Wikipedia can be so awesome sometimes: [link]
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
So it appears that The Hotel New Hampshire is the Ultimate John Irving Novel.
That is excellent.
Also, it's fucked up yet unsurprising that the Irving books I loved the most in college (Garp, Hotel New Hampshire) were the ones that had all (or almost all) of the recurring themes.
were the ones that had all (or almost all) of the recurring themes.
Water Method Man and Setting Free the Bears both have the usual set of early Irving obsessions: Bears, Austria, Whores, Comic Mayhem, Ironic Death.
Favourite Irving: Owen Meaney. Possibly because I like slightly twisted takes on religion.
That's my only Irving.
My only Irving is Hotel New Hampshire a long, long time ago.
Prayer for Owen Meany is really the only Irving I love
I never read Owen Meaney because of the all caps sections.
I never read Owen Meaney because of the all caps sections.
The all-caps drove me insane.