be disappointed in Hotel New Hampshire.The worst of this book are the heavy-handed literary references, and the over-the-top exotica and tragedy, which sometimes seems to be created for shock effect at the expense of the reader's willingness to see the fiction as real. While washing with Ivory soap I thought that maybe "sorrow floats" because its pure, and I was grateful that I could own that as my own observation because I kept expecting to turn the page and find it written, which would have caused me to throw the book across the room.
Rating: Summary: Only for those who LIKE to read Review: I adore this book. It shows such imagination and reagrd for the characters that I couldn't put it down. I have just read some of the other reviews on this page and have come to the conclusion that those who feel that they must a) ruin the plot for others; and b) drone on about how much they hated it should a) see if they could ever write anything others would feel compelled to read; and b) calm down! If you didn't like it, fair enough, but going on and on about it makes you sound like a philistine. Anyway, in my opinion this is Irving's best, Franny was wonderful and now I know how to say 'spanner' in German!
Rating: Summary: I've never seen a family that made mine look so normal Review: I couldn't put this book down. Dysfunctional family has a whole new meaning.
Rating: Summary: Very good book Review: The Hotel New Hampsire is a very good book. It was the first time i read a book from Irving but I really like his style Can someone explain me the theories of Freud that are hidden in this book?
Rating: Summary: type of literature that makes you want to be a writer too Review: I've read practially all of Mr.Irving's books...but by far this is my favourite. From beginning to end I was enthralled by the cast of characters as though they were personal friends of mine. Whereas in other books I've often wondered if the characters were social recluses, I could not say the same for these very alive souls. Trust me, buy this book, you won't reget it. I had on many an occasion to turn to the front cover astounded that one man could write so brillantly...only those who savour good literature would grasp what I'm alluding to here.
Rating: Summary: A Wonderful book! Review: I loved this book. I laughed and I cried. Only John Irving could make these crazy characters seem so believable. My favorite line from the book: "Keep passing the open windows."
Rating: Summary: strong and disturbing Review: I haven't read any of John Irving's other works. Maybe if I had, I would agree with the reviewers who said this paled in comparison. However, standing on its own, the novel shines. It was moving, involving, strange and disturbing, and it is still hanging out in my subconscious. By the way, Fiona Apple liked it too - that's why I read it in the first place.
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