The Hotel New Hampshire

If you haven't read Irving yet, I think you should give him a try. This novel isn't one of his "big three", but it's damn good.First off, most Irving novels have some general characteristics:- They typically have a Dickensian plot, in which you follow the characters through large portions of their lives. The breadth of the novel typically goes through one generational span, but often you'll get (at least) a few beginning chapters detailing the lives of the protagonist's parents or grandparents, [...]

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 manThe 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 inst [...]

The Hotel New Hampshire is book five in my John Irving Challenge, wherein I am attempting to read all of John Irving's novels in under a year's time. On with the review.Incest is the best! Oof. Just typing that made my stomach flip. Incest is one of my only triggers. That and the death of very young children, kids between zero and five, their deaths just fucking wreck me, man. Incest just makes me feel ill. It's a core reaction. Not sure where the aversion stems from, if it's natural or learned, [...]

"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 [...]

The Hotel New Hampshire: John Irving's Fairy Tale of Life"A dream is fulfillment of a wish."--The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund FreudOne of the benefits of having your favorite professor of psychology as your next door neighbor is learning that he is a very widely read man. We are an odd pair, I suppose. He is 76. I am 59. But through the years we have known one another we have become best friends. We frequently exchange books the other has not read.It is safe to say that Howard is fond of [...]

Ein traumhaftes Buch! Im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Ich meine dies also nicht schwärmerisch, sondern vielmehr wortgetreu. Ich kam mir beim Lesen der Geschichte der Familie Berry oft so vor, als würde ich nach einem wilden Traum am Morgen aufwachen. Es gibt Träume, die spielen ja in realistischen Umgebungen mit bekannten Personen, doch plötzlich tauchen andere Menschen oder Wesen auf, die eigentlich gar nicht hier hingehören und der eigene Traum wird skurril und surreal. Wie anders soll es e [...]

(This was the first book of my new book club).John Irving is one of America’s great writers. Happy Days was one of America’s most popular television shows. (Don’t worry this will make sense later)Happy Days was beloved, but everyone knows there was one episode where everything seems to start to go downhill for Fonzie and the kids; it was the episode where Fonzie drove his motorcycle over a ramp and jumped a shark. Now the phrase “jumped the shark” is utilized for that point whenever an [...]

To describe the plotline of The Hotel New Hampshire to a questioning would-be reader is to realize that you’ve been enthralled with a plot that is, at its core, rather silly. Circus bears and run-down hotels, plane crashes (so silly!) and midgets, botched taxidermy and obsessive weight-lifting – these are what Irving novels are made of. This was an undeniably fun read that I sped through, and I picked up another Irving (A Widow for One Year) as soon as I was done (I just can’t get enough). [...]

Awesome book. I had never read Irving before, and I have no idea why not. He's like that Deli that you always drive by but never go into, then one day decide "what the hell" and it turns out to have the best pastrami sandwich you've ever had in your life. Anyway, the story revolves around an unusual family growing up and learning about sex, sports, love, death, failure, success, etc etc. It's quirky and funny and strange - Irving has a knack for finding little bits of truth in truly bizarre situ [...]

i've probably read this 10 times now. i went through a john irving phase, and i ODed about half-way through. (140lb marriage is a terrible book, btw. don't do it).but this is one of my favorite books. it would be desert island number three, but it's a little too sad i don't think it would be a good idea to isolate myself with it on an island to read again and again for eternity. that said, it's irving at his best. anyone who can take a family involved in incest and abuse and prostitution and sui [...]

I feel a little bad for finishing this book so quickly, as John Irving spends years writing his books — in longhand, no less! — and a lot of work goes into constructing his stories, but I could not put this down. Never before I have been that enamored so soon when reading an Irving novel; typically, it takes a chapter or two until I warm up to the world he is building. Not so with The Hotel New Hampshire. I was charmed from the start. One’s enjoyment of this novel will likely hinge on his [...]

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 [...]

I winced, cringed, and rolled my eyes through this. The only other Irving I'd read was Garp and I absolutely adored ituntil about the last third. The spell Irving had woven over me wore off and the book started to grate; this one wore out its welcome in the first hundred pages. I can't stand the precious little phrases the characters use constantly throughout the book (what?, open windows, 464, blah, blah, blah) and the motifs from the author's other works (bears, athletic obsession, lust, castr [...]

This is an unusual but extremely outrageous and humourous read. I am a big fan of John Irving. It is just plain weird in parts of the story of the Berry Family as their Father aspires to own a hotel or two. There’s a lot of the unconventional issues in the plot, rape, incest, homosexuality and many more unexpected events with a bunch of lovable, quirky characters to add and nurture. It’s quite a tragic story really with family heartbreak but they know that the one thing that matters is your [...]

I learned never to read John Irving ever again. I'd like to give this even less than one star, if there were a way.

Irving is a great storyteller and novelist with characters that come to life in being all but flawless and also by taking views and actions that are unexpected, very much like in life. He also has a few strange interests, such as bears, wrestling and much more and a few of them are in evidence in this one as well. 'Hampshire' is good, but not one of his best, mostly due to it being quite the bumpy ride, parts are amazing and some parts are easily missed. I would start with another one of his.

One of my most revelatory professional discoveries is also stupidly simple. It’s this, courtesy of Bob Probst: Reading is a selfish venture.It is. Of course it is. I’m disappointed in myself for not realizing it earlier, because it’s a principle – probably one of the top two or three – that guides my work with pre-service English teachers, and it would’ve transformed the way I taught English in high school. I was reminded of the selfishness of the reading enterprise as I made my way [...]

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 characte [...]

August 2008This book seems to thumb its nose at the 1-5 star rating scale, and I almost can't decide what to think of it. Five stars? Well, the first part of the novel--the First Hotel New Hampshire--is certainly worth that. Four stars? In places, yes. Three stars? The ending, in the epilogue and the Third Hotel. Two stars and one star? Jesus God, the Second Hotel, Vienna, the return of Freud--and that bear!In a way, The Hotel New Hampshire feels partly like a companion novel to The World Accord [...]

So far this is the weakest John Irving book I have read. His books are always crazy and slightly unbelievable, but this is the first time I didn't believe. Spoilers ahead. First off all I just didn't believe the plane death. Who travels in plans separately, did people actually do this? You drive in the same car together, going separately just doubles your risk. Plane crashes are just so unlikely that I didn't buy this for a second. I really liked Egg and Mother, but wasn't sad when they died bec [...]

Hotel New Hampshire is that book for me. That one great book. It makes me want to go back to any other book I rated with 5 stars and lower them down at least one - because surely they do not compare to this one.It's impossible to summarize Hotel New Hampshire and have it make sense to someone who has either not read it, or not read anything else by Irving. It contains bears, little people, taxidermy and radicals. The story has many fantastical elements - but at the core of this novel is a story [...]

Well.let me first say that this family is probably, cray-cray even more than most. It drained my life force the entire time I was reading it. Not the first book with incest, I ever read, but certainly the most gratuitous and disturbing. It was distasteful to say the least. I felt badly for the black Lab, he got the worst treatment I dunno what people found endearing about this book, maybe I just didn't get it, and I'm glad I didn't.Irving you really tried my patience with this one, I shall steer [...]

It was fate that this book and I would eventually converge, I think. My writing program friends from school -- namely Kyle and the girl who started the extra curricular writing group I was a part of for two years -- frequently gushed about John Irving. My bookish aunt devoured all of his older works in high school. I made an attempt to read A Widow for One Year my freshman year of college and it left me cold, for as much as I trust those tastes. I felt little drive to ever pick him up again.Then [...]

Update 2017: I'm bad with names, I really am. I can't remember the names of people I met, of my colleagues or politicians. But nearly two years have passed since I read this book and I still remember all of them: Frank, Franny, John, Lilly and Egg! I'm currently reading The Cider House Rules and that just reminded me, how much I loved The Hotel New Hampshire. :-)Review 2016This was one of the most emotional and therefore beautiful books i’ve read so far. The characters were all so well elabora [...]

First line fever: The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born - we weren't even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Fanny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg.

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

"L'estate in cui mio padre comprò l'orso, nessuno di noi era ancora nato."Dopo aver letto “il mondo secondo Garp” ed esserne rimasta rapita, ho pensato - non senza un po' di tristezza - che nel leggere il successivo romanzo di Irving non avrei più provato le stesse intense emozioni. E invece l'Hotel (dovrei dire gli hotels) mi ha letteralmente coinvolta. Tutti i personaggi che compongono la numerosa e stramba famiglia Berry, e quelli che gli ruotano attorno, ognuno nel proprio ruolo, hanno [...]

Read this many years even though back then it was so different than the books I'd normally read I kept on reading because the writing was so good.Want to read another of his books.Read date is a guess.

It is hard to choose a rating for this book as there were things I really liked about it and things that really turned my stomach. "Like" doesn't really cut it as a rating but, well there you go.I love the eccentric characters and the quirky, laugh-out-loud dialogue. As I noted when I read A Widow for One year, Mr. Irving is a very fine writer, better than most; however, as I also noted before, he comes across as sexually obsessed and twisted, certainly he and I are not sharing the same "family [...]

I read 'The Hotel New Hamsphire' a over a decade ago. I just remember being shocked about the incestuous line in the story. Thinking, "This is ruining this! Why does John Irving always do this? Completely charming characters, interesting storyline, and then the sickness. It's always in there. The dysfunction. The immoral. I know it's a part of the real world, and I don't consider myself a prude, I just don't always want to fill my head with it. The "great story" is far enough away now (I read it [...]