⭐️3.5/5

Wat een ervaring. Het is een geniaal verhaal. Het gaat over een gezin met 5 kinderen die opgroeien in hotels. En er zijn de hele tijd beren

Het leest super snel en sommige stukken zijn absurd en heel grappig. Sommige delen daarentegen zijn echt naar en goor. Een specifiek stuk, wat zich afspeelt tussen John en Franny, had hij er echt veel beter uit kunnen laten in mijn mening.

Ik vond de character development een beetje matig. Het boek speelt zich af over iets van 15 jaar waarin die kinderen allemaal opgroeien. Maar ze worden niet echt meer volwassen in het boek vind ik. Een puntje aftrek voor het racisme en the way he writes women. Het blijft wel gewoon echt een beetje een witte Amerikaanse man

4 Sterne

Anfangs haben dieses Buch und ich wirklich sehr miteinander gerungen. Nach etwa 70 Seiten war ich ernsthaft versucht, es abzubrechen - denn ich fand es bis dahin vor allem langatmig und anstrengend und hatte das Gefühl, dass es nirgendwohin führte.

Erwähnt ich, dass es mein erster Irving war? Und im Hinterkopf hatte ich all die Lobpreisungen auf diesen Autor, unter anderem auch von Freunden und dem von mir sehr geschätzten Benedict Wells, den ebenjenes Buch dereinst auf den Gedanken brachte, Schriftsteller zu werden. Als ich in einer Facebook-Lesegruppe vorsichtig den Gedanken formulierte, das Buch abzubrechen bzw. das als Frage in den Raum stellte, antwortete sogleich ein vielstimmer Chor aus Irving-Begeisterten: Oh nein, unbedingt dranbleiben! Das hat mich -zum Glück! - ausreichend motiviert.

Das Dranbleiben hat sich gelohnt. Aus mir wird vielleicht kein Hardcore-Irving-Fan werden, aber ich konnte seinen eigenwilligen und unvergesslichen Figuren und ihrem schrägen Lebens-Abenteuer dann doch noch Einiges abgewinnen, viele Stellen waren richtig toll. Die Geschichte insgesamt hatte nach meinem Geschmack halt ein paar Längen - unglücklicherweise vor allem am Anfang und später dann nochmal während der Zeit in Wien. Das Ende, das so bittersüß, schlitzohrig und unkonventionell wie das ganze Buch war, mochte ich sehr gerne.

Disappointment. The name was promising, the author was promising.. But it took me more than one week to read it :(

Colorful characters deal with angst, incest, and mental disorders, to the apparent amazement of literary critics. Irving has impressive range, but "The Hotel New Hampshire" is too quirky to be believable even as a metaphor for growing up, and the dominant note in this novel is misanthropy. Needless to say, that makes for discordant music, even at the hands of a craftsman of Irving's caliber.

There are some deeply affecting paragraphs in this book, such as when an old football lineman small for his position is fondly recalled, but if the novel means to say something thoughtful about modern or postmodern relationships, I'm not ashamed to say I missed the memo. Surreal is one thing; cruel is another. The hipper-than-thou nihilism of this novel made me tired. Even Pat Conroy, no stranger to dysfunction, treats his characters with more respect. That's why I pity the Berry family for the tribulation that John Irving forced them to live with: They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.

If I had a choice between checking into John Irving's Hotel New Hampshire or Alfred Hitchcock's Bates Motel, I'd take my chances with the Bates Motel.

I recently came across a review of John Irving's work which claimed that only three of his novels are worth reading: A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules, and The World According to Garp. The Hotel New Hampshire, the reviewer claimed, is pretty good, but too "odd" to be considered great.

It is oddity that makes The Hotel New Hampshire worth reading (over and over). I have read The Hotel New Hampshire at least 5 times, and have found that it improves with each reading. True, the characters and the events of the novel are weird and improbable. But the depth and poignant accuracy with which Irving describes his characters' emotions as they live through a series of tragically bizarre events makes every moment feel one-hundred-percent true. Irving's gift is for describing the odd and the everyday with such clarity that the odd feels true and the everyday feels extraordinary. This is nowhere more true than in The Hotel New Hampshire. Even after multiple readings, I walk away from this novel dazed, convinced that the Berrys are people that I actually knew once upon a time. This book cannot be written off as too "odd" to read, for the Berrys feel true.

The Hotel New Hampshire must be read - if for no other reason than to encounter the single greatest family motto ever: "Keep passing the open windows." Who knew you could put a positive spin on "Don't Jump!"?

"So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone's older brother, and someone's older sister - they become our heroes, too. We invent what we love, and what we fear. There is always a brave, lost brother - and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on; the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them."

I have started writing this review four, five times? I can't remember anymore. Each time, I get a few lines into it, and realize I'm falling terribly short of what I really want to say. This novel broke my heart. It is beautiful and lyrical and warm and funny and it broke my fucking heart, with each and every paragraph, every word. That's really all I can say about it. Read it.

"You have to keep passing the open windows."

There's something a tad demented about this one. I'll pass.

Once again, Irving takes a plot full of outrageous twists and a bunch of odd characters and blends it all into a story that is at once ridiculous and everyday. He has the ability to describe, clearly but without drama, horrific or tragic events, and to explore the effects of those events on a character, but without making the whole story, or the whole character, about the event. He's an excellent story-teller, and his knack of oddity clicks very nicely with my love of the surreal.

I'm in the process of rereading John Irving novels and I'm blown away by how much more they mean to me, a decade later. Of course I enjoyed them as a teenager but I imagine now that I'm "mature," I have a deeper understanding of Irving's nuances. What really awes me is that Irving is a consummate planner. Every little turn of phrase, every seemingly minor incident has deep meaning and affects situations down the line. His books are so pleasurably whole, giving a sense of deep satisfaction. The Berry family and their various tragic/comic escapades are ludicrous, yet touching and somehow believable. And I think it's safe to say that Irving is the best "ending writer" I've come across. I think I've read somewhere that he generally writes the ending first, and fills in the rest from there. A remarkable tactic and one that proves how thoughtful a writer he is.

I cannot believe I got all the way to my 40's without reading this book. I remember seeing it on my parents' shelves as a child, and I vaguely remember seeing one scene from the film in the 80's, but I never managed to read it until now.

Only Irving could create a plot so bizarre, implausible and uncomfortable & still manage to make it an emotional tour de force. Having read A Prayer for Owen Meany years ago, I'm struck by the fact that Irving seems to have quite a thing for dress maker forms & little people. I'd love to know what the story behind that is.

Once you get to know Irving's characters, as idiocyncratic as they are, they become fairly predictable people --Irving uses the repetition of certain phrases by each character to solidify their personalities. But the situations they end up in are just entirely unpredictable, absurd and almost impossible to believe. But the fact that the absurdity starts out right away (an animal trainer named Freud, and a bear named State 'O Maine that rides a motorcycle), and the fact that Irving makes his characters so incredibly sympathetic and likeable (even when they are being awful!), the reader (at least this reader) is able to completely overlook the ridiculousness of some of the plot line and go along for the ride.

Such a mixture of sadness (a dog named "Sorrow" is a prominent figure, so....) and silliness and loss and dream fulfillment--this is definitely one of those books that I will miss now that I've finished it.

I've always known about 'Hotel New Hampshire'. I never knew what it was about but I knew there was a book. I knew there was a film too. I somehow imagined it to be something Hitchock-like mixed Last Tango In Paris. Imagine my surprise. So far there is something about a bear. I will finish this review when I am done reading.

Ok. Done reading. I don't think John Irving will ever get five stars from me. Though he is an excellent story-teller - and this is what a purpose of every novel should be - to tell a good story. All modern and not so modern writers that have some other hidden agenda should probably consider a career change. Telling stories is what writing novels is all about. And John Irving does that superbly. You never know if it is a plot-driven novel or character-driven novel because he seems to put equal effort into developing both his characters and his story. They go hand in hand and develop together. Kudos for that.
As a true story teller Irving often goes astray. He just loves to digress, and digress... and digress... However, it didn't bother me at all in The Hotel New Hampshire (unlike in the Prayer for Owen Meany). The real problem I have with Irving and the reason why probably will never get five stars from me is his really cheesy symbolism. I have no problem with books asking me for a serious supsense of disbelief. But Irving puts all that crazy sh!%$ in his books just so he can have his symbolism. I think his tricks are cheap. And sometimes I really don't know. Is Irving a truly amazing writer or is he just tricking me into believing he is while always serving me the same recycled dish?

I’m generally not a huge fan of episodic novels but, while this novel does employ episodic storytelling, the cumulative effect of those stories is more effective than usual. The novel ultimately delivers a satisfyingly rich picture of a quirky yet likeable family of oddballs, told over the course of several decades.

It’s been a while since I read the World According to Garp, but I seem to recall I had similar feelings about that one. Maybe this is simply Irving’s forté - but I haven’t read enough yet to make any blanket statements. Either way, I enjoy his writing - he has a great flair for the descriptive and I love his quirky sense of humour. I’m happy that I still have several of his novels still ahead of me.

I find his books intriguing, even if I might not include him on my list of all time favourite authors. While I don’t always enjoy every aspect of his novels, they do tend to hold my interest throughout, and I can generally rely on him to deliver richly developed characters and satisfying conclusions - both overall and for each of the novel’s episodes.