De las tres partes de esta novela me ha fascinado la central. Las otras dos están llenas de los lugares comunes y las "chaladuras" de Irving pero en estado tan puro que me han saturado un poco. Y que los road trip me parecen lo más aburrido del mundo.

Irving's first novel and it unfortunately reads as such; there's a familiar touch already in place as the large middle section devotes itself to splitting between a personal diary and biography of Yugoslav resistance during World War 2, and it's certainly inventive enough to have gained Kurt Vonnegut's approval, but better things were to come from this young author. Not the best place to start with him.

Irvings debutroman, skrevet i en alder af 26. Viser i glimt det dybe, maleriske sprog, der også kendetegner hans senere, mere kendte bøger. Men virker samtidig meget ufuldstændig og rå - mangler dybde i flere af de centrale karakterer og springer hovedkulds ind i en handling og nogle hændelser og ageren, der ikke virker overbevisende. Desuden halter den danske oversættelse - eksempelvis er ordet 'fuck' (i forskellige former, der optræder ofte i romanen) fra originalen oversat til 'knold' eller 'knoldet, hvilket virker tåbeligt i de givne sammenhænge.

Tikėjausi, kad labiau patiks. Pirmoji dalis intrigavo, nekantravau sužinoti kokie nuotykiai laukia, tačiau prasidėjus antrajai daliai, kuri buvo vainikuota tik vieno personažo priešistorinei gyvenimo istorijai, nusivyliau, dingo visas įdomumas. Tuomet trečiojoje knygos dalyje dar šiek tiek buvo bandyta grįžti į tą nuotaiką, kuri buvo sukurta pradžioje, tačiau veltui, nes realiai visa istorija jau buvo papasakota. P.S. Ateityje tikrai knietėtų perskaityti garsiąsias John'o Irving'o knygas, tiesiog palyginimui, ar būtent tik ši knyga man nepatiko, ar vis tik autorius ne mano širdžiai.

This book has a great deal of mediocre writing, poor character development, and forced humor; however, it was a very enjoyable and stimulating read. I think that the paradox is part of the enjoyment, in that a book that begins so poorly could grow on you to the point that you don't want to put it down. All the later themes and symbols of Irving's more mature work are here: bears, motorcycles, conspirators, Vienna, the sudden unexpected catastrophe, and the story within a story.

The novel is divided into three parts and is concerned with Siggy's plan to free the animals of the Vienna zoo. While this story line is central to the book, it is the flashback, or the Notebook section, that is the strongest part of the novel. This section is in many ways a precursor the "The Pension Grillparzer" of Garp and deals with the Anschluss era of Austrian history and Yugoslav civil strife during World War II. This section is written with the same humor, compassion and clarity that are found in his later works. Freedom in all its manifestations (and its inherent disadvantages) is the apparent theme of the novel and this is dramatized with the freeing of the animals from the zoo. This idealistic, but irrational, act proves that one man's (creature's) bars are another's security.

Perhaps giving this book four stars is a little generous, but after I had finished the book I was surprised by how much I was moved by the novel and amazed at the young Irving's ability to manipulate his complex material into a coherent satisfying whole.

Like many people, I have read and enjoyed some of John Irving's novels. My particular favourites were: A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp and A Son Of The Circus.

Perhaps not as well known is his debut novel, Setting Free the Bears.

Disaffected student Hannes Graff hooks up with free-wheeling motorcycle enthusiast Siegfried (Siggy) Javotnik and they embark on a picaresque jaunt across Austria, encountering many odd individuals, both human and otherwise, along the way. Javotnik has a pet project which has developed into a strange obsession. He wishes to repeat a wild stunt that had been pulled off once before: to liberate all the animals from the Heitzinger Zoo in Vienna. Circumstances intervene and the mantle is passed to Graff.

Irving had studied in Vienna and the first draft of this novel was later submitted as a Master's thesis at the University of Iowa. He satirizes this fact in the novel itself: Javotnik submits his "Highly Selective Autobiography" to a professor only to have it angrily rejected as being a skewed portrayal of history.

The structure of the novel appears fragmented. Parts One and Three contain titled segments which are too short to be chapters. Part Two contains selections from the journals of Siggy Javotnik, which alternate between two narratives. One tells how he stakes out the Heitzinger Zoo, while the other relates not only his own life-story but the circumstances which brought his parents together in war-torn Vienna. The fragmented effect is somewhat irritating to me, but Irving does manage to tie the threads together and produce a funny yet disturbing climax.

The novel has many elements which work successfully in Irving's later books. Irving has been compared to Dickens because he is able to present the eccentricities of his characters in a humorous way. He is also able to present the thoughts or emotions not only of humans but of animals as well. Moreover, many of the themes which appear in his succeeding books make their first appearance here: the setting of Vienna, captive bears, bizarre accidents, absent parents, and characters whose highly charged libidos torment them constantly. Yet the novel has a feel of insouciance and cockiness about it. I can't really put my finger on it, but it did not impress me as much as some of the later works I have mentioned above.

Loved this. So fun and whimsical. A wonderful escape, summer read. Like any John Irving book it's not free of tragedy, but it's one of his lighter books. Love the little details in there that you can't forget, like stealing salt shakers and silverware from a restaurant. I'd love to have this degree of freedom some time. I honestly can't remember if women in this book are characterized as more than "a tall glass of water" because it's been a while since I read it and I remember that bothering me a bit. But I loved it for the immense freedom I felt while reading it.

The perversion and absurdity of this story could only possibly mean one thing. That is is an Irving tale.

'Setting Free the Bears' was entertaining for exactly the same reasons that I have enjoyed everything I have ever read by Irving since first picking up Owen Meany in highschool (middleschool?).

The long, rather drawn out tale of Siggy's 'pre-history' as found in his notebook is, well, rather long and drawn out. Though it is tough to get through, this point is acknowledged by the author as part of the character himself, so, I guess I'll cut him some slack.

Even so, it took my two separate tries to get through this book. I remember starting it years ago and simply never getting further than a few pages into the notebook. Understandably so. But, lock a man up in Korea for a year and he's bound to read anything you throw at him so I figured I'd tough through it this time. Thankfully I felt my time was rewarded.

What I simply do not grasp is how a young man of only 25 can just sort of 'bang out' such a remarkably intricate tale. I'm sure it has much to do with writing and rewriting yet I still firmly belive that some people, Irving being one of them, were just born to share words with others.

Who knows, perhaps I'll get around to the Cider House Rules that I bought once upon a time and never cracked open.

After reading several of Irving’s other books, this was a little bit of a let down for me. It didn’t capture my attention and curiosity the way Garp and Owen Meany did, so that at times I almost had to force myself to keep reading.

The book is split into 3 different parts: the meeting and plans of Siggy and Graff - the notebook, which details the life of Siggy - and the breaking out of the Hietzinger zoo.
What I think bothered me about this, is that the different parts pulled me out of the flow of the book. After Siggy dies, we get a whole part about his life and ancestors, which at the beginning just seems redundant, because you already know he’ll die. However, looking back, I actually liked the notebook part the most. Without realising it, I got sucked into the story, so then, I was disappointed when it ended and we got back to the ‘real’ story.

I guess I just also didn’t really like Siggy or Graff, which made it hard to care about what happened to them. So all in all, definitely not Irving’s best book in my opinion, but still an enjoyable read that draws you in without realising it.

As usual, I don’t know what to rate or think about or say about a John Irving book. And as usual, the story is an epic journey with some unique characters. This is his first book, before he got into putting kinky sex into each of them. After reading several of his books, I think he’s a bit obsessed with bears & weird sexual stuff, & either has an incredible imagination or has met a lot of strange & interesting people! (Or both!) The bit with the animals does bother me—that the whole scheme was so badly conceived that it never occurred to either of them that “freeing” these animals, contrary to “doing them a favor,” would likely cause them HARM?! So stupid.

As a John Irving fan and former resident of Vienna I was looking forward to this one. It was recommended to me a long time ago and I never got round to reading it before. My conclusion is that it's a little uneven and John Irving was not yet at his peak when he wrote this. It has moments of genius and many of Irving's characteristics are in there (strange characters and deaths, comedy within tragedy, a certain black humour and love of odd events), but somehow it was slightly unfocussed and at times bogged down in detail. Well worth reading, but not his best work.

Táto kniha nepatrí medzi tie, ktoré vás už po pár stranách pohltia tak, že sa od nich neviete odtrhnúť. U mňa to bolo skôr naopak - keď som ju odložila, uvedomila som si, že mi vlastne vôbec nechýba. Ale byť trpezlivý sa nakoniec oplatilo.

Príbeh o priateľstve a jeho niekedy až absurdných dôsledkoch nám Irving pomaly dávkuje tak, akoby sa chcel aj formou čo najviac priblížiť letnému výletu na motorke. Bezstarostné 60. roky sa prepletajú s druhou svetovou vojnou a okupáciou Viedne.

Veľmi sa mi páčil leitmotív a dala sa zvládnuť aj trošku nezvyčajná forma, ktorá podľa recenzií mnohých odradila. Pre množstvo Irvingových fanúšikov bola kniha sklamaním, čo pre mňa znamená jediné - o to viac sa teším na tie ďalšie.

Myslím, že na diplomovú prácu veľmi fajn :)