05.27.2005 The Hotel New Hampshire By John Irving Literary Fiction (c) 1981 401 pages

John Irving is my aunt's favorite author, and I had enjoyed Setting Free the Bears, so when I saw this at a book sale, I picked it up. The Hotel New Hampshire tells the story of the Berry family, narrated by the middle son, as they live in four different hotels in two separate countries. Frank, the gay misfit; Franny, the beautiful pillar of the family; John, the narrator; Lilly, the tiny writer; Egg, the baby; and their parents.

Hotel New Hampshire is a hefty story, full of so many deaths and loves and births and events that you can't read ten pages without something important happening. (It reminded me of how life is -- it seems like something big is happening all the time, but nothing ever seems as important now as it did 100 pages ago.) It made for a unique and consistently entertaining book, and Irving's style in writing makes me think of him more as a storyteller than just a novel writer.

I was most impressed by the tightness and execution of plot, but a close second is the characters and character development. Along with the book's many events are the book's many characters -- so many that, also like the plot, you forget that some even existed. However, as interesting as the plot and characters were, the book was almost devoid of theme. There was about a page-long conclusion which provided some sense of theme, but it felt tacked on. But I guess since the book so closely mirrored life, and life's meaning is either unclear or non-existant, it's fitting to the book. But without something to take away from the read, it felt kind of hollow. However, it is still an excellent book, especially if you're looking for a good plot and good characters.

4/5 STARS

FAVORITE AMAZON REVIEW by Barron Laycock
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.

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