Irvingin esikoisesta on helppo huomata tämän lahjat tarinankertojana ja myöhemmistä kirjoista tuttuja elementtejä on reilusti Irving-bingon täytteeksi. Vapauttakaa karhut ei kuitenkaan ole kovin hyvä kirja. Eikä syynä ole niinkään, että omat verrokkini Irvingin muusta tuotannosta, siis loistavat Garpin maailma ja Kaikki isäni hotellit, olisivat asettaneet tälle liian korkeat odotukset. Kirjan kerronta vain takkuili jatkuvasti ja kirjan lopussa jäi vahva fiilis, että useampia kirjassa esiteltyjä kehityskulkuja ei käsitelty järin tyydyttävästi. Oli tässä paljon hyvääkin, kuten juonen mainio kehystys, ajoittainen loistava sekoilu sekä hieno toinen osa, jossa vuorottelevat kertomus toisen maailmansodan ajan Itävallasta ja Jugoslaviasta sekä öinen soluttautuminen wieniläiseen eläintarhaan; onneksi tämä osa vei noin puolet kirjasta.

I absolutely love books where the protagonist slowly goes insane. Also lovely homoeroticism and so many silly lines. It had me giggling out loud at some points. There were some kind of rough descriptions of women near the beginning which felt icky, but besides that a mostly very fun and enjoyable book.

I think this was my 3rd attempt at reading this book and I made it through with more appreciation for it than I had after abandoning it before. I think I quit as a younger person because the main character is so rudderless. I can see that now and get what Irving was doing with the character but I think it seemed too weird to me 3 decades ago. Now, the book strikes me as a little uneven but still one I should have read long ago.

Si no fuese fan absoluta de John Irving probablemente este libro me hubiera resultado insoportable; es caótico, delirante y aburrido a ratos pero es John Irving: muchas de las razones por las que me gustan sus novelas se encuentran también aquí, sólo que no tan bien desarrolladas como en sus trabajos posteriores. Libertad para los osos es lo primero que publicó y eso se nota pero aún así no me arrepiento de haberla leído, creo que todos los fans de John Irving deberían hacerlo.

I'm a fan of John Irving and have read many of his books. I was aware that early in his career he was not immediately a bestselling author and had written three novels before his break thru The World According Garp. Setting Free the Bears was his first. My guess is he was writing it while he was in The University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop studying under Kurt Vonnegut. While there are no wrestlers there were several aspects which became expected parts of a Irving novel. There are central characters moving along the arc of a plot, sex, accidents, weirdness, tons of imagination, relatives, motorcycles, animals, violence, cursing, broken families, etc. Frotting becomes the f-word of choice used frequently. While Irving's later novels are often based in the U.S. and Canada he has also taken us to northern European countries. This one is a little different. It takes place in Austria with side trips mainly to Yugoslavia.



The arc starts off with a student at loose ends who quickly pairs up with a wild man who's obsessed with motorcycles. They begin an aimless journey, think Jack Kerouac, riding, fishing, living off the land, exiting before authorities appear. The wild man becomes obsessed with the possibility of freeing animals locked up in captivity, to his mind, through no fault of their own. Things get complex when they arrive at a village with a Gasthaus and a drunken milkman is whipping a fallen horse. The wild man goes berserk and beats up the drunk. It gets worse and it's time for him to exit quickly, with motorcycle of course. Our hero on the other hand is left holding the bag and becoming enamored with the young niece of the Gasthaus owner.



At this point everything shifts. We barely hear about our hero and his predicament. Instead it feels like the Writer's Workshop intervenes and we have two stories told through alternating passages. In one we get the wild man's back story in terms of his father's prewar and WWII experiences and how he comes to possess the legendary motorcycle our wild man is attached to. The story is told with the accuracy of a historical fiction writer laying out how WWII impacted real people, ruining lives right and left. I can only guess this is what John Irving studied in school down to a short bibliography of sources for these seemingly wild series of events. Alternating with this saga we see the wild man meticulously creating a way to bust out all the animals as he stalks the nightwatchmen who he believes must be torturing the animals as they scream out to warn each other. He silently talks with the animals and understands their pain. Acting against type, he puts together a detailed plan, which he is convinced will free the beasts once the tyrant has been subdued.



Time for the handoff. The wild man returns to the village to free our hero and recruit him to free the zoo animals from their oppressor. But this time the authorities are waiting for him and he goes out in a burst of glory upsetting the perilously stacked tower of bees who of course take it out on our hero who barely survives the zillions of stinging insects. He is nursed/bathed back to health in the Gasthaus only to have to escape with the young niece who seems to have aged quickly. And of course they ride off with the motorcycle. At first it's just the bliss of getting away. Then we await the inevitable as the two slowly become a couple. She wants to become worldly and suggests they go to Vienna, only to discover that's where the zoo is. Our hero sees the wild man's notebook contains a carefully crafted plan to bust out the animals. They fight over his desire to free the animals as she clearly sees this as the madness she thought they both recognized and rejected. She goes along with the plan only if he revised it to only release small animals who won't kill each other. It starts out that way but the animals have a mind of their own and get into it, releasing bigger and bigger beasts. It's pandemonium with the larger predators exercising their natural instincts to hunt the slower beasts. Our lovers escape the zoo only to find the neighbors have risen to the challenge with pitchforks and other implements at hand. Killing is everywhere. Once they've cleared the area they stop. She is fed up with him, demands the money she was paid to have her long hair cut to be made into wigs. She wants to go back to Vienna without of course the defeated hero who heads out of town hoping she might change her mind.



How does this end? As he gets further out of town he stops only to see a pair of bears slowly getting closer to the mountains ahead. In some sense it was worth it after all.



Irving had to start somewhere.

Dieses Buch ist die Definition für Mittelmaß. Definitiv nicht schlecht oder langweilig, aber auch nicht besonders überragend. Irving kann sehr gute Geschichten schreiben (siehe Gottes Werk und Teufels Beitrag), aber Lasst die Bären los gehört nicht dazu, was sicherlich darin liegt, dass dies sein Erstlingswerk ist. Trotzdem findet man hier schon typische Irving-Elemente und auch der Stil ist relativ ähnlich zu dem, was er später schreiben sollte. Und gerade der skurrile, außergewöhnliche Stil ist das, was mir besonders gut gefällt.
Inhaltlich erlebt der Leser auf 500 Seiten schon recht viel. Die beiden Protagonisten Graff und Siggi, beide eher erfolgslose Wiener Studenten, entscheiden sich spontan, auf einem alten Motorrad durch Österreich zu reisen, ohne besonderes Ziel. Im ersten Teil haben wir einen klassischen "Roadmovie", der Spaß macht. Allerdings ist die Übersetzung so dermaßen misslungen; die Dialoge sind unrealistisch und die Sprache der beiden, auch wenn man sich in den 60ern befindet, nicht zeitgemäß.
Im zweiten Teil gibt es einen harten Bruch in der Geschichte und man erfährt von Siggis Vorgeschichte und dem Leben seiner Eltern im zweiten Weltkrieg. An dieser Stelle hätte ich mir noch mehr die Perspektive Siggis in der Nachkriegszeit gewünscht. Das wurde zu Beginn des zweiten Teils kurz angeschnitten, danach leider nicht mehr aufgegriffen. Dennoch ist der zweite Teil für mich der spannendste Teil des Buches.
Im dritten Teil springt die Geschichte zurück ans Ende des ersten Teils. Inhaltlich werde ich hier nichts mehr zu schreiben.
Insgesamt hat das Buch einige Schwächen, was die Charakterausarbeitung angeht. Im Grunde sind einige Hauptfiguren bis zum Ende blass, was so Irving-untypisch ist und er in späteren Werken besser macht. Zudem wird die Geschichte mir am Ende zu pathetisch (für das Thema).

What the hell was that?

Setting Free the Bears had a very 1960s vibe to it, at least the first part did, with the strange and unexplained characters and motivations. I'm just not sure what to make of the rest of it.

It was an interesting project for an American to take on, this story that takes place in WWII- and postwar-era Europe, and is deeply and specifically European.

It might be best to read this novel more than once, but as much as I enjoyed parts of it, I don't think I'm going to do that.

This makes me sad to admit but John Irving´s books have been such disappointments lately - and I used to consider him one of my favorite authors. The ones I´ve read recently are boring, reading them feels like a chore instead of a gripping enjoyment. Setting Free the Bears has a similar style to Irving´s later novels and it even features some of the elements (like bears) that seem to always come up in his stories. The history parts especially have some funny bits, but I found the women to be written extremely poorly and even the main characters couldn´t hold my interest. It was nearly impossible to create any connection to them. I really hope I´ll find more gems by John Irving or else I´ll stop searching. It feels like I either absolutely adore his stories or almost despise them. Right now I´d be happy to come across something I´d at least enjoy.

Gekocht op de tweedehands boekenbeurs in Ardooie.
Omdat ik alles van Irving aan het lezen ben.

Over de annexatie van Oostenrijk in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, over de dierentuin, over vriendschap, liefde en dwaze studenten.

Lang geleden dat ik zoveel moeite moest doen om een boek uit te lezen. Sommige zullen het wellicht een diepe gelaagdheid noemen, voor mij is het een onsamenhangende warboel met bizarre personages.

Ik heb de gewoonte om 's avonds in mijn bed nog eens in mijn hoofd te overlopen wat ik die dag las. Maar hier kreeg ik er geen lijn in: de hele grote lijnen kon ik samenvatten, maar verder? Een wirwar aan gebeurtenissen en personen: van een in een kip verklede boer, over een wedstrijdmotor, over de verschillende oorlogspartijen in het voormalig Joegoslavië.

Het is het eerste boek van John Irving en Ik herkende er de latere schrijver niet in.

Ik heb een beetje bijgeleerd over de Anschluss, en heel veel over de verschillende oorlogspartijen in Joegoslavië en de opkomst van Tito. Maar verder was het voor mij een ondermaats boek.

Setting Free the Bears, by John Irving
good read. part I, meet siggy and graff and the beast, a motorcycle. they are in need of perpetual motion, perpetual emotion, living as they do w/o a war. this is the story of "How Hannes Graff was rendered inert."

too, others are rendered inert and then some. a fear of inertia, mayhap

"What worse awareness is there than to know there would have been a better outcome if you’d never done anything at all? That all small mammals would have been better off if you’d never meddled in the unsatisfactory scheme of things."

our world...all those unions trying to save us from nasty government employers, nasty government health care providers....the poor down-trodden unions...oh my. our world, were inertia or looking for a cause are the two options and fashionable ideology provides the clues.

the story with the story within the story,as present here, is nice. so there are like three stories going in this one story...isn't that smarmy term, meta-fiction, applicable to this? not up on the terminology. oh can't you see! you belong to me!



part II is the edited journal of siggy, his zoo watch, as well as the chronicle of the older folk, hitler taking over austria, that sort of thing.

part III...is a kind of aftermath of one story, the continuing aftermath of a second or third story, or both......

Part I, Siggy, 82 pages
A Steady Diet in Vienna
An eye-narrator, speaking of another, finding him every noon, sitting on a bench in Rathaus Park. Radishes, salt-shakers, a notebook. Good habits are worth being fanatical about, a poet and a maxim-maker.
Hard Times
A place on Josefsgasse, behind the Parliament Building, known for its turnover of 2ndhand motorcycles. Doktor Ficht to thank for this. Faber’s. Should talk w/Herr Javotnik, a student like yourself, a virtuoso with decisions.
The Beast Beneath Me
Hannes Graff is the eye-narrator, telling this to Herr Javotnik, who recognizes him from the park though apparently they haven’t as yet talked. Siggy. Siegfried Javotnik. Be blissfully guided by the veritable urge! The beast is an old motorcycle, a Royal Enfield, 700 cc You pay it all now, and I’ll pay you back with my wages, says Javotnik.
Herr Faber’s Beast
2100 schillings. Siggy asks to get paid after Hannes pays for the bike…thieving frotters!
Fine Tuning
Evening at the Volksgarten Café. A trip. 1st, no planning. 2nd pick roads that the beast will love. 3rd travel light. Frot Doktor Ficht! Siggy takes the saltshaker from the café. That must be 4th.
The First Act of God
Graff says they shouldn’t leave Vienna w/o seeing how spring struck the zoo. The Hietzinger Zoo. Giraffe, walrus, rare birds, the Famous Asiatic Black Bear, taken in the Himalayas by a man named Hinley Gouch. The zoo is built on the ruins of some old place. A bldg w/nocturnal animals, aardvark, earth pig. Anteaters, arboreal rat of Mexico, a bat-eared fox, ring-tailed lemur, two-toed sloth, flying phalanger, slow loris. Miscellaneous Range Animals: zebras…oryx w/rapier like horns.
Others….when they get to the bike, two girls are there, an act of God.
God Works in Mysterious Ways
They go back into the zoo w/the girls. By the bears. In the Biergarten. The fat girl is named Karlotta, the thin one Wanga. Siggy=fat Karlotta, Graff=Wanga. Graff says he’s been all over the Orient, Bangkok, India, etc. You have to draw the line somewhere, in Siggy’s note book.
The Hippohouse
They are in the zoo, Karlotta has seen the oryx, seems relieved, thankful even, that Wanga is with the dear boy…that was nothing for Wanga to see. Apparently, the oryx has a fantastic pair of balls. Time passes, praise God. In the ferns, Siggy wears Karlotta black lacy bloomers for a hat. Karlotta and Graff see the hippo while Siggy is chasing after Wanga.
Drawing the Line
Siggy/Graff discuss the event…Rich as mud, was it? “Skill is more common than beauty.” stuffed and officious, that line reappears in his jottings: Finesse is no substitute for love. They leave, Graff imagining Karlotta feeding herself to the hippo….previous chapter, the great cats were snarling for meat and revolution and in this one, the lions were roaring for freedom and food.
Night Riders
Roaring thru towns at night. In a place called Krumnussbaum, they see a man peeing in a fountain. The Ybbs.
Living Off the Land
Siggy/Graff catch some trout, go to farmhouse, share/trade…farmer is also game warden! Ha! Herr Gippell and his Frau Freina. There are certain investments required. 50 schillings, the law. Siggy takes one flint, one bottle opener, one corkscrew and a saltshaker…as well as the frying pan, still warm. Ha!
Where the Walruses Are
There are certain investments required. Next, they stop under a window box to scarf some radishes. This section, 1st hint that Siggy is thinking of releasing, freeing the animals. It was a terrible scene in that zoo. There is a scene/setting here that is suggestive of a dream--that seems understood--and neato, though ‘dream’ is never used. The Yrrbs.
Going Nowhere
By the river gorge for the night…talking, and then Graff imagines wild zoo scenes. Siggy is still contemplating a big bust-out at the zoo. Movie, From Here to Eternity, Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster, by Siggy…a song, Frau Freina Gippel’s lost her pan…teeth…mind, find, behind.
Going Somewhere
Frot…frotting…used for the f-word, I take it, before this, as well. They dress, cricket less, and leave for Hiesbach, less than a mile up the road. A gasthof…opposite the Holy Onion Head: Frau Ertl’s Old gasthof. Beware of the Ertl. Frau Ertl. Wash up at a pump in back, Siggy tugging on goat chins. They sit for coffee, next to a family with a cantankerous-looking grandfather for a leader. The youngest, a boy. He is the first to see the great goat escape. The village bell ringer is drinking his breakfast. The old man winks at them, the Frau Ertl needs a gate closer. Siggy has taken the Frau Ertl’s saltshaker.
Notebook: Goats won’t bolt! But they aren’t wild animals.
Take heart, you wild animals!
Fairies All Around
They are at St. Leonhard, the bell ringer still at it. Into a gasthof…the Wirt=bartender reading a paper. A man there is known to sue…frot him! Siggy knocks him in the crotch w/his helmet. The girl w/the licorice touches him, as if w/a wand…recorded, in poetry. Want/private….get/public…
The Second Sweet Act of God
A girl w/a braid, laundry bag, etc.
Great Bear, Big Dipper, Thy Ways Are Strange Indeed
A fire, bread in the pan, trout next…on way to see Waidhofen. Bees in the apple blossoms.
Poetry: fate waits. /while you hurry/or while you wait/ it’s all the same to fate.
Graff sees her on the bridge, the braid. She is running away from home to a job in Waidhofen. They will all 3 ride.
What All of Us Were Waiting For
On the way into town, looking too much…Graff: the pipes received my calves like the griddle grabs the bacon. The girl suggests her aunt’s, a Gasthof, w/baths and baths. The girl is Gallen…Gallen von St. Leonhard? Graff wonders. The gasthof is a castle.
Cared for
Gallen comes and changes the towel-bandage in the dark…Graff wants to see the welt on her neck, the welt from him, Siggy is getting him forsythia petals.
Out of the Bathtub, Life Goes On
Poem…Notorious Graff, Lord of the Tub…the flowers/petals are for the room, says Siggy. The aunt wants to know which one has the eyes for Gallen…Siggy told her they are both raving queers. She lent the bowl, so he could pick flowers for Graff.
Off the Scent
Frau Tratt, Gallen’s aunt. The dining room of the Gasthof Schloss Wasserfall overlooked the dam on the Yrrb.
The Foot of Your Bed
Siggy, bath. Gallen calls Graff into the garden. She is naked, she says, oboy oboy. 14? She steps out, clothed. He goes. On the walls, the soccer teams, war-time, a girls’ team. Gallen & Graff in the garden for a time.
A Blurb from the Prophet
A poem…etc. QQC is in the bathroom…cooking up stuff…fate.
What Christ Cooked Up in the Bathroom
Auntie Tratt prepares for the milkman. In the rain the milkman arrives. A mishap w/the cart, horse. The milkman flung the horse’s head down on the cobblestones…the horse’d been lying there, upset, cart as well. Auntie Tratt moves about gingerly. A man comes out…a big man…Siggy, heading out, runs into him. Siggy is bare-assed naked. The man lies in a puddle wiping his mouth w/his ascot. Siggy mounts the milkman, bites his neck. The milkman is dashing about the bushes w/Siggy on his back, biting, presumably. The other is calling for the dogs. Aunt Tratt is tending to the man, Gallen holding a pail of water. Graff whips Siggy off the milkman--the police are coming--and they return to their room.

Massing the Forces of Justice
Siggy, bath…the police, green Volkswagen, bar of blue lights. Two policemen. A 3rd…a secret agent, or an assassin. Or mayor. Graff, how many kicks to start the beast? Bathtub song from Siggy. Disaster is faster. The police cut the harness off the horse, but the horse just lies there. They break down the door, Siggy moons them w/his whip-marked ass…titled smiles of new moons. The Burgermeister…in a beret He calls Herr Siegfried Javotnik…Siggy gets back in the tub.
The Revealing Crimes
Josef Koller, two dots on the “o”…is the milkman. Aunt Trott calls Siggy a pervert…the policeman who searches comes back w/his report….14 saltshakers. A pervert for sure.
Fetching the Details
This section is by Siggy. ‘My father, Vratno, Vratno Javotnik, born in Jesenje….Yugoslavia…moved to Slovenjgradec, where he fell in w/the Germans. By himself, for he was sly. Siggy, avoiding death by dullness. Hmmmm. The ole perpetual motion machine again. Repetitive death. Stay one hop ahead, that was Vrtno’s advice. Siggy’s note. Pinned to the bottom of the bed, where Graff’s bottom found it.

Siggy goes out the window, saddle soaped duck jacket. He gets the beast started--and is off--reconnaissance mission to the Heitzinger Zoo. Details, they need details.

The Real and Unreasonable World
Graff in room, Gallen enters, they talk about you, you helped him get away. The mayor and aunt are cooking qqc up, a job, as a way to keep an eye on him. Because Auntie said they were loves….queer. Bring in the bees, job. Must be done at night. She tucks him in.
Looking Out
Gallen gets Graff. The Burgermeister, Auntie Tratt, Herr Windisch, apple man and employer…and another, slumped in the doorway--Keff the tractor driver. Siggy wrote: Just a hop ahead, and you’re a cut above!
Graff asks for a job, at night…
Speculations
What bed does Graff sleep in? Fate’s got the veritable pin.
The Approach of the Veritable Pin
Where or what road will Siggy come on? Watchers….Gallen and Graff in room, hear qqc outside. She elbows him in the throat. Ouch. The Great Greek Face of Comedy climbs over the window. Siggy, head shaved.
Fate’s Disguise
Gallen can’t look at him; she is distraught at Graff’s leaving. Gallen asks what road he came by.
Faith
Wood creaks. Aunt Tratt, winded in the hall. Keff, to take you to your job. Keff comes up, thumps the door. Siggy seems upset that Graff had to take a job, etc… Keff takes the pins off the door to enter.
Denying the Animal
Notebook: Hinley Gouch hated animals on the loose, having so long & selfrighteously denied the animal in himself. Keff drives tractor; Graff on the flatbed; collecting hives, fourteen on the flatbed floor, 1st tier. 2nd tier, space off, so the 3rd could be loaded--that’s a lot of honey! Crossing the road, Keff has to kill the engine, listen. Graff is stung once. Keff asks about Graff/Gallen…later, crossing road, they hear steps…it is her.
How Many Bees Would Do for You?
Coming w/the news, uphill, since Waidhofen. Siggy’s return for toothbrush, spoke epitaphs, threw mud on the walls. Talk talk. Listen. Police car. Going to make a roadblock at the top, two police. Then, they hear the beast. Bees for Keff, Graff wonders.
Uphill and Downhill, Hither and Yon
Best S-curve. For that one, Graff runs to warn Siggy. Frotting Graff! No plan! Graff suggests hiding in the apple groves. Hysteria for hymen! Siggy rolls it back downhill, from whence he came. Graff manages to hit the kill button. Siggy tells Graff to work the gear-shift, as they are up against the h-bars, etc. going downhill. Siggy tries to find 1st…there is Keff, broadside in the road, Gallen perched on the trailer…
What I don’t get is that it sounded…seemed….like Siggy was coming uphill, and he was…so how’s that work? I thought Graff ran downhill, for freaking’s sake, and now Keff is downhill, ahead of them?


Whaaaa!
The Number of Bees That Will Do
Siggy puts the beast on its side. Slides under, Keff lurches, thang…Gallen jumps clear, 3rd tier boxes falling. Keff hauls Graff away…Epsom baths….Siggy had reached and surpassed his quota of bee stings…the animals lament? Mourn him?….and the bees?

Part II The Notebook, 124 pages
The First Zoo Watch, Monday, June 5, 1967, @ 1:20 p.m.

Siggy recording these events. At a café, tea w/rum. Four hours Waidhofen to the Heitzinger Zoo. 21 in 1967 in Austria. He asks the waiter about the war. Huh? “Now science has seen to it that monstrous decisions don’t need popular support.” (94) in our case, it’s the pre-history that made us and mattered to what we’d become.
Waiter brings Frankfurt newspaper, page 3. A photo of an German shepherd eating the dress off a Negress. White policeman nearby. Fire hose. Marvelously clean people. “Any place that’s lagging, waiting again for The National Crisis--that’s an Old World, and it’s often a pity to be young in it.”
The waiter is missing an index finger, down to the base knuckle. Siggy comments on a German paper w/that pic…trying to nudge the waiter. “If we’re supposed to be the generation that’s to profit from our elder’s mistakes, I feel I ought to know everyone’s error.” Scheme…zoo…animals.

(Beginning)
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
May 30, 1935: Hilke Marter, mother to be. 50th birthday. Grinzing wine garden. Zahn Glanz, 1st boyfriend. Mudpuddly eyes. The Radio Johannesgasse quotes Hitler…no intention…Austria.

The Second Zoo Watch
Monday, June 5, 1967, @ 4:30 p.m.
Bennet’s cassowary, a worry lump on its head. Feeding the cats, etc. Under an umbrella in the Biergarten. The Rare Spectacled Bears.

(Continuing: )
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
February 22, 1938: morning in the Rathaus Park. Hilke/Zahn sharing Spanish nuts. 4 or 5 squirrels. One w/a swastika carved in a pink spot, or is, the pink spot on its head.

The Third Zoo Watch:
Monday, June 5, 1967, @ 7:30 p.m.
Siggy considers the lofty shed of the Yukon dall sheep. But alarm? He hides between a high hedgerow and the fence line for the Assorted Antelopes. Sweepers. A guard, or two. An hour closed, he knows someone’s here.

(Continuing: )
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
February 22, 1938: afternoon in a Kaffeehaus on Schauflergasse. Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg isn’t going to come and stand in an open window today. In 1934, Otto Planetta walked past the guard and killed previous chancellor, little Engelbert Dollfuss. Replacement, Nazi Doktor Rintelen. A taxi, Lenhoff, the driver enters the café as Lenhoff goes in to chancellor. tEditor of the Telegraph.
The radio: French in Rome, M. Blondel insulted by Count Ciano…Anthony Eden has resigned.
Austria: chancellor confirms new app’ts to cabinet, Seyss-Inquart and 4 other Nazis.
Local: tram driver Strassenbahn line 57, Klag Brahms….man came running out of Nibelungen….being chased by a gang of youths.
Hitler=5 Nazis after S’s trip…little old Herr Baum…=the man running. The waiter had seen Otto four years ago…when the trouble started. Then a truckload of SS Standarte Eighty-nine….looking like regular army. Now the waiter carries meat shears.

The Fourth Zoo Watch:
Monday, June 5, 1967, @ 9:00 p.m.
night watchman. Small mammal house. Auks. An eared grebe. The great auk was last seen alive in 1844 and the last dead great auk, to be seen, was washed ashore at Trinity Bay, Ireland, in 1853. He sees the guard.

(Continuing: )
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
March 9, 1938 every Wednesday teatime Grandmother Marter straightens fork tines. Grandfather Marter, etc. Hilke/Zahn there. Her Muttie…mother?
Radio: Worldwide, Austria, Local (107)
Chancellor S, “men, the time has come!” the same cry, 130 years ago, peasant hero Andreas Hofer to resist Napoleon.
Local: young woman, Mara Madoff, pop Sigismund Madoff, found hanging in a wardrobe of the Vienna State Opera House. Custodian Odilo Linz discovered the body. Last night’s performance: Lohengrin. Her stockings missing, last night, 5 men seen, one w/a legging scarf.
Also Local: Karl Mittler…..Colonel Wolff….Doktor Friedmann…Cardinal Innitzer…not just Hitler’s backyard.
Zahn drives a taxi now…Hilke= one-piece, red wool jersey w/the big roll collar

The Fifth Zoo Watch:
Monday, June 5, 1967, @ 11:45 p.m.
The watchman, talking to the zebra, the lesser kangaroos a bell rings. Hmmm

(Continuing: )
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
March 10, 1938: warm unsnowy Thursday. Ernest Watzek-Trummer, eagle costume and egg tins/cake tins.

The Sixth Zoo Watch:
Tuesday, June 6, 1967, @ 1:30 p.m.
Changing of guard at midnight. Etc

(Continuing: )
The Highly Selective Autobiography of
Siegfried Javotnik: Pre-History I
Black Friday, March 11, 1938: priests setting up side altar in St. Stephen’s, Kurt von Schuschnigg ducks in for a prayer. Secretary of Security Skubl…Germans closed the border. Leo as ready to travel. Fuhrer may be required to make an anti-Bolshevik crusade. Zahn, wearing the eagle head, picks up a fair. Decides he needs claws. He is reported. All heard the radio. Except Schuschnigg. Cabinet member Seyss-Inquart had a call from Goebbels…etc. They find president Miklas.
Grandfather/mother Mater…heard the Kohlmarket butcher’s report. A worker on the running brd. Runs out of gas under poster of Katrina Marek/ Antigone. Zahn makes it to Hilke’s, etc. Hitler calls Schuschnigg, ultimatum…class of '15 Austrian reservists called to colors….the Soncony Vacuum Oil Company of Austria is asked to supply fuel to motorize troops.
Frau Drexa Neff, is the laundress….Atelier Theater …grandfather goes to get taxi…gas in a cookie jar….he is w/grandmother…she wipes the hood…ja! Schuschnigg! The g-f picks up the taxi, picks up the g-m. Goring sends new message, Schuschnigg must resign, leave gov’t to Seyss-Inquart. Etc. Schuschnigg gets on radio, says things…the Commissioner for Cultural Propaganda--the old cripple Hammerstein-Equord grabs the mike, long live Austria? Today I am ashamed to be German. The gf will go the Kitzbuhler Alps, Kaprun. Zahn Hilke walk, bankbook…five Nazi youth, P Schnell, G. Schritt, F.Samt, J. Spalt R. Steg and O. Schrutt. Zahn gets the taxi. Zahn backs into the apt. Building.
It is one o’clock Saturday morning when they begin to load the taxi.

The Seventh Zoo Watch:
Tuesday, June 6, 1967, @ 2:15 a.m.
Some of the animals sleep.



Part III, Setting Them Free, 63 pages

3.5-4/5
And so begins my reading (and re-reading) journey of John Irving's canon in chronological order this year. I would love to discuss this with others but for now, I am jotting down his themes.
Motorcycles

I started off enjoying the book and especially, as seems to be an Irving trait, books and stories within the main story itself. It seemed a light hearted and anticipated filled with random happenins and adventures.

However I didn't like the big twist and the change in the other protaganist and how it all played out in the end. Setting Free in the Zoo and its aftermath seemed very much an anti-climax to a lot of effort of reading the majoirty of the book.

I didn't enjoy it really compared to the other Irving books I've read so far. I was disappointed with the changing of events.