You kinda lost me as a reader!

This statement holds a certain weight. When a writer fails to engage the reader effectively, it can lead to a sense of disconnection. There could be various reasons for this. Maybe the writing style is too complex or convoluted, making it difficult for the reader to follow the train of thought.

Or perhaps the content lacks coherence and fails to present a clear and logical argument. It could also be that the writer does not establish an emotional connection with the reader, leaving them feeling uninterested and disengaged.

To avoid losing the reader, it is essential for the writer to consider their audience and tailor their writing accordingly. This includes using simple and understandable language, presenting ideas in a clear and organized manner, and appealing to the reader's emotions.

By doing so, the writer can capture the reader's attention and keep them engaged throughout the piece, resulting in a more successful and impactful piece of writing.

Que bé m'ho passo amb Irving. It's truly amazing how much fun I have when I'm with Irving. Every moment spent with him is filled with joy and excitement. We do so many wonderful things together. Whether it's going for a walk in the park, having a picnic by the lake, or simply sitting and chatting, it always feels special. Irving has this unique charm that makes everything more enjoyable. His sense of humor always has me laughing out loud, and his kind and gentle nature makes me feel so at ease. I can't imagine my life without him by my side. He is truly a great friend, and I'm so grateful to have him in my life.

I really struggled with giving this any stars. The book is so well-written and clever that I decided to rate it three. However, if rated purely on my enjoyment, it would have been zero for almost the whole book.

I used to love John Irving, but I haven't read any of his works for ages. That's why I picked up this one. Either my reading tastes have changed drastically or I made a really bad choice because I had difficulties with this from the very beginning.

The story is about a family who live in a series of hotels called the New Hampshire. It starts in the 50s and extends all the way to the 90s. A lot of things happen. There is really bad stuff and some extremely toe-curling stuff that makes you question what the author is doing. Is it real or surreal? Some parts were really hard for me to read.

Then more things occur. They move hotels from New England to Vienna with a new bear (yes, you read that right) and get involved with terrorists, prostitutes, and drink a lot of coffee. The weird and horrible stuff keeps going. Then they move back to New York.

After that, there is a very long epilogue. It may be a real epilogue or perhaps a surreal fantasy, presenting the happy ever after we dream of rather than what actually happened. I can't decide, and frankly, I didn't really care.

The thing is, this could be a novel about the American Dream. It could test the boundaries of being a novel and the concept of happy ever after. It could also be about the twistedness of America and family values. There is a small chance (but very small considering it's John Irving) that the story is just a straightforward one. But it's more likely that this is a big conceptual novel told with very dark humour, combining all these elements.

It's not that I didn't understand it. My problem is that I wasn't interested in understanding it. It's clever, funny, and dark, which I usually like. But it's also yucky, a bit smug, and just too long.

I'm sorry I read it. I have such great memories of, for example, The Cider House Rules, that I'm now scared to read another one. So I think I might put the rest of my John Irving books back on the shelves and come back to them in a few years.

Now I have read four books by John Irving, and unfortunately, none of them has received a rating higher than 3 stars.

John Irving is not a bad writer by any means. However, for some reason, his books just don't seem to click with me.

This latest book I read was a bit strange at times, but it still failed to capture my interest. I simply didn't get the humor that was supposed to be in it.

I also didn't feel invested in the characters or the plot. They just didn't seem to come alive for me.

Unless I'm completely memoryless one day and happen to pick up another one of his books at a secondhand store, I will probably not bother with his work anymore.

It's a shame really, as I know many people who love his books. But sometimes, a writer's style just doesn't mesh with your own reading preferences.

Maybe I'll give him another chance in the future, but for now, I'm moving on to other authors.

Irving is undeniably a talented writer. His family saga has the power to draw readers in and make them lose themselves within its pages. The book is filled with a plethora of characters, such as the dad, the mom, Iowa Bob, Frank, Franny, the narrator, Lilly, Egg, Junior Jones, Freud, State-O'-Maine (Earl), the dreadful football players, Rhonda Ray, Mrs. Urick, and Max, among others. Yet, as I read, I had no difficulty keeping them all distinct in my mind. This is perhaps due to Irving's meticulous and memorable introductions of each character, which leave a lasting impression.

However, the topics explored in the book take a disturbing turn and have left me reluctant to read another of Irving's works. His writing skills cannot compensate for the presence of incestuous themes. Yuck! I completed the book, and while there were parts that were scary, sad, and intriguing, the incest and pedophilia (as detailed below) ultimately soured the experience for me. I would not recommend this book.

I am confused by the portrayal of Franny. She appears overly sexual, even towards her brothers to some extent. Then, her gang rape on Halloween elicited a complex mix of emotions in me - worry, anger, and sadness all at once. And yet, before Thanksgiving, she is back to making comments about sexual matters as if nothing had occurred. I think what Junior Jones tells Franny, that no matter what happened on Halloween, no one touched the real her inside and that she is a good girl, are important words. But I also believe that the rapists merely being expelled and not sentenced to life in jail is far from sufficient punishment. And Franny's seemingly complete recovery afterwards (except for her baths) seems entirely unrealistic.

It also troubles me that the main character is paying for intimacy with a woman old enough to be his mother (he is only 14). This is illegal and predatory in many ways. It makes me feel both sad for him and angry. I hope that society has changed since this book was published in 1981 so that such a thing would not happen today and would not be casually included in a book without the prosecution of the predator. I was glad when Sabrina Jones told him that she was too old for him to practice kissing with, but then her suggestion that he try kissing her later was deeply concerning. A 14-year-old and a 29-year-old - that is just so wrong.

"But, you see, if I were a communist, who would I want for the government in power? The most liberal? No. I would desire the most repressive, the most capitalistic, the most anti-communist government possible--for then I would thrive. Where would the Left be without the help of the Right? The more stupid and right wing everything is, the better for the left." Page 249. This interesting quote made me stop and think for a moment.

So far, this is the weakest John Irving book I have read.

His books are always filled with crazy and slightly unbelievable elements, but this is the first time I truly didn't believe what was happening.

Spoilers ahead. First of all, I just couldn't believe the plane death. Who travels in planes separately? It seems so unlikely. You usually drive in the same car together. Going separately just doubles your risk. Plane crashes are extremely rare, and I didn't buy this for a second.

I really liked Egg and Mother, but I wasn't sad when they died because it was so unrealistic.

Too many of the characters in this book die, and I feel like John Irving is just checking them off one by one. Plus, people don't die of fright as easily as they seem to in this book.

Finally, his portrayal of the family from Arizona just seemed laughable. They took a trip to Maine and saw the ocean for the first time? Does John Irving forget that there is a west coast? Or for that matter, there are lots of places to go skiing that aren't all the way in Maine.

For all my complaining, I did like many parts of the book. My favorite by far was the middle of the book, the second Hotel New Hampshire when they are in Vienna. That part is great.

Although I would have loved to know more about Frank. He seemed like an interesting character who just mostly fades to the background.

Overall, while this book had its flaws, it still had some redeeming qualities.

Hotel New Hampshire is truly that remarkable book for me. It stands out as the one great book that has had a profound impact. It makes me seriously consider going back to all the other books I rated with 5 stars and lowering them by at least one star. Because, without a doubt, they simply don't measure up to this masterpiece.

Summarizing Hotel New Hampshire in a way that would make sense to someone who hasn't read it or isn't familiar with Irving's other works is an impossible task. This book is a unique blend that contains elements such as bears, little people, taxidermy, and radicals. The story is filled with many fantastical aspects, yet at its core, it is a poignant tale about a family and their ability to endure. Irving has a remarkable way of spending numerous pages describing the simplest of things, while major events are often conveyed in just a sentence or two. I have re-read this book several times, and with each reading, I uncover new and hidden layers of the story.

Beyond this, it is extremely difficult for me to figure out what to write about this book to entice others to read it without giving away any of the precious gems that one will discover while reading it. All I can say is this - if you are able to approach this book with an open mind, taking the lighthearted moments with a smile and the more serious moments with some deep thought, you will undoubtedly find great enjoyment in reading this book.

So we dream on - thus we invent our lives.

Boring!

This is the only word that comes to my mind after experiencing this. It was truly a tiresome and uninteresting affair. I had to force myself to endure it till the end. Every moment felt like a struggle, as if time had slowed down to an excruciating crawl. There was no excitement, no spark, nothing to capture my attention or engage my interest. It was just a long, dull stretch of nothingness. I found myself constantly looking at the clock, hoping that it would all be over soon. By the time it finally ended, I was relieved, but also a little disappointed that I had wasted my time on something so uneventful. Overall, it was an experience that I would not want to repeat again.

It was fate that this book and I would eventually converge, I think.

My writing program friends from school - namely Kyle and the girl who started the extra curricular writing group I was a part of for two years - frequently gushed about John Irving. My bookish aunt devoured all of his older works in high school. I made an attempt to read A Widow for One Year my freshman year of college and it left me cold, despite trusting those tastes. I felt little drive to ever pick him up again.

Then, in the span of a week, something strange happened. I found enthusiastic reviews of Irving's work on Ask Metafilter, my other go-to book recommendation source. My friend Snotchocheez mailed me his copy of one of Irving's books, a blind response to my "send whatever you think I should read!" suggestion in exchange for House of Holes. Shortly after receiving the book from him, I was out to a rare-in-town lunch with smoreads, who said, "You know what I just read that was great? The Hotel New Hampshire." It was creepy how everything seemed to be pointing me back to John Irving.

So thank you, little world of friends and Internet, for conspiring to get me to retry John Irving. Tens of people can't be wrong! If I were the type to pound down the works of an author I discovered I love in succession, I'd probably do that right now.

The Hotel New Hampshire reminds me, in the best way, of Middlesex. It precedes that book by over two decades and doesn't have quite the uniqueness of voice of Calliope Stephanides, but it shares similar motifs. It's this big, bold, comic family tragedy that's so unbelievable, but not entirely beyond the realm of plausibility, that Irving has to keep reminding us that "everything is a fairy tale". It was exactly what I wanted to read right now.

And let me just say, Irving looks pretty normal and non-pervy in pictures, but this book is chock-full of uncomfortable sex in almost every way sex can be uncomfortable. It's kind of hilarious to me to flip back to the author's picture and think of what is swirling around in that brain of his to cause that smirky smile. (Spoiler: it's bear sex.)

Irving is indeed a magical writer. However, there is an evident quirkiness in nearly all of his stories that often makes me think, "Ew, did he really have to go there?" In this particular story, the incestual relationship between John and Frannie, which is a central aspect of the narrative, is a bit difficult to stomach. It's a topic that makes one uncomfortable yet is integral to the plot.

I didn't completely understand the character of Susie in the bear suit. Nevertheless, the other characters are all well-developed. The dysfunctional children and the odd but harmless father reminded me of the film "Royal Tennenbaums," which I actually enjoyed. The similarities in the family dynamics and the unique personalities of the characters were quite striking.

I haven't seen the film adaptation of "The Hotel New Hampshire," but I'm convinced that the novel is superior. Irving's appeal lies in his fluid and descriptive writing style, as well as his exceptionally timed pacing. It's not just about the quirkiness. He seems to have an innate ability to sense when the reader is getting bored and knows exactly how to keep them engaged. This is a skill that I wish more novelists would master.

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. It has its flaws, but Irving's writing prowess and the interesting story make it a worthwhile read.

Until the last five percent of the book, I was fully prepared to award this story just one star.

To be honest, it was an extremely strange, almost otherworldly story, and I simply don't handle "strange" very well. I found myself constantly struggling to make sense of the events and characters.

However, I have to admit that the author managed to redeem it with the ending. It was completely unexpected and yet, in a strange way, it tied everything together neatly. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it all came together in the end.

The book was relatively easy to read and follow along, which was a plus. But I do think there should be a clear warning statement about the sex talk, rape, and other scenes of violence in the story. These elements were quite intense and might be disturbing for some readers.

Overall, while the beginning was a bit of a struggle for me, the ending managed to turn things around and make me appreciate the story a little more.

I read A Prayer for Owen Meany not too long ago. I knew nothing about it or John Irving at that time. However, I was completely blown away by it. It immediately shot up onto my favorites list.

Unfortunately, I didn't have nearly the same experience with The Hotel New Hampshire. The author's ability to portray complex, fascinating, and quirky characters is just as central in this book as it was in A Prayer for Owen Meany. But I think this book suffers from the "too-much syndrome". There is just so much going on.

It runs the gamut from wacky hotel guests, literary fame, weightlifting, casual taxidermy, and trained bears; to anarchist plots, prostitution, and humans masquerading as trained bears; to incest, rape, disability, death, and suicide. I think my issue is that pretty much all of these things are treated in the same way in terms of how much focus is put on them. It gave the whole book a very odd and unsteady kind of perspective, and I had trouble connecting with it.