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The Hotel New Hampshire

by John Irving (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 31,012 ratings · 943 reviews

“The first of my father’s illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels.” So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times...more

Paperback, 520 pages

Published October 22nd 1982 by Black Swan (first published 1981)

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Sep 01, 2009 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009, good-fiction, feminism-and-or-gender-related, families, funny-shit, memorable-characters

If you haven't read Irving yet, I think you should give him a try. This novel isn't one of his "big three", but it's damn good.

First off, most Irving novels have some general characteristics:

- They typically have a Dickensian plot, in which you follow the characters through large portions of their lives. The breadth of the novel typically goes through one generational span, but often you'll get (at least) a few beginning chapters detailing the lives of the protagonist's parents or grandparents,...more

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Jeremy Well, I have come to see that it happens for many folks. I fell into Irving rather by accident when I returned from summer break for my senior high sc...more
updated Jan 05, 2011 01:58pm

Ben Yeah, I'm with you, Jeremy -- I'm always satsified at the end of an Irving novel, and it doesn't have anything to do with his repeated themes. Bears o...more
updated Jan 05, 2011 02:04pm

Dec 15, 2007 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

To describe the plotline of The Hotel New Hampshire to a questioning would-be reader is to realize that you’ve been enthralled with a plot that is, at its core, rather silly. Circus bears and run-down hotels, plane crashes (so silly!) and midgets, botched taxidermy and obsessive weight-lifting – these are what Irving novels are made of. This was an undeniably fun read that I sped through, and I picked up another Irving (A Widow for One Year) as soon as I was done (I just can’t get enough). It wi...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Awesome book. I had never read Irving before, and I have no idea why not. He's like that Deli that you always drive by but never go into, then one day decide "what the hell" and it turns out to have the best pastrami sandwich you've ever had in your life.

Anyway, the story revolves around an unusual family growing up and learning about sex, sports, love, death, failure, success, etc etc. It's quirky and funny and strange - Irving has a knack for finding little bits of truth in truly bizarre situ...more

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Aug 25, 2008 Schmacko rated it 3 of 5 stars

(This was the first book of my new book club).

John Irving is one of America’s great writers. Happy Days was one of America’s most popular television shows. (Don’t worry this will make sense later)

Happy Days was beloved, but everyone knows there was one episode where everything seems to start to go downhill for Fonzie and the kids; it was the episode where Fonzie drove his motorcycle over a ramp and jumped a shark. Now the phrase “jumped the shark” is utilized for that point whenever anything goe...more (This was the first book of my new book club).

John Irving is one of America’s great writers. Happy Days was one of America’s most popular television shows. (Don’t worry this will make sense later)

Happy Days was beloved, but everyone knows there was one episode where everything seems to start to go downhill for Fonzie and the kids; it was the episode where Fonzie drove his motorcycle over a ramp and jumped a shark. Now the phrase “jumped the shark” is utilized for that point whenever anything goes absurd, turns sours, declines, takes a turn for the worse, or generally decreases in value.

In Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving starts by writing a pretty affecting and darkly comic book about family and their commitment to each other. The Berry family follows the dreamer father Win and his ridiculous, half-baked schemes to relative ruin. Before the five children are born, Win buys a circus bear and motorcycle off of a Jewish performer. When the children are young, the family converts an old girls’ school into a downscale hotel – The Hotel New Hampshire. Later, they’ll follow the dad to Europe and back.

The book is well-written and easy to read. Also, there is some macabre humor with the bear, the family dog, and some misaimed taxidermy. However, the book also contains rape and incest. But THAT isn’t particularly where Hotel New Hampshire jumps the shark; it could have been handled in a sensitive and insightful way (it isn’t, but it could’ve been). The place where the whole story goes severely awry is half-way through the book with the reintroduction of the bear theme (and that’s what it feels like, a reintroduction of a theme, and not a natural or believable turn of a good story. It’s wholly implausible; I found myself actually loathing and disbelieving the idea and the character it was attached to).

Once the novel jumps the shark, you realize Irving has all along been cruel and insensitive on every page of the book – on the subject of rape, on the idea of sibling sexual attraction, on the adoption of feminist concept, on political dissent, on prostitution, and on the lives of little people.

One thing saves this book; for all his callousness, Irving can still – almost accidentally – write about the love of a mother in a way that is emotionally affecting. He can create the peculiar personalities of siblings that make you care for them and want to be related to them. He creates a unique and lovable grandfather, and even the dreamer dad is sweet in many ways. Especially affecting is the story of the old Jewish performer and his love for his adopted Berry family.

Still, there’s that major stumble exactly half-way through the book that makes me wince each and every time I think about it. Some writers jump the shark – others fall in the tank.
(less)

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May 15, 2007 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i've probably read this 10 times now. i went through a john irving phase, and i ODed about half-way through. (140lb marriage is a terrible book, btw. don't do it).

but this is one of my favorite books. it would be desert island number three, but it's a little too sad... i don't think it would be a good idea to isolate myself with it on an island to read again and again for eternity. that said, it's irving at his best. anyone who can take a family involved in incest and abuse and prostitution and...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Kinga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: odd, incest, usa, austria

I've always known about 'Hotel New Hampshire'. I never knew what it was about but I knew there was a book. I knew there was a film too. I somehow imagined it to be something Hitchock-like mixed Last Tango In Paris. Imagine my surprise. So far there is something about a bear. I will finish this review when I am done reading.

Ok. Done reading. I don't think John Irving will ever get five stars from me. Though he is an excellent story-teller - and this is what a purpose of every novel should be - to...more

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Aug 28, 2008 Jacob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-and-literature, i-own, irving-james-melville, 2008-2009

August 2008

This book seems to thumb its nose at the 1-5 star rating scale, and I almost can't decide what to think of it. Five stars? Well, the first part of the novel--the First Hotel New Hampshire--is certainly worth that. Four stars? In places, yes. Three stars? The ending, in the epilogue and the Third Hotel. Two stars and one star? Jesus God, the Second Hotel, Vienna, the return of Freud--and that bear!

In a way, The Hotel New Hampshire feels partly like a companion novel to The World Accord...more August 2008

This book seems to thumb its nose at the 1-5 star rating scale, and I almost can't decide what to think of it. Five stars? Well, the first part of the novel--the First Hotel New Hampshire--is certainly worth that. Four stars? In places, yes. Three stars? The ending, in the epilogue and the Third Hotel. Two stars and one star? Jesus God, the Second Hotel, Vienna, the return of Freud--and that bear!

In a way, The Hotel New Hampshire feels partly like a companion novel to The World According to Garp. Where John Irving apparently spent his first three novels paving the way for, and building up to, Garp, with hints of that great book scattered here and there, waiting to be born, this novel after Garp feels like a glorified dumping-ground for all of Irving's leftover ideas: Vienna, whores, bears, the theme of rape, the unusual childhoods, New England, the doomed writers, the strange sexual couplings, both the comic and the tragic deaths--all of that is there, though altered, slightly twisted, made to fit an eccentric father and his eccentric family trapped in a serious world instead of a serious woman and her serious son trapped in an eccentric world.

Yet despite all that, I can't really bring myself to hate this book. Like I said, it still feels like a companion piece to Garp, my favorite Irving book. What drew me into The World According to Garp was the way Irving took a historical setting, postwar New England and Europe, and used that as a launching point to invent his own history (rather than starting with a slightly invented setting and using that as a launchpad for his characters to be shaped by history instead, as in A Prayer for Owen Meany), and that's the same thing that drew me into this book. Whatever else happened to America and the world in the '50s and '60s doesn't matter--here comes the Berry Family!

So even if the mirror The Hotel New Hampshire holds up to Garp is one of those crazy twisted funhouse mirrors, I still have fond feelings for it. And because three stars is the average of five, four, three, two, and one--well, three stars it gets, and yet it's still a favorite.(less)

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Jan 02, 2008 Suede rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, and at first I did. But then they went to Vienna...and then it just got long. And confused. And I really hate to do this here, in such a public forum, but, I really think it's my duty as a goodreads do gooder...

BT, yet again your 5 star rating is WRONG. You should be ashamed of yourself. What are you doing, just clicking haphazardly on stars? Are you not taking your job here seriously? Am I going to have to ban you from reading? I think you need to take a momen...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Deena rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-lit, bleah

I learned never to read John Irving ever again. I'd like to give this even less than one star, if there were a way.

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May 25, 2009 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

"So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone's older brother, and someone's older sister - they become our heroes, too. We invent what we love, and what we fear. There is always a brave, lost brother - and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on; the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them."

I have started writing this review four, five times? I...more

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Apr 27, 2008 Alex Watkins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

So far this is the weakest John Irving book I have read. His books are always crazy and slightly unbelievable, but this is the first time I didn't believe. Spoilers ahead. First off all I just didn't believe the plane death. Who travels in plans separately, did people actually do this? You drive in the same car together, going separately just doubles your risk. Plane crashes are just so unlikely that I didn't buy this for a second. I really liked Egg and Mother, but wasn't sad when they died bec...more

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Mar 21, 2008 Shriya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Shriya by: Hari

Shelves: the-best

I read this book a long time ago for the first time, but only recently since then. I'd forgotten what a good author John Irving was- or maybe it's just that at 12 years of age, I wasn't able to appreciate everything he was getting at.

I really liked this book for the way in which it makes me laugh - at especially unfunny situations. Frank and his cymbals. Egg who was named egg, because well, he was just an agg when he was conceived. Lilly who tried to grow - and maybe everyone else should have tr...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Willy rated it 4 of 5 stars

'Classical' John Irving book.
Has a lot in common with Garp an The Cider House Rules: casual storytelling, sympathetic characters, ...
If you like these two books, definitely read this one too.

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Apr 15, 2013 Tom rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book did not interest me as much as the other John Irving book which I have read, The World According to Garp. It was interesting how with both these books the subjects of bears, hotels, and Vienna, Austria all pop up in both. I am curious as to what in the life of Irving has fostered these fascinations.

The book had a dreamy quality for me. Part of this is that the children of the Berry family talk in a precocious manner. There is no difference in how the kids talk at age 10 or age 40. The...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Miranda Ruth added it Recommends it for: Don't really know. You'd either love or hate it.

Recommended to Miranda Ruth by: I'd rather not say

Shelves: books-that-shaped-me

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them… That’s what happens, like it or not. And because that’s wha...more
So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them… That’s what happens, like it or not. And because that’s what happens, this is what we need: we need a good, smart bear… Coach Bob knew it all along: you’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows.

It's possible to have your life changed by a book you don't even like. I certainly didn't care for Hotel New Hampshire when I first encountered it in 1983. It was one of the darkest times of my life. I had lost my mother to a boy much closer to my age (at that time) than hers and I didn't have anyone else. I couldn't find a job and I was living in a lousy flat with a flatmate who wouldn't speak to me (I don't entirely blame her for that). All I could think about was how great my recent college years had been and wonder where all that happiness went.

I was so desperate for connection that whenever my mother raved about a book her lover had introduced her to, I gave it a try just to imagine being close to her. Sad but true. For most of my life our relationship had been so intense that I'd never really learned how to be intimate with anyone else, so she was all I had. And she was obsessed. F's music, F's books, F's philosophy - all of it was wonderful. She even fantasised about passing him on to me one day, after she'd gone. I think she knew she wasn't going to live much longer, a premonition that turned out to be correct.

So anyway, I tried this crazy American blend of wrestling, dogs Elvis, Freud, Vienna and God-knows-what-else. And every now and then a sentence would leap out and grab me. I couldn't think of a better piece of advice for myself at the time than Coach Bob's mantra, "Keep passing open windows." Because boy, did I want to leap out of a few.

Despite the occasional powerful line, the book didn't engage me emotionally until, out of nowhere, completely left-field, the mother died in an air-crash. And to say I fell apart at that moment would be an understatement. I came very close to having a breakdown. I couldn't understand why I felt as if this was my loss, my grief, my bereavement, but I lived every step of the grieving characters' bleak journey with them for the next few chapters. I wanted nothing more for them than what they wanted for themselves, to return to America where they'd been happy. And in the end they did, and though some horrible things happened to them there, it felt right. They were home.

Four months after I finished the book my mother died. Everybody said how brave I was. I think there were two reasons for that. One, our relationship had become so painful and so dishonest that it was genuinely a relief to carry on alone without her. And two, by the grace of some strange providence, I'd already done my grieving. That was John Irving's gift to me.

I kept the book for many years, and I wrote on the flyleaf,

"Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?"

How did the story end? Well, F_______ hooked up with my mother's best friend, also a lot older than him, split her family down the middle, gave her a child and disappeared from her life when she became chronically sick. I was luckier. I found a good smart bear and married him. We've been together over 25 years.(less)

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Feb 08, 2013 Ellyn Oaksmith rated it 5 of 5 stars

If it weren't for book club I wouldn't have finished this amazing book so let's be thankful for books clubs. They might be a hotbed of gossip and sometimes you read books that seem like a total waste of time but John Irving is one of my favorite authors and this might be his best. A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules are, to me, much more accessible. They aren't, like this book, teaming with so many nuts jobs that you long for a simple, charming character. But this one, about half w...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I missed John Irving's latest - somewhere in a world of loggers and bacon fat frying in a pan and a mother's love cut short and...and...what's the title? I probably need to read it.

Widow for a Year was disturbing, which is Irving's Shtick I suppose. This book is no different. In fact, I don't know where to begin. The family beat is the primary focus. The way family members rip off of one another in a close and familiar way that only the narrator can hear. There are surprises that kill characters...more

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May 01, 2012 Mortalform added it · review of another edition

Shelves: more-like-litt

Book club book #1

“...You take every opportunity given to you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day opportunities stop, you know?” p 30

In the darkness, where the imagination is never impeded... p 64

The first of my fathers illusions was that bears could survive the life lead by human beings, the second was that human beings could survive a life lead in hotels. p 65

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Just go out and get me yesterday and most of today” she said. “I want them back....more

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Mar 29, 2012 Hikari rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Das ist mein zweiter Irving nach Garp. Und auch dieses Buch gefällt mir wirklich sehr. Es ist berührend, skurril, anders, traurig, humorvoll, ironisch, schockierend, seltsam, lebhaft, ruhig und irgendwie verträumt. Dabei ist es in seiner Sprache mehr klar und nüchtern, manchmal überzogen und ohne Blatt vor dem Mund. Das Hotel New Hampshire handelt von der Familie Berry, es beginnt damit, wie die Eltern sich kennen lernen und die 5 Kinder bekommen. Und wie das erste Hotel New Hampshire entsteht....more

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Mar 12, 2012 Karl S.T. rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first novel I’ve read from Irving that I considered to be one of my favorites and possibly one of his best though basically it doesn’t have any plot to start with. The novel is about the Berry’s, a quirky and bizarre family. How they lived their life full of surprises, tragedies, death and realization. It starts with the overwhelming desire of the Berry father to run a hotel and the belief that a family can survive a life living in a hotel. The Berry’s consists of the affectionate mother, (w...more The first novel I’ve read from Irving that I considered to be one of my favorites and possibly one of his best though basically it doesn’t have any plot to start with. The novel is about the Berry’s, a quirky and bizarre family. How they lived their life full of surprises, tragedies, death and realization. It starts with the overwhelming desire of the Berry father to run a hotel and the belief that a family can survive a life living in a hotel. The Berry’s consists of the affectionate mother, (who I thought was one of the most sympathetic characters in the story), Frank, their eldest homosexual son, Franny, the weirdest and their beautiful daughter, John, the narrator (and the one whose always in crisis), Lily the writer and Egg the egg.

The Hotel New Hampshire is a hilarious, heartbreaking and the most touching family saga I’ve ever read. Every character will grab the readers’ attention, sympathies’ and love. Just when things start to get happy, then tragedy strikes (an Irving signature). The book though has many chapters, is in my opinion does have only two parts. I am not sure to say that Mr. Irving eliminates any other to make way for new characters (and to fully control them) because after you’ve gone to the second part, a realization that some certain characters do not to fit on the situation thus they should have to be eliminated.

This is the type of book I really hate to leave, not being overdramatic but I just really want to read more about them, of course it’s a saga so everyone has to say goodbye. After finishing this one, its people still lingers in my mind and I still wonder what they’re up to until now. It also contains the most readable lines I’ve ever read, it makes me stop and think until fully realizing its significance before continuing. Though it has a different plot, it came to my mind that it shares the same setting with the manga (comic) Maison Ikkoku from one of my most favorite manga-ka (comic artist), Rumiko Takahashi (creator of Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2).

If I am to recommend an Irving novel to make you read more from him, this would probably the one I’ll pick together with his The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp. I highly recommend this one. The Hotel New Hampshire is also adapted to screen in 1984 .

Opening Sentence: The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born-we weren’t even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Franny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg.

Ending Sentence: You have to keep passing the open windows.(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I could write like John Irving, I would be one of the happiest people in the world. He knows how to blend ridiculously surreal humor with deeply painful pathos like no other writer I know.

This chronicle of the Berry family (Father, Mother, Frank, Franny, Lilly, Egg, our protagonist, and Sorrow) and three Hotel New Hampshires takes us from 1920s New England to 1950s Vienna to 1960s New York and back to New England, from a real circus bear to a woman who feels safer pretending to be a bear, and...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Ally rated it 5 of 5 stars

Hotel New Hampshire is that book for me. That one great book. It makes me want to go back to any other book I rated with 5 stars and lower them down at least one - because surely they do not compare to this one.

It's impossible to summarize Hotel New Hampshire and have it make sense to someone who has either not read it, or not read anything else by Irving. It contains bears, little people, taxidermy and radicals. The story has many fantastical elements - but at the core of this novel is a story...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Natalie Wilhelm rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read 'The Hotel New Hamsphire' a over a decade ago. I just remember being shocked about the incestuous line in the story. Thinking, "This is ruining this! Why does John Irving always do this? Completely charming characters, interesting storyline, and then the sickness. It's always in there. The dysfunction. The immoral. I know it's a part of the real world, and I don't consider myself a prude, I just don't always want to fill my head with it.
The "great story" is far enough away now (I read it...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Dominique Burgett Leonard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is very difficult to summarise the plot of The Hotel New Hampshire because there are many characters and many events, and I regard all of those characters and events as being important. Very basically, it is about the Berry family: Win; Mary; Frank; Franny; John; Lilly; Egg; and Iowa Bob. However, saying that The Hotel New Hampshire is about the Berry family is like saying War and Peace is about the French invasion of Russia, or Animal Farm is about farm animals. The most memorable things for...more It is very difficult to summarise the plot of The Hotel New Hampshire because there are many characters and many events, and I regard all of those characters and events as being important. Very basically, it is about the Berry family: Win; Mary; Frank; Franny; John; Lilly; Egg; and Iowa Bob. However, saying that The Hotel New Hampshire is about the Berry family is like saying War and Peace is about the French invasion of Russia, or Animal Farm is about farm animals. The most memorable things for me about the The Hotel New Hampshire are the following:
The saying “Keep passing the open windows”. This phrase recurs throughout the book as a catchphrase among the Berry family, and something now that I also frequently say, or think. It is drawn from a story that the Berry parents tell their children, about a street performer called "The King of Mice." Saying "Keep passing the open windows" is the family's way of telling each other to persevere when things aren't going well. Lilly, the second youngest child, eventually kills herself by jumping out of a window, having become too depressed with her life to “keep passing the open windows”.
When the family moved to Vienna, the parents took separate flights, just in case one of the planes crashed; and one of the planes DID crash. Mary, the mother, and Egg, the youngest child, died in the crash. That seemed horribly sad, yet inevitable, to me. I try to not think of bad things happening because of that.
“Sorrow floats” is another catchphrase frequently repeated in the story after that incident because, when rescuers were searching for remains of where the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, amongst the wreckage found floating was the family's pet dog, Sorrow, who Frank, the oldest child, had stuffed after the dog had been put to sleep because of excessive flatulence. I don't use that phrase, but I remember it sometimes when I'm feeling sad.
After his mother died, John, the narrator and third oldest or third youngest child (in other words, the middle child), decided that he wouldn't use swear words anymore, because she hated how everyone in the family, especially Franny, the second oldest child, used foul language all the time. I never really swore much before reading The Hotel New Hampshire, but I made a point of it afterwards. I like to think my vocabulary has benefited tremendously because of it.
After Franny was raped, John took up weight-lifting to try to get bigger and stronger so that he could protect her in the future, if not in the past. I thought that was a good idea, so I took it up too. John continued with it for the rest of his life, as have I, although I have never achieved the mass of muscle that John did.
John was in love with Franny. I was intrigued by this, and reminded of it when later in life I fell in love with one of my cousins, though that relationship faded very quickly rather than coming to the drawn-out resolution that John's and Franny's did.(less)

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Aug 17, 2009 Dominique Burgett Leonard added it

It is very difficult to summarise the plot of The Hotel New Hampshire because there are many characters and many events, and I regard all of those characters and events as being important. Very basically, it is about the Berry family: Win; Mary; Frank; Franny; John; Lilly; Egg; and Iowa Bob. However, saying that The Hotel New Hampshire is about the Berry family is like saying War and Peace is about the French invasion of Russia, or Animal Farm is about farm animals. The most memorable things for...more It is very difficult to summarise the plot of The Hotel New Hampshire because there are many characters and many events, and I regard all of those characters and events as being important. Very basically, it is about the Berry family: Win; Mary; Frank; Franny; John; Lilly; Egg; and Iowa Bob. However, saying that The Hotel New Hampshire is about the Berry family is like saying War and Peace is about the French invasion of Russia, or Animal Farm is about farm animals. The most memorable things for me about the The Hotel New Hampshire are the following:
The saying “Keep passing the open windows”. This phrase recurs throughout the book as a catchphrase among the Berry family, and something now that I also frequently say, or think. It is drawn from a story that the Berry parents tell their children, about a street performer called "The King of Mice." Saying "Keep passing the open windows" is the family's way of telling each other to persevere when things aren't going well. Lilly, the second youngest child, eventually kills herself by jumping out of a window, having become too depressed with her life to “keep passing the open windows”.
When the family moved to Vienna, the parents took separate flights, just in case one of the planes crashed; and one of the planes DID crash. Mary, the mother, and Egg, the youngest child, died in the crash. That seemed horribly sad, yet inevitable, to me. I try to not think of bad things happening because of that.
“Sorrow floats” is another catchphrase frequently repeated in the story after that incident because, when rescuers were searching for remains of where the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, amongst the wreckage found floating was the family's pet dog, Sorrow, who Frank, the oldest child, had stuffed after the dog had been put to sleep because of excessive flatulence. I don't use that phrase, but I remember it sometimes when I'm feeling sad.
After his mother died, John, the narrator and third oldest or third youngest child (in other words, the middle child), decided that he wouldn't use swear words anymore, because she hated how everyone in the family, especially Franny, the second oldest child, used foul language all the time. I never really swore much before reading The Hotel New Hampshire, but I made a point of it afterwards. I like to think my vocabulary has benefited tremendously because of it.
After Franny was raped, John took up weight-lifting to try to get bigger and stronger so that he could protect her in the future, if not in the past. I thought that was a good idea, so I took it up too. John continued with it for the rest of his life, as have I, although I have never achieved the mass of muscle that John did.
John was in love with Franny. I was intrigued by this, and reminded of it when later in life I fell in love with one of my cousins, though that relationship faded very quickly rather than coming to the drawn-out resolution that John's and Franny's did.(less)

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Aug 14, 2009 Mikhail rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books

I was attempting a description of this book for my friend some days ago, boiling it down, stripping it from its simple-y, Irving prose, as well as its tremendous sense of humor, and thought to myself, "My oh-my, this novel certainly sounds dark and disturbed." But it's not. Only Irving--and his populist-writing ways--has the ability to take such ludicrous ideas, ideas that conservative people would go red in the cheeks for and grab their heart--"Lord, this is too much! I must turn back to my tru...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Josie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this book. I found out about it through one of my social work professors in college because in the book, there is a dog named Sorrow and I was really intrigued by the symbolism that Sorrow comes to represent throughout the book. There are some sad moments as well as some unorthodox moments (uh, brotherly-sisterly love?!?!) but....aside from that, I really like this book. John Irving's writing is definitely quirky and different than most, but he is one of my favorite authors.

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Feb 15, 2011 Allegra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, makes-me-wanna-write, by-a-fave-author

...for the third time. There are certainly scenes and plotlines (and even a character named Susie) that seem a bit too far-fetched. But like his influences (I'm thinking mainly Hawthorne here), Irving isn't speaking to the truth of the world around us, but rather the truth of our hearts. So sure, it's hard to buy bits when thinking only pragmatically, but easy when you examine what those bits mean--to the characters whose lives and fears are terribly real, to the family whose closeness is writte...more

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Dec 16, 2009 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Quirky, bizarre, tragic, fiendishly funny, "The Hotel New Hampshire" is anything but a conventional family saga, though a family saga it certainly is. The Berry family are different. Love abounds - both healthy and incestuous. It is the overwhelming desire of the Berry father to run a hotel, which he does, with dubious success, in both a former girls' school in New Hampshire, and in Vienna. It is the Berry children who grab the readers' attention, sympathies and love - all five of them: Frank (t...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Carole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kaikki isäni hotellit on kiva lukukokemus, jota omalla kohdalla hieman varjosti aiemmin lukemani Irvingin Garpin maailma. Kirjojen maailmat ovat hyvin samankaltaisia ja roolihahmoissa, tapahtumissa ja tapahtumapaikoissa on paljon samaa, eli kirja ei täysin uutta maailmaa avannut. Itseäni nämä samankaltaisuudet häiritsivät hieman, mutta toisaalta hyvä kirjailija osaa käyttää samojakin aineksia useammissa tarinoissaan niin, että ne jaksavat aina pitää kiinnostuksen yllä. Irving osaa!
Jostain syystä...more

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About John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty...more John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty-five foreign languages, and he has had nine international bestsellers. Worldwide, the Irving novel most often called “an American classic” is A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)—the portrayal of an enduring friendship at that time when the Vietnam War had its most divisive effect on the United States.

In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, until he was thirty-four, and coached the sport until he was forty-seven.) In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a Lasse Hallström film with seven Academy Award nominations. Tod Williams wrote and directed The Door in the Floor—the 2004 film adapted from Mr. Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year.

In One Person is John Irving’s thirteenth novel, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2012. A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love — tormented, funny, and affecting — and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 — in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.

His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers — a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”

Born John Wallace Blunt, Jr., in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, Mr. Irving’s name was changed to John Winslow Irving in 1948, when his mother remarried. (His mother’s maiden name was Winslow.) Mr. Irving named his first son, Colin, after his stepfather, Colin F.N. Irving, who taught in the History Department at Phillips Exeter Academy, where John Irving graduated in 1961; he was captain of the wrestling team at Exeter, and also wrestled at the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Irving later attended the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria. He has a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and a M.F.A. from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where his mentor was Kurt Vonnegut.

Before the success of The World According to Garp enabled John Irving to become a full-time writer, he had several college teaching positions—not only at his alma mater in Iowa City, where he taught for three years, but also at Mt. Holyoke College and Brandeis University.

In the ‘80s, Mr. Irving lived in New York City and on eastern Long Island; since 1990, he has lived in Toronto and in southern Vermont. He has three sons—Colin, Brendan, and Everett—and four grandchildren. John Irving is married to Janet Turnbull Irving—formerly a Canadian publisher, who is now Mr. Irving’s literary agent in the U.S. His agent in Canada, and for the U.K., is Dean Cooke—at the Cooke Agency in Toronto. Mr. Irving is represented internationally by Nicki Kennedy at I.L.A. in London; his film agent is Robert Bookman at C.A.A. in Los Angeles.

In 2001, Mr. Irving was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Irving’s 70th birthday is March 2, 2012.(less)

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“You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.” — 1,331 people liked it

“It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.” — 214 people liked it

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