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A review by dalefu
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
4.0
This book bounced back and forth between 3 and 4 stars for me.
I'd known for some time that Irving's novels share a lot of patterns, but this only being my third, I'm only starting to see them now. Some of them are welcome little touches, like wrestling, bears, etc. But some of the more plot based patterns I found removed me from the story. My first Irving novel was The World According to Garp, which I loved. Reading Last Night in Twisted River, there were several instances where what would have been a moving plot point, instead felt like treading old ground. Sometimes it was all too easy to replace the characters of this book with characters from Garp. In the end there was enough unique moments and characters to merit that fourth star, but if Irving sticks too closely to his trademarks in all his novels, I fear my next Irving novel won't fare so well.
I'd known for some time that Irving's novels share a lot of patterns, but this only being my third, I'm only starting to see them now. Some of them are welcome little touches, like wrestling, bears, etc. But some of the more plot based patterns I found removed me from the story. My first Irving novel was The World According to Garp, which I loved. Reading Last Night in Twisted River, there were several instances where what would have been a moving plot point, instead felt like treading old ground. Sometimes it was all too easy to replace the characters of this book with characters from Garp. In the end there was enough unique moments and characters to merit that fourth star, but if Irving sticks too closely to his trademarks in all his novels, I fear my next Irving novel won't fare so well.