The Hotel New Hampshire -John Irving

John Irving is known for revisiting similar themes in each of his books: older woman with younger man, characters with fatal flaws, absent mother figure, dwarves, lust, desire, hotels, Vienna, New and some sexual perversion, just to keep things interesting. The Hotel New Hampshire is no exception. To be able to tie all of these themes together in a story in such a way as to bring you to both laughter and tears, makes this novel one of the great works of modern American fiction. Irving's way of telling you what happens before it happens and his manner of building the characters has you rooting for even the doomed characters until their end, and missing them once they are gone.

The story line itself is outside the realm of normalcy, but in a way, every family has such a story (while perhaps not as bizarre). The father in the story is a dreamer, who brings his family with him as he invests in a series of three Hotel New Hampshires. The whole family, including five children, one grandfather, and two parents, has encounters with strange but mostly good-hearted individuals.

This has been, thus far, my favorite John Irving novel. I recommend this to anyone looking for a unique story that can both tug on your heart strings and make you smile on every other page.


In Progress:
The Devil Wears Prada -Lauren Weisberger
UML DeMystified -Paul Kimmel
Confederacy of Dunces -John Kennedy Toole
Emma -Jane Austen
Four Past Midnight -Stephen King