It took me some time to think about why I loved this book so much. Parts of it were disturbing and hard to get through but in the end it was about an unconventional family that pulled each other through all of the things in life that they couldn't control, and managed to find happiness in their disfunction. I didn't love all of the characters but I loved their strengths and weaknesses and how they each identified with one another. Even though I sometimes find it hard to get through, I'm still a loyal John Irving fan :) ( )

Once again the recurring Irving set of characters, situations and areas of interest are all here. Bears, gays, lesbians, rape, sex, wrestling, barbells, body-building, prostitutes, boarding schools, Vienna, Freud, German, fears, bullies, single parents, family, siblings, New England, Iowa, dwarfs, explosions, literature, writers, poets, orgasms, death, suicide, terrorists, and even an epilogue. It is amazing how Irving always takes these elements and by adding imagination always seems to create something entirely new and different. While the hotel situation is not totally new in The Hotel New Hampshire Irving pushes its limits. From a resort hotel to a foreign destination to a remote rehabilitation station. He even throws in some urban elegance . All with their own twists.

While a large family is the focus throughout a pair of the children are even more central to the arc of the novel. A brother and his one year older sister have a closeness that captures our attention. We see their playfulness develop into what they eventually realize is love but they are conflicted because they know they have to keep their desires in check. They recognize there are limits and lines they should not cross. Franny, the older sister is the leader in the family. The father is a dreamer, the mother is a follower, Franny calls the shots. Her brother, John, is the narrator and our eyes. Franny and John understand their lust and put off doing anything about it for years. One day Franny decides they have to get this out of their systems once and for all. She lets John know they are going to spend one full day making love until it hurts so much they'll never want to do it again. Amazingly Irving never even mentions incest. These siblings love each other.

There's an older gay brother, Frank, who has obsessions with uniforms, cymbals, and taxidermy which he practices on the over the hill family dog after he's put down, much to the chagrin of most of the family. There's a younger sister, Lilly, who never grows and eventually becomes an author and the savior of the family. The older brother becomes Lilly's agent and even Franny's agent once Franny becomes a movie star, whose career starts off when she plays herself when the novel about the family becomes a film. Beyond the family there are additional characters who are, in a word, characters. There's Freund who introduces the family to performing bears and entices them to come to Vienna. There's the grandfather, the Iowa lineman who introduces John to body-building and tends to ground everybody with his earthiness. And there's Suzie who hides herself in a bear costume.

Then of course there's always John Irving whose Iowa, boarding school, wrestling, New England, etc background are everywhere. At one point the characters are discussing the ending of The Great Gatsby. One easily imagines this is lifted from an Iowa workshop discussion of how to end a novel. Irving was either taking copious notes or has an excellent memory, but I'm clearly reading in more than what's on the page. How Irving gets us to the terrorists and the prostitutes and bases them in a hotel is woven into the arc in ways which feel.....reasonable. Don't all hotels have prostitutes? Isn't Vienna where you would expect to find terrorists?

After reading the book I sought out the movie. It's harder to find than Garp or Cider House Rules. I have mixed emotions about the film. It tries desperately to get as much of the book in as possible making it extremely fast paced but much of the underlying connectivity gets lost in the process. Unfortunately someone decided to make this a star vehicle rather than experiment with unknown actors. Wallace Shawn and Wilford Brimley make great Freud and Iowa Bob. Jodie Foster is okay as Franny. Unfortunately casting someone known for their beauty as Suzie makes little sense. But the worst casting is Bob Lowe as John. There is no way we can see him as a body-builder and he does not have the voice for a narrator. I can't wait for the remake. ( )

Good but strange. Our protagonist is part of a large family who’s father brings them up rather accidentally whilst managing a series of offbeat hotels, first in Maine, then in Austria and finally back in Maine again. A bit brutal at times with rape and incest as central themes, but also often tender and intimate. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand Irving tackles with his usual quirky but sensitive way the difficult topic of rape - he's not always successful (the grotesque revenge scene) but ends on a high note. On the other hand he brings up incest which doesn't seem to sit in the overall themes: sexual taboos? unconventional relationships? illegitimate, forbidden love? wayward familial love? I didn't see that there was a catalyst for the incest besides the unhealthy admiration of a brother for his sister (which started well before the rape). While I can come up with a few reasons for the incest's raison d'être, none of them convince me as being intrinsic to the plot and characters.
Overall this is definitely not my favourite Irving but it is typical of his whimsical style and imagination. ( )

Sorrow ( )