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.