Wow that was good. Now I have to return it to the library.
I’ve been a big John Irving fan since I read The World According to Garp many years ago. As a matter of fact there has only been one John Irving book that I was disappointed in. I’m not going to tell you what it was as that’s not important. All the rest more than made up for it.
As I was reading Last Night In Twisted River I occasionally found myself reading something and realizing that a similar style in another book would annoy me. I’ve tried to understand that but I’m not sure I really do yet. One of the things that stuck me were things that I would see as redundant in other books but not here. I think it might have to do with how things are presented. I see John Irving as a story teller. His books are a collection of stories within stories all wrapped up in one main story. Each of these capture and hold my interest. I don’t want them to end. In books where, what I’m calling, redundancy gets to me I’m impatient to get to the end. I want the plot to keep moving and I don’t want extra words to get in the way. Not so with John, I just like to listen to him talk.
What are you reading?
I just finished Tim Dorsey’s “Florida Roadkill,” and have never felt so sick for laughing so hard at such scurrilous and depraved situations int he criminal element of the title state. A great read, but not for the squeamish.
On a different tack, I am half through “Red Dwarf,” by Grant Naylor. Kind of “Hitchhiker’s Guide” mixed with “Dr. Who,” this book became a TV series in England, much loved by my sons and nephew. Silly, but fun, as sad-sack losers find themselves thrust together 3 million years after mankind has gone extinct. They are aboard a huge mining space ship with an on-board, HAL-like computer who is starting to lose its mind, or at least some of its 6,000 point IQ.
I’m getting into Descent Into Chaos. It’s really good so far and I’m excited to get farther into the meat of it. After that, I’ve got one called The Spiders of Allah that looks wicked good.