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Loading... Last Night in Twisted River: A Novelby John Irving
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  KathleenKaska | Nov 25, 2009 |  This book is all over the place, even for John Irving. I started out thinking I must have the wrong book, this doesn't sound like Irving at all as there was much more exposition than normal. However, he was just warming up. Soon every Irving crutch was thrown into the ring, at once comforting and repetitious. At times, you can pick out Owen Meany's tongue out of Ketchum's mouth. He even types his letters IN ALL CAPS for crying out loud. Still enjoyed it though. limerts | Nov 23, 2009 | "Last Night In Twisted River" is another beautifully written masterpiece by John Irving. Although it took me a while to get hooked and I put it down many times, I found myself loving it. John Irving has a beautiful writing style that I have yet to find with any other author, and a unique way to touch your heart that is all his own. I have greatly enjoyed every book that I have read by him, and I look forward to many more. I would recommend "Last Night In Twisted River" to any John Irving fan, or to anyone who is interested in becoming one. (  ) goddesswashu | Nov 23, 2009 | Rambling, dull, slow, boring. (  ) DaffodilTurner | Nov 21, 2009 | I'll start by saying that I've only read one other of Irving's books, "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I think Irving is an author with die-hard fans and I don't have enough experience with his work to count myself among them. I had a lot of trouble with this book. The beginning, where we're introduced to the characters and their logging camp home, is very bleak. Once the setting changed, I found the reading a little easier, but the book did not consistently keep my attention. Maybe if I had more context, were more familiar with Irving, I would appreciate all the self-referential in-jokes that the other reviewers delighted in, but I found my mind wandering as I tried to keep reading. It felt self-indulgent to me, and contrived, instead of playful and engaging. At over 550 pages, this is a long book, and I felt like I struggled through a lot of it. And it's not that I don't like long books; this year, I read Les Miserables. I finished it more quickly than I did this book--and I enjoyed it more. Meh. (  ) comato | Nov 17, 2009 | 
 The coy hints of connections between the author and the narrator have been forced onto a plot that can’t accommodate them, and the fact that Danny is a famous novelist too often seems a mere contrivance, giving Irving a convenient opportunity to include rambling background information and to air his own ideas about writing. In his bid to make something “serious,” Irving has risked distracting readers from what otherwise could be a moving, cohesive story. I thought I was heading for another “The Cider House Rules,” my personal favorite of his novels. But the full reading experience ended up being more like “A Widow for One Year,” where one outstanding section has to carry the weight of the whole book. And at 554 pages, that’s a lot to carry.  Irving playfully invents a story that’s as much about the pleasures of reading one of his novels as it is anything else, until it poignantly turns into a paean for a dying art and a plea for the idea of the story. This could all seem self-indulgent. Instead, it’s Irving’s best since the ’80s.  Mr. Irving uses coincidences, cliffhanger chapter endings and other 19th-century novelistic devices to hook the reader, while at the same time orchestrating them to underscore the improbable, random nature of real life. Some of his inventions — like a murderous blue car that appears to have zeroed in on Danny’s son — are ludicrous at first glance, but the reader gradually comes to understand that they are writerly metaphors for the precarious nature of life in “a world of accidents.” With his narrative fits and starts, well-worn themes and repetitiousness, Irving can seem to be almost a graceless writer. Yet while “Last Night” has those potential flaws -- I say potential because the same characteristics are an accepted part of oral narration -- it’s tightly plotted overall, suspenseful and ultimately evocative.
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Loved it! (