- Paperback
- Publisher: Ballintine Books (2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345479734
- ISBN-13: 978-0345479730
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 3 x 20.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
One of my least favourite Irving novel, but I still enjoyed it,
By
This review is from: Last Night in Twisted River (Paperback)
The novel began like a poem, a sad, true poem about the waning days of logging. It didn't continue with the same beauty, but it was a great tale of a camp cook and his son encountering tragedy and running from the possible consequences of an accident. The often over-the-top story line in Last Night was made almost believable because of Irving's amazing ability to bring his characters to life. The four generation story of ordinary life back-dropped with melodrama was made especially interesting for me when I found out that some of it was somewhat auto-biographical. Also, the news (for me) that he writes from beginning to end (after writing the last sentence of the book first) without a rewrite explains a lot. There was some poorly integrated scenes and some ineffective repetition that an editor should have nixed. Because he spent very little time characterizing the last generation son, it seemed uneven. However, I am always eager to read the next sentence that John Irving writes. It is always an adventure.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Acquired Taste,
By
This review is from: Last Night in Twisted River (Hardcover)
I guess John Irving must be an acquired taste. He hasn't had really great reviews on some of his books since Garp. Personally, I love his books. His quirky characters are always memorable, and more are created here. I was especially glad to see a return of a bear, wrestling, and Exeter Academy!! I look for them in every book Irving writes. In my opinion, one of the Great American Authors!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad but could have been so much better,
By
This review is from: Last Night in Twisted River (Hardcover)
John Irving's novels are in a class by themselves. There is no mistaking his stories for anyone else's and this is one of the reasons I've always loved them. Yes, Irving tells essentially the same story in each novel but I think his talent lies in being able to sell you that story every time. It can be comforting to read one of his novels and recognize the recurring elements as you go. Last Night in Twisted River, then, is the ultimate comfort read for Irving fans; it has nearly every one of his favourite 'Irvingisms' - I think Vienna and prostitutes are the only ones he left out.This overabundance of recurring elements is, I believe, both the book's greatest asset and its greatest weakness. The first third felt like vintage Irving, bringing back memories of Owen Meany and The World According to Garp. The final third was nearly as good and the chapter called 'Lady Sky' was brilliant. It would almost work on its own as a short story and is, for me, the most memorable part of the novel. The middle of the book is where things took a turn for the worse. The timeline became too confusing to keep straight and so many of those 'Irvingisms' showed up that it became almost eye-rollingly predictable. If you've read all of the classic Irving novels, it's difficult not to make those connections and see what's coming next. Here's what bothered me most about this novel: in The World According to Garp, what I really loved were the original stories that Garp wrote. In Twisted River, Irving develops a very similar character in Daniel but rather than original work, the plots of Daniel's novels bear a remarkable resemblance to those of Irving's early novels (and are released in almost the same order). Also, *mild spoiler alert* the novel Daniel is working on for the last part of the book turns out to be this exact novel, Last Night in Twisted River, with repeated sentences and everything. This was somewhat disappointing knowing how much more original it could have been. *end spoiler* All in all, if you are already an Irving fan, this mostly an enjoyable read ' just don't expect it to be up to the calibre of Garp or Owen Meany. And if you haven't read an Irving novel yet, don't start with this one.
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