I must have read this about 20 years ago or so. I could hardly put it down! But, be warned....it's very intense and I wouldn't recommend anyone reading it when they're in a serious depression. But, I love this kind of stuff. The characters are so real and you really get into their minds. Great book! ( )

I'm a huge fan of John Irving, and this is my favorite of his books.

This review will contain SPOILERS.

The book involves almost all of the usual Irving tropes - wrestling, hotels, New Hampshire, bears, sex and death (if he'd thrown in some dwarves, we would have had a perfect set). There are laugh-out-loud moments and cry-out-loud moments.

This book essentially details the struggles of a family with a lot of children as they face some of the more difficult things you could imagine, including terrorism, gang rape and the death of a parent. The troubles they face are almost outsize, but the snide wit and perseverance the family exhibits in the face of these things is heartwarming and engaging. And beneath the somewhat overblown facade, the novel allows the reader access to the many real struggles of children forced to be the parents in a family while still young and the difficulties of wanting something you just aren't supposed to have. ( )

Most of Irving's early novels tie together bears, hotels, and Vienna. This one does it best. A multi-generational eccentric family follows their father's dream of opening and living in a hotel with often comic, frequently disturbing, and sometimes tragic results. There is a film adaptation of this book too which is pretty good too. This is my favorite of Irving's novels. ( )

There is always something so haunting about John Irving's work in my memory. This was no exception. Possibly my favorite, I've read in countless times and each time I'm effected as deeply as the last, which to me means great work.

Not everyone can connect you on a personal level with a bear, flatulence prone dog, prostitutes, radicals and a very disfunctional family, but he certainly succeeds. ( )

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 a fairy tale about an unusual couple who have five children who possess five very different, eccentric personalities. The father is the dreamer who makes weird choices for his family, and as a result, the children are subjected to weird circumstances and strange people, in addition to the personal tragedies and challenges each must cope with.

Though I was fascinated with this novel, it is not my favorite of Irving's, so far. There are several I haven't read yet, but I must say that my favorite so far is still A Widow for One Year, followed closely by The Cider House Rules. However, I am very interested in renting The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) which is said to be very faithful to the book, and strangely, the lovely Nastassja Kinski portrayed Suzie the Bear, a plain girl with so many issues that she spends most of her time in--a bear costume.