Now available in eBook for the first time in America—the New York Times bestselling saga of a most unusual family from the award-winning author of The World According to Garp.“The first of my father’s illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels.” So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother … son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they “dream on” in a funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel by the remarkable author of A Prayer for Owen Meany and Last Night in Twisted River.
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My favorite of the John Irving novels, Irving uses words as an artist uses a paintbrush. Every image is as clear as a photograph, and every scene is as vivid as real life. But, oh, what a life the Berrys lived in their Hotels New Hampshire.
Well this was depressing. I think it is intended as a tragi-comedy and sexual farce, but it just came off as sad. A family with five children buy a decrepit girl’s school and turn it into a decrepit hotel, which they also live in– with a pet bear. The father is an unrealistic dreamer, the mother a patient stoic, and each child is maladjusted in their own unique way. One of the boys, who serves as the narrator, has a sexual obsession with his older sister. Tragedy stalks them at their first Hotel New Hampshire, and follows them into Vienna, Austria, where they live in and are part owners of another Hotel New Hampshire and suffer more tragedy. Prostitutes rent rooms in both the new world and the old, which gives the narrator plenty of outlets while he pursues his sister. An end note in the books says this was made into a movie (Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges), but I can’t imagine a movie pulling off the tone of the book.
John Irving writes like no one else and I am quickly learning that I can’t get enough! I didn’t want to put the story down.
35 years after reading this book, I still think about the characters and the story
My favorite John Irving book. The movie did not come close. Made me an Irving fan.
I kept reading because I think Irving’s The Cider House Rules is one of the best books I’ve ever read, but The Hotel New Hampshire does not come close to the quality of plot, intrigue, and characters of Cider House. In fact, I thought the plot, characters and story only got more twisted and unsavory with each chapter.
Getting to the final page was one of my happiest moments this year. In truth, I did not like most of the characters. But if you like total chaos, dysfunction, and every character with twisted sex and other twisted behavior, this is the book for you.
Anything from John Irving is surprising, unpredictable. Excellent characters.
Characters with a capital C. Entertaining at times, but mostly sad. Plots are strictly fantasy.
One of my favorite author’s – John Irving – has such a way of telling a story. This book is one that keeps you turning the pages, you feel you know the characters. I have re-read this book many times and it never gets old. This ark of art stays with with you and makes you think about your own life and what everything really means.
I like anything by this author.
Read it a long time ago. Not my favorite by this author.
John Irving is a master storyteller. Excellent book. One of his early works. His books only get better as the years go by.
An unforgettable book whose characters have remained with me ever since I read it many years back.
John Irving fan
One of my favorites of all times! The bear that scratches itself and murmurs “earl” is forever part of my vocabulary! j