LordBeardsley's review
The Hotel New Hampshire (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by John Irving
LordBeardsley's review
The Hotel New Hampshire (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by John Irving
LordBeardsley's review
rating:
bookshelves:
books-read-2005,
read2007
recommended for: quixotic dreamers
I love this novel despite its flaws. It's rare when you read a great novel that shows its flaws so openly, but still manages to be a good novel. I don't recomend this as the first John Irving book for anyone to read. I'd say, make it your third or fourth. This book tends to do what I've never seen any novels do and which is not necessarily a good thing which is list off what is going on rather than describe it. It sort of reads as a really brilliant first draft for a book that isn't finished and hasn't found a plot. I don't buy the ending at all and it is very apparent that he should have done less listing off and more description, ended it way before the plodding last chapter, and tried to focus on one central plotline.
I don't know why, but I still really like this book. It's hilarious, totally weird, and involves Irving's strange fascination with bears...it even has a scene where a lesbian in a bear suit rapes a rapist. I mean, that earns it some points right there.
I don't know why, but I still really like this book. It's hilarious, totally weird, and involves Irving's strange fascination with bears...it even has a scene where a lesbian in a bear suit rapes a rapist. I mean, that earns it some points right there.
