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A review by jiujensu
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
2.0
I didn't like this one nearly as much as A Prayer For Owen Meany or several others of his I've read.
I'll start with the good. The settings in the northeast and Canada are always nice to imagine - snow scenes, cozily stranded, rather than tragically so. The plot described on the back of the book drew me in and really wasn't too bad. The reference to Vonnegut, the typewriter, and the iowa writers workshop was kind of fun. I wonder if this is why the remaining characters at the end expressed the desire keep Ketchum's voice alive - irving wants to hear Vonnegut's voice?
It took way too long to finish this one, but decided not to abandon it so I could feel like I finished something.
I didn't like any of the characters. The men were these typical rough, manly textbook examples of dysfunctional toxic masculinity. The story was told at an extreme distance - things like " the cook" and "the house on Cluny Drive" keeping me so far away that i didn't really care much what happened and sometimes didn't remember the names of characters. The women were treated as unnecessary objects in the story, judged by the men based on whether their looks had gone and how fat they were. The dogs got better treatment in the story.
The twists and turns of the story were ok, but there was a lot of detail that seemed the author put in because he wanted to research - logging and italian restaurant stuff. The writer in the story had too much expository stuff about writing and fans wondering what is autobiographical and other writer pet peeves - it gets tedious. The description of the GOP was accurate, if the politics and 9/11 event seemed not essential to the story.
There was a blurb at the end that explained that the book was indeed about his own writing process and also constituted his fears. I think that helped.
I'll start with the good. The settings in the northeast and Canada are always nice to imagine - snow scenes, cozily stranded, rather than tragically so. The plot described on the back of the book drew me in and really wasn't too bad. The reference to Vonnegut, the typewriter, and the iowa writers workshop was kind of fun. I wonder if this is why the remaining characters at the end expressed the desire keep Ketchum's voice alive - irving wants to hear Vonnegut's voice?
It took way too long to finish this one, but decided not to abandon it so I could feel like I finished something.
I didn't like any of the characters. The men were these typical rough, manly textbook examples of dysfunctional toxic masculinity. The story was told at an extreme distance - things like " the cook" and "the house on Cluny Drive" keeping me so far away that i didn't really care much what happened and sometimes didn't remember the names of characters. The women were treated as unnecessary objects in the story, judged by the men based on whether their looks had gone and how fat they were. The dogs got better treatment in the story.
The twists and turns of the story were ok, but there was a lot of detail that seemed the author put in because he wanted to research - logging and italian restaurant stuff. The writer in the story had too much expository stuff about writing and fans wondering what is autobiographical and other writer pet peeves - it gets tedious. The description of the GOP was accurate, if the politics and 9/11 event seemed not essential to the story.
There was a blurb at the end that explained that the book was indeed about his own writing process and also constituted his fears. I think that helped.