- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (Jun 23 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 034541800X
- ISBN-13: 978-0345418005
- Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 1.5 x 21 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #417,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The main character of John Irving's second novel, written when the author was twenty-nine, is a perpetual graduate student with a birth defect in his urinary tract--and a man on the threshold of committing himself to a second marriage that bears remarkable resemblance to his first....
"Three or four times as funny as most novels."
THE NEW YORKER
From the Paperback edition.
"Three or four times as funny as most novels."
THE NEW YORKER
From the Paperback edition.
Ingram
The acclaimed second novel by the author of the #1 international bestseller, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Fred "Bogus" Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, he stubbornly clings to the notion he'll make something of his life. HC: Random House.
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
just help,
By Christiane Lienhart (Graz, Austria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Water-Method Man (Mass Market Paperback)
I need help: Would anybody send me the summary of John Irving's book " the water method man"? It's important. I'd need it until Friday, as soon as possible, absolutely necessary! This would definitely be overwhelming! Thank you mezzanine20@hotmail.com
2.0 out of 5 stars
Really? Four stars?,
By
This review is from: The Water-Method Man (Mass Market Paperback)
I had missed this Irving book somehow and bought it to read on my holiday. It's a dog. Some said too clever for it's own good. I don't think so. If it had been written in 2010 I wonder if it would have been called "tale of a man with depression and adult adhd?". In the end, I'm glad to have read it and once I got 3/4 of the way through, it was entertaining but it's only a so-so read.
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Long & Winding Road,
By BJ Fraser (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Water-Method Man (Mass Market Paperback)
"The Water Method Man" could easily be renamed "John Irving's Frankenstein". Bits of first-person and third-person narration, a movie script, and an Old Low Norse epic are patched together to form a book at times funny and other times almost unreadable. The end product is entertaining and probably too clever for its own good.The story focuses on Fred "Bogus" Trumper, the shallow, immature man who fails at one marriage, almost fails at another relationship, becomes the subject of a mockumentary, and undergoes painful surgery to correct a rather sensitive defect (hence the title of the book). Throughout the tangled web of narratives, Bogus eventually grows up a little and is perhaps on the way to becoming a good husband and father. For fans of Irving, this earlier work contains all the elements of any of his novels--Vienna, prostitutes, New England (everything except a bear). Having read the author's memoirs I know that at least some of the material is based loosely on Irving's own experiences. There are more humorous elements in this book than later ones like "The Cider House Rules" or "Prayer for Owen Meany"; I would say "Water Method" is the funniest of the Irving novels I've read to date. The writing, the characters, the story are all vintage Irving--there's no point in discussing those. The problem is HOW the story is told. The setting changes so much that as a reader it's hard to get into the flow of the book until it's almost over. There were many times when I thought about just giving up and putting it back on the shelf, but I pressed ahead and--like Ian McEwan's "Atonement"--my patience was rewarded with a story that when pieced together is humorous and a little touching (for an Irving novel). Other readers, I suspect, would have less patience waiting for everything to come together. Should you read this book? Yes and No. If you're an Irving fan, then definitely Yes. If you've never read the author before or didn't like what you read by him, then No. I still recommend "Cider House Rules", "World According to Garp", and "Son of the Circus" as my favorites, but "Water Method" is up there in the pantheon of Irving novels.
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