Was für ein wilder Ritt! Und was für ein wunderbares Buch!!

Questo libro mi ha completamente spiazzata!
Pensavo di trovarmi di fronte ad una storia leggera e divertente che racconta le vicende di una famiglia un po’ pazza perennemente in viaggio alla ricerca della realizzazione dei propri sogni. Mi sono trovata, invece, immersa in un libro profondo e coraggioso che affronta temi molto “scottanti” come il bullismo, lo stupro, la prostituzione, il suicidio, il terrorismo e la morte e affronta tabù come l’incesto.
La cosa che mi ha colpito di più è che Irving ha la capacità di affrontare tutto questo con grande ironia e leggerezza, che non è mai superficialità. A volte il suo modo di raccontare è un po’ “forte”, a volte dissacrante, ma c’è sempre uno sguardo dolce e amorevole verso i suoi personaggi.
Nonostante il finale un po’ dolceamaro, questo libro ti lascia un messaggio decisamente positivo: una vita senza sogni non può essere chiamata davvero vita.
In fondo l'Hotel New Hampshire non è un luogo, ma la metafora dell’eterna ricerca dell’uomo della propria realizzazione e della capacità di non smettere mai di sognare e di sperare... nonostante tutto.
Veramente bello.

Šī ir klasiska Ērvinga ģimenes sāga, izstāstot plašu posmu ģimenes vēsturē – sākot ar vecāku jaunību un beidzot ar bērnu bērnu dzimšanu. Klasisks gan jāattiecina uz vārdu „Ērvings”, nevis „ģimenes sāga”, jo lai nu kāda bet klasiska tā sāga gan nav. Tā ir kārtējā Ērvinga traģikomiskā dīvainīšu ģimene, kuru dzīvē prieki mijas ar bēdām, smiekli caur asarām un asaras caur smiekliem, viņi nonāk absurdās situācijās un dara trakas lietas, uzvar, zaudē, cieš, utt utjp . Grāmatā ir gan lācis uz motocikla, gan Freids (arī ebrejs, taču nevis psihiatrs, bet gan zvēru dresētājs), gan teroristi, gan punduru cirks, gan citi kolorīti tēli. Sevišķi jāizceļ ģimenes labradors vārdā Skumjas, kurš lielāko daļu grāmatas pavada izbāzts, turklāt ir kā ļauna likteņa vēstnesis, kas uzpeld visneiedomājamākajās vietās un laikos, izraisot ne vienu vien smieklu lēkmi un arī pāris traģiskus mirkļus.

Plašāk blogā:
https://andrislasa.wordpress.com/2015...

Typical of any John Irving book, the characters were so fantastically flawed that I couldn't help but fall in love with them. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to adopt a bear... This is the book that gave Tim Sandlin inspiration for the title of his novel Sorrow Floats and perfectly poignant sentences permeate every page. Keep passing by the open windows...

sopii kategoriaan ”ap’n ja monjan suositukset”

It’s actually 4.5 stars. I do enjoy John Irving and this is wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Win(slow) Berry is a dreamer never satisfied with life, as it is. Always wanting to climb over the hill to see what's on the other side. It will always be better over there! An unhappy childhood with only one parent to raise him, a physical fitness fanatic rather cold but a good man...
The single father Bob (Coach Bob) his wife having died, giving birth to Win. The dedicated football coach at the prep school in Dairy, New Hampshire called unimaginatively, the Dairy School. A second rate institution for boys thrown out of superior ones, or not even able to get in them in the first place. Without the school the small town would cease to exist. Win has no brothers or sisters a lonely boy, very intelligent but nevertheless an unfortunate one. His life really begins in 1939 at a resort hotel, The Arbuthnot-by-the-Sea, in Maine there he falls in love with Mary Bates, also from Dairy they had kept away from each other. She attended Thompson Female Seminary, Win, ( the name he prefers) of course the Dairy School, both are employees at the hotel during the summer. There they meet Freud, just his nickname folks... not the famous psychoanalyst. An animal trainer who has a bear act, performing nightly outside the Arbuthnot, while the guests are having dinner... a little unsettling . State O' Maine the 400 lbs. bear loves the motorcycle. He sits in the sidecar as Freud drives, scaring people just the timid... even doing a dance. The young couple get engaged and become great friends with Freud, who had encouraged the union both are 19. Win goes to Harvard but first he buys the bear and the motorcycle from "Freud", he unwisely returns to his native Austria. The animal act with State O' Maine, Win calls the old bear Earl is rather shall we say, not the best. Taking two long years before he has enough money to get back to Harvard. Children arrive very quickly, Frank, Franny, John (the narrator of our story) Lilly and Egg... don't ask. Bang, bang, bang, etc., as Franny would say many times afterwards, the eccentric family is complete. Later the father tells them stories that maybe are not quite true but still fun to hear, better than the mother's she doesn't lie. After serving safely in World War Two, at an Air Base in Italy. Win not really an accurate name for him returns home, graduates from Harvard gets a job, where else but the Dairy School, teaching English. And soon buys the closed Thompson Female Seminary, the Dairy School finally letting girls in. The dreamer starts The Hotel New Hampshire , few customers though in the crummy hotel it will not be the last one, he tries to run. The novel has incest, rape, terrorists, midgets, whores and tragedies... And comic situations, a girl in a bear suit how cool after all this is really a comedy, believe it or not ? If you enjoy novels that are different , maybe over the top from the norm The Hotel New Hampshire will be for you.

3,75
Re-read. Mein erster Irving damals. Da sind so viele biographische Assoziationen drin, dass ich das nicht klar beurteilen kann. "Bleib weg von offenen Fenstern" ist bis heute ein geflügeltes Wort zwischen meinen Geschwistern und mir.
Besser gealtert als "Setting free the bears", das ich nicht zu Ende geschafft habe. Am Ende liebe ich alle Figuren gut 30 Jahre später immer noch und es war – wie gesagt – mein Einstieg zu einem meiner allerliebsten Autoren.

John Irving hat mir in den letzten Wochen etwas Wichtiges beigebracht. Dass man manchmal einfach dran bleiben muss, auch wenn man keine Motivation findet weiter zu machen. Dass man vielleicht etwas verliert, wenn man zu früh aufgibt. Und er hat so Recht, denn ich hätte eine einzigartige und bezaubernde Geschichte verloren.
Als ich "Das Hotel New Hampshire" aufgeschlagen habe, und die ersten Seiten anfing zu lesen, hat mich Irvings Schreibstil komplett überfordert. Ich kam einfach nicht zu dem Punkt, in dem ich mich in die Geschichte fallen lassen konnte und mehr als einmal habe ich überlegt das Buch beiseite zu legen und es möglicherweise ein anderes Mal weiter zu lesen (Was man ja meistens sowieso nicht macht!)
Aber irgendetwas hielt mich zurück und ich las weiter. Es ist ein unglaublich eigentümlicher Zauber, der diesem Buch inne wohnt und der mich zwar ganz langsam aber doch stetig gefangen nahm und plötzlich habe ich eingecheckt im Hotel New Hampshire.
Gott, was hat Irving für ein Talent seinen durchweg schrägen aber unglaublich originellen und besonderen Charakteren Leben einzuhauchen. Das ist ja so intensiv, dass es schon fast beängstigend ist.
Ich habe selten etwas so Tragisches, Liebevolles, Bezauberndes, Trauriges, Melancholisches und absolut Besonderes gelesen.
Und es war mein erster Irving, was hab ich da noch alles nachzuholen?
Es gab Anlaufschwierigkeiten, doch dann war es Liebe auf den zweiten Blick.

I almost never do this, but I will not be finishing this book and have less than 100 pages to go (78% done, according to GR). I read through the first 150 pages in a day or so and while I wasn't incredibly impressed and didn't get the 5 star reviews for this book, I was enjoying it. The characters were weird and the family somewhat dysfunctional, which is something I always like reading about. But when the second half of the book switches to Vienna, it drags. Oh my god does this book DRAG and everyone becomes so FLAT. Im not even sure how much time is passing at this point because everything just melds together and the narration just falls apart.

I'm 2-2 with Irving now-- I absolutely love A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules, I thought they were excellent. The Hotel New Hampshire and The World According to Garp are just about the most painful books I've ever read. I've tried to read Garp 3 or 4 times as it's always highly recommended but I found it truly awful. I don't even want to bother with the last 100 pages of this as it's reading incredibly slow. I may try to finish it at some point but I doubt <100 pages will change my opinion.

Oh, I love this one!
Such innocence and delight.
But all the rape? Yuck.

“It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.”

If you have read John Irving before you know his work is bizarre, too tidy (usually) and not realistic, and if you can get over that aspect then you have a chance of enjoying his work. He is hit or miss for me. I have read a couple of his I enjoyed, and a few I have loathed. I have noticed that those I dislike are ones he has written in the last 20 years.
“The Hotel New Hampshire” has all the usual Irving characteristics; a story that takes place over many years, a sprawling cast list, some ridiculous plot contrivances, a little too much familial love for my tastes, a homoerotic fixation with male physiques and oddball characters. And in this text, I was okay with that.
I cannot really tell you why I liked this book, but I did. It took me about 50-60 pages to get into it and invest a little, but I did and then I was in. I am not sure I can pinpoint a thematic significance to the text; it was just a family saga. And that is a significant thing to write about. For most of us that is the stuff our daily lives are made of. As one character says of the details of daily life, “Thus we invent our lives”.
“The Hotel New Hampshire” follows the Berry family from the initial meeting of the parents at a resort in Maine thru the middle age of the surviving offspring of the marriage that springs from that summer fling in Maine. I have been told this text has a lot in common with “The World According to Garp”, which I have not read. The second son in the family is our narrator. John Berry seems rather unflinching in his evaluations of himself, and those he loves. It is somewhat refreshing to read a novel whose narrator (I don’t think) has an agenda. The plot is sprawling, we go from New England to Maine to Austria, to NYC and back to Maine. It is quite a trip.
The book is a mix of some really lovely writing and some fun storytelling elements, and sometimes the two elements even mix together.
I have not said a lot that is important about this text. It is a good read, and a unique story. There are not many people writing like this, and this novel from 1981 is one of the better pieces of John Irving’s that I have read.