barbara wrote:
>i went from "widow" to that book. then read "cider
house rules", which made me want to read "david copperfield". i can
really see how influenced by dickens irving is.
irving is also, i think, very influenced by davies, and in fact he paid
homage to him in 'owen meany' when the narrator taught davies to canadian
high-schoolers. by the way, i haven't read irving's new 'widow', but i
place 'owen meany' very high in my list of books. not quite as high as
'hotel new hampshire'. unlike barbara and a lot of other listers, i reread
a lot a lot a lot. i often finish books and go back and reread chapters
that were particularly gorgeous. but 'hotel new hampshire' is the only book
i've ever finished, turned back to page 1, and read again. just a fantastic
>book.
Yes, I've also read most of Irving, and totally agree about 'hotel new
hampshire', and I also loved 'garp'. However, I think he went steadily
downhill from there. 'Cider House Rules' is OK, but much of the good stuff
seems to be cribbed from his grandfather's medical journals; 'Son of the
Circus' left me cold, and I thought 'widow' was really pretty poor. Much of
his present popularity seems to be based on his earlier novels. And I do so
wish he wouldn't try to copy Dickens - so often we get piss-poor attempts at
'characterisation'- like a description of facial features or something,
which are about the same standard as you get in fourth-form English class (I
exaggerate slightly). Dickens is THE MAN for this - IM(not so very H)O,
'Martin Chuzzlewit' is worth all of Irving's books glued together. (Not to
mention all the fine things Dickens had to say about the Americans) <G>.
Shame about this aspect of Irving, because it would be nice if there were
some American novelists who could occasionally reach the standards set by
their English counterparts <joke>.
By the by, I really like William Boyd - 'ice cream war', 'brazzaville
beach', 'new confessions'. Anyone with me on this?
Phil
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