Disappointment.

The name of this work was really promising, and the author also seemed to have great potential.

However, it took me more than one week to finish reading it, and I have to say that I was rather disappointed.

The story didn't develop as excitingly as I had expected. The plot was a bit slow-paced and lacked the necessary twists and turns to keep me hooked.

Moreover, the characters didn't seem to be fully developed. They felt rather flat and one-dimensional, without much depth or complexity.

Overall, despite the promising start, this work failed to meet my expectations. I hope the author can learn from this experience and improve in future works.

Once again, Irving showcases his remarkable talent by taking a plot that is filled with outrageously unexpected twists and a diverse bunch of eccentric characters. He masterfully blends all of these elements together to create a story that is both absurdly ridiculous and yet, strangely relatable to our everyday lives.

One of Irving's greatest strengths is his ability to vividly describe horrific or tragic events with clarity and precision, yet without over-dramatizing them. He delves deep into exploring the profound effects that these events have on a character, but he does so in a way that doesn't reduce the entire story or the entire character to being solely defined by that one event.

He is truly an excellent story-teller, and his unique knack for adding an element of oddity to his tales perfectly aligns with my personal love for the surreal. His stories have a way of captivating my imagination and transporting me to a world where the ordinary and the extraordinary collide in the most fascinating ways.

There's something a tad demented about this one. It seems rather off-kilter and perhaps a bit crazy.

I can't quite put my finger on what exactly it is that gives me this impression, but there's just something about it that makes me feel a bit uneasy.

Maybe it's the way it looks, or the way it behaves. Or perhaps it's just my own paranoia getting the best of me.

Either way, I think I'll pass on this one. I don't want to get involved with something that might potentially cause me more harm than good.

I'll leave it to someone else to deal with, and focus on other things that are a bit more sane and normal.

After all, life is short, and I don't want to waste my time on something that's just going to drive me crazy.

I winced, cringed, and rolled my eyes through this. The only other Irving I'd read was Garp, and I absolutely adored it...until about the last third. The spell Irving had woven over me wore off, and the book started to grate. This one, however, wore out its welcome in the first hundred pages.

I simply can't stand the precious little phrases that the characters use constantly throughout the book. Phrases like "what?" and "open windows" and "464" just keep popping up, along with all that blah, blah, blah. And then there are the motifs from the author's other works, such as bears, athletic obsession, lust, and castration fear. It all feels so familiar and overdone.

The work starts out in the town of Precious and then moves on to Cloyington before finally settling in Contrivedville. To me, this stuff is like the bastard child of Dickens and Tom Robbins. That mix obviously appeals to many readers, but I'm just not one of them. I still have a copy of A Prayer for Owen Meany that I intend to read, as I've been told that's his best work. Maybe I'll enjoy that one. I certainly hope so.

The Berrys are a rather idiosyncratic family hailing from New Hampshire, USA.

The parents fell in love during the summer while working at a local resort. They have five children, and it is John who narrates his family's story from an unspecified time in the future.

Their family saga, which involves owning and operating not just one, but three versions of the Hotel New Hampshire, lies at the heart of the narrative. It captures a family that largely forges its own paths. When tragedy or joy strikes, they persevere to the best of their abilities. They "keep passing the open windows" whenever possible. Essentially, if life seems to be urging you to jump out of the window, don't!

For a book that at times delves into themes such as sexual violence, incest, underage sexual experiences and exposure, physical violence, attitudes towards homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s, and animal cruelty, it is quite remarkable that it maintains a darkly comedic tone throughout. What makes it stand out is its hyper-real portrayal of a quirky family from within, as seen through the eyes of a dysfunctional man (John) who considers himself "more normal" than most of his family.

Most importantly, I cannot understate the magnificent feat of saga-ic storytelling that this book represents! It earns a score of 8.5 out of 12.

The movie trailer!

2022 read.

This is a classic Irving family saga, telling a wide span of the family's history - starting with the elders' youth and ending with the birth of the children's children. The term "classic" must be applied to the name "Irving" rather than "family saga," because no matter what, this saga is not really that classic. It is an ordinary Irving family with its tragicomic oddities. In their lives, joys mix with sorrows, laughter filters through tears and tears through laughter. They end up in absurd situations and do crazy things, winning, losing, suffering, and so on. In the book, there is a moose on a motorcycle, Freids (also a Jew, but not a psychiatrist, but an animal trainer), terrorists, a circus of penguins, and other colorful characters. Especially worthy of mention is the family's Labrador named Skumjas, who spends most of the book being lost. Moreover, it is like a messenger of bad luck, showing up in the most unexpected places and times, causing not only several bouts of laughter but also a couple of tragic moments.

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CWs for rape (and of a minor, at that), animal neglect and death, child abuse, incest, homophobia culminating in humiliation and assault, and a wide range of derogatory terms and views that may have been common during the book's setting (mostly mid-1950s USA).

This book was not written anywhere near the 1950s, and I guess there's an argument for verisimilitude. However, they are cringe-inducing and painful to read.

I think John Irving just may not be for me. In a way, the studied eccentricity reminds me of Wes Anderson films. Though this book is overall darker and without the too-cutesy sense of its own cleverness that I associate with Anderson movies.

I thought for a while about why I didn't like this. And I guess it's this: I don't really do being uncomfortable for fun. If I'm going to be made deeply uncomfortable by a book, I want it to be *for* something. I want to gain something I couldn't get any other way. And if I want madcap gonzo eccentricity, I want that to be for something too. I want it laced with Vonnegut's razorblade wit and scathing social satire.

That's not to say that I'm some sort of snooty reader who only wants Edifying Works (ha!). But if I'm only going to marvel at characters rather than form a relationship with them, if the kooky and terribly sad and the absurdity and loneliness and shame within a plot are not *for* anything but are instead just there to entertain, then I can say with confidence that I prefer different flavors of entertainment.

I have read/recited it for the third time now. Once again, it delighted me and I discovered new values.

I don't understand and I'm at peace with how this book is so little read and, especially, how John Irving is not sought after and loved by Romanian readers.

John Irving's works are truly masterpieces. They are filled with deep emotions, complex characters, and engaging storylines. Each time I read one of his books, I am drawn into a world that is both familiar and yet completely unique.

Perhaps it is because his writing style is a bit different from what Romanian readers are used to. Or maybe it's because his books deal with themes that are not always easy to confront. But whatever the reason, it's a shame that more people in Romania are not familiar with his work.

I would highly recommend that anyone who loves to read give John Irving's books a try. You won't be disappointed.

All dysfunctional families are different in their own way.

In this coming-of-age novel by John Irving, he tells us about children, bears, rapes, prostitutes, Freud, female writers, dwarfs and bombers. And of course, many other adventures.

You read it thinking "ok, it's the same old story of a crazy family..." but then at a certain point, the book grows and, told in the first person by John, one of the children, the book becomes, so to speak, "great" and you find yourself with them, getting emotional and being surprised by the entire architecture and the whole family.

It's a nice book, Mr. Irving.

Oh, I truly love this one!

It exudes such an air of innocence and delight that is simply captivating.

The way it presents a certain charm makes it impossible not to be drawn in.

However, the mention of all the rape is truly yuck.

It seems completely out of place and mars what could have been a wonderful experience.

It's as if a dark cloud has suddenly passed over the otherwise bright and sunny landscape.

One can't help but feel a sense of disappointment and disgust at this unexpected and inappropriate element.

It makes one question why such a thing would be included in something that initially seemed so appealing.

Nevertheless, despite this flaw, there are still aspects of it that hold a certain allure.

Perhaps with some refinement and the removal of this offensive content, it could truly shine and be a source of pure enjoyment.

This is once again a brilliant novel, with great characters as one knows from Irving.

However, for an Irving novel, it is still only a 3 out of 5. In the middle, it loses its momentum to such an extent that one really has to suffer. It could have been 400 pages instead of 750.

Also, as always, deductions for the female characters, where it too often seems to be about their appearance when they are described. They always look "young for their age", I don't give a damn Johnny, just let it be.

The story has its moments of brilliance, but it also has its lulls. The characters are well-developed, but the pacing could have been better. Overall, it's a good read, but not one of Irving's best.

I haven't spent so long on a book in a long time.

Overall, the story actually consisted of 4 sub-stories, each of which was written as a separate book and was completely crazy.

Sometimes I really wondered which editor had let that pass. But well - it was something different.

Still, it was way too long.

Well-intentioned 3/5.

To expand on this, I found myself engrossed in this book for an unexpectedly long period. The structure of the story, with its four distinct sub-stories, was quite unique. Each sub-story seemed to have its own wild and crazy charm, as if written by a completely different mind. However, there were moments when I questioned the editorial decision-making. Some parts seemed a bit too far-fetched or convoluted. Despite its flaws, it was an interesting read that offered something different from the norm. Nevertheless, the length of the book was a bit of a drawback. It could have been more concise and to the point. Overall, I would rate it a 3 out of 5, with the hope that future works by the author would strike a better balance between creativity and readability.