This book has been on my "to be read" list for some time already. Also the author has been one of my all time favorites for a very long time. My expectations towards this book were based fully on the other works by John Irving. Setting Free the Bears was something very different as an experience and it is difficult to describe the feeling I got after I had read about one third of the book.

This was not one of the easiest to read and digest, but the magic occurred after I just left the book to happen. Undoubtedly everyone has own way to read, but I got a feeling that if you try to make sense out of this story, you will never finish it. Eventually, this complication become the keystone of the story, at least for me.

There is a culmination point of some kind when there is only about one fourth of the book left. I would write the word-for-word quote here, but I read the book in Finnish. Anyways, the main idea of the quote was that there is no sense to discuss the possibility for chaos, because it is question about the state of mind of the crowd.

I was not ready to read the book after the first difficulties when digesting the storyline. In the end, the story offered a very satisfying and enjoyable experience.

In the end of the Finnish edition, there is a short and beautifully written piece by translator Ms Kristiina Rikman, where she discusses the content and what were the feelings when translating the book. I fully agree with her observation that there are many moments that resemble what there is to come in Irving's later publications. Finnish edition was published not until 2012 and although the English edition was published already in 1968, I was not aware of it until the Finnish translation.

The book is Irving's first, there is something shameless and proud in this work. I really enjoyed it.

I'm gutted! I love John Irving. He is in my top three authors, undoubtably. So,I was excited about reading this, his first novel. However, after plodding away at it for weeks with some determination, I've had to give up on it, and I NEVER abandon books! I don't know if I'm just not in the right frame of mind or if I've not set aside enough long sessions to sit and absorb myself in this book, but I just can't get on with it! To be honest, I can't quite figure out what is going on half the time! It isn't written with the flow of his later books. I feel nothing for any of the characters, and although a lot of Irvings well-loved themes are present in this book, there is nothing to hook me in and make me want to read on!

I'm so disappointed, being such an avid fan! Perhaps I'll pick it up again at some other point and be able to get my teeth into it, but for the forseeable future, I'm afraid that this is going to be shelved and unread!!

Irvingin esikoisessa on paikoin, erityisesti kirjan toisessa osassa, briljanttia tarinaa-tarinassa, hervotonta levottomuutta ja ylipäätänsä sellaisia hyviä Irving-juttuja. Mutta sitten, etenkin ensimmäinen osa jättää aika paljon toivomisen varaa.

This is probably not quite 5 star worthy, but I enjoyed it 5 stars much. I know it's not as polished as his later work, but it has a certain strange something. His later work is odd in a more predictable , almost slapsrick way (even when it's sad), but this is more understated. When I would lie in my tent and read this in Sumatra I would just get very excited just imagining the brain this book poured from.

A good start
I read this a long time ago, and picked it up off the shelf again in anticipation of a trip to Vienna later this week. I had good memories of the style of this first novel by Irving, and the account of two friends on a road trip through Austria which opens up into memories of the Anschluss and Siggy's family history has held up well. This long central section, which is bookended by the account of the journey away from and back to Vienna, is probably my favourite part; historical events, accidents and incidents are described in terms of their effect on family members and other individuals, many of whom perished in capricious circumstances. This is movingly echoed in the statement which Irving quotes from the Serbian general Drazha Mihailovich at his trial after the war: "I wanted much, I started much, but the gales of the world have carried away both me and my work." It's a poignant image, which was also memorably used in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

Originally reviewed 30 April 2008

John Irving is my favorite author. This may be surprising to some because I am not what I consider the L.L. Bean, preppy type, in my opinion anyway. I decided to read his first book after giving up on his last one. I decided why not start at the very beginning and start over again.
John Irving has some reoccurring themes in his books, bears, accidents, strange sexual behavior. There is a good illustrative graph if you Wiki John Irving. This book is no exception except for one theme, which is MOTORCYCLES. This book is preoccupied with MOTORCYCLES in the same way Slaughter House 5 is concerned with the bombing of Dresden. What I appreciate is that I never suspected as I read the story that he would go on and on about motorcycles but he finds a way to include them in sometimes absurd ways. I felt like I learned a lot about them. Useless stuff mostly, how they sound, how they suck air, what it feels like to burn your legs on a tailpipe, what types of motorcycles the Vermacht used, how you should always use your front brake, how to best toss a grenade under a parked car while driving one, the list goes on and on.
I did not give this book five stars. I would give a few of his books 5 stars but this one lacked something his best work has. Maybe it is that it isn't quite outrageous enough. I would love to have someone who knows something about the workings of MOTORCYCLES read this book and tell me if he is full of scheiße.

I love SO much of what John Irving writes but this? This one is bad. So obviously his first novel & so convoluted & rambling - ugh. BUT that said, you can certainly see glimpses of what would eventually turn into “Hotel New Hampshire.” And to be fair, the part that was actually about setting free the bears? Pretty great. I’d read about those Great Spectacled bears all day. It was just the entire middle & the hundreds of pages detailing Austrian politics that did me in. Took me ages to finish it.

Luin tämän Irvingin esikoisromaanin aika pian luettuani hänen viimeisimmän teoksensa (Viimeinen tuolihissi). Olipa hauska löytää kummittelun teema jo täältä ensimmäisestä teoksesta!

Jei reiktų apibūdinti vienu sakiniu: vajei, kokia knygelė!
Na, gal pradėkime nuo paaiškinimo kodėl šitoks vertinimas:
+, nes knygoje esama ir istorinio konteksto: Antrojo Pasaulinio karo padėtis Austrijoje ir Jugoslavijoje, kas man, kaip Istorija besidominčiai merginai pravartu ir įdomu skaityti;
+, nes pripažinkime - gyvūnų tema literatūroje gana neplati, o skaitydama šią knygą nemažai sužinojau tiek apie gyvūnų rūšius, tiek apie jų savybes;
+, nes vidurys ir pabaiga - geriausia ir įdomiausia šios knygos vieta, net nepastebėjau, kaip pabaigiau šią knygą, nors kai kurie veikėjai siutino (SHOTOUT TO YOU, O. ŠRUTAI!);
-, nes knygos aprašymas suintrigavo, bet perskaičius knygą supratau, kad tiek daug puslapių nereikėjo prirašyti, kad sukurt kelių puslapių žvėrių paleidimo iš zoologijos sodo sceną;
-, nes kai kurios skirtingos scenos susiplaka į vieną ir gaunasi klampi maišalynė, kurią sunku suprasti.

Sad story .
I bought this book for my mom as a Christmas gift 20 years ago. It's not my impression that she opened the book but when I found it wanted to read it, and so i did.
It's a book of its time. It's a bit too elaborate, bits of the story are still good
I've read better writers in the same style as John Irving.
All in all, i read it to honor the memory of my mother, not because it was a good book..

This is the first John Irving book I haven't liked and I actually quit it about 2/3 through. It was either his first book or a very early one and I just couldn't get through it.

I had never read a John Irving novel before, but I gathered that he was a writer of great repute and I decided where better to start than with his first book. Setting Free the Bears is a quirky and entertaining story with an interesting structure. Written as a series of small scenes that link together into a greater narrative, as told by the hero, Hannes Graff. Graff befriends a fellow oddball, Siegfried Javotnik, and the two go on a road trip and hatch a hair brained scheme to free the animals from a zoo in Vienna. The narrative is split by a hefty middle section about Javotnik's family history in wartime Yugoslavia, before returning to the late 60s and a satisfying if long-awaited ending. Essentially the novel deals with the ways in which generations before us shape our present reality, and the need to resolve these issues of the past to move on into the future, however the novel does tend to lumber on, at times confusingly. Overall an entertaining book, and I look forward to reading more John Irving in the future.