Maybe I wasn't in the mood for John Irving, so it's my fault, but when the first hundred pages had boarding school, dead kids, New England, major characters who happen to be authors, and smatterings of German, I spent the rest of the book waiting for a bear to ride through the door on a motorcycle.
It's almost like a self-parody, this book. He tries a female protagonist this time 'round, but that "woman" struck me as John Irving in drag - her competitive machismo is in full force as she builds up her squash game, practicing all day, icing her shoulder, and impressing every person who sees her with how strong her right arm is. She even beats a guy up at one point.
Anyway, the last 150 pages really picked up and bumped it up from 2 stars to 3, for me.
And I realize that no matter how much I make fun of John Irving's stock elements, I keep reading him.
It's almost like a self-parody, this book. He tries a female protagonist this time 'round, but that "woman" struck me as John Irving in drag - her competitive machismo is in full force as she builds up her squash game, practicing all day, icing her shoulder, and impressing every person who sees her with how strong her right arm is. She even beats a guy up at one point.
Anyway, the last 150 pages really picked up and bumped it up from 2 stars to 3, for me.
And I realize that no matter how much I make fun of John Irving's stock elements, I keep reading him.
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