The Hotel New Hampshire

401 pages

English language

Published Dec. 14, 1981 by Dutton.

ISBN:
978-0-525-12800-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
7306103

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4 stars (36 reviews)

The Hotel New Hampshire follows the Berry family across two continents and through three hotels. Family members attract friends who substitute lust, violence, laughter and tears for the standard bourgeois components.

9 editions

Review of 'The Hotel New Hampshire' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

In light of the tragedy which occurred while we were on vacation and out of the news loop, it seems a creepy coincidence that I was reading The Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving. In this novel, the Berry family adopts the catch phrase, "keep passing the open windows" as a reminder to each other to chin up, stay positive, and keep going. Unfortunately, one of these family members, the writer Lily, will succumb to an open window. (David Foster Wallace would have stated that she defenestrated herself, and he certainly taught us the word anhedonia, or the inability to experience joy.)


As I would say of all of Irving's books, this one is brilliant, surreal, complicated, and sometimes hilariously funny. It's quite something, how Irving can do that, can make the reader go along with such bizarre story lines, all the while staying glued to the pages. This is …

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