Last Night in Twisted River

All the prerequisites are here for another vintage novel from John Irving. Guess where the novel begins. New Hampshire, of course. Is a bear involved? Yes. Are there deadly mishaps and lost loved ones? Yes and yes! These are the staples of a John Irving book; The man stays with what works for him. It works for the reader too for the most part, though there are a few items that are a little fuzzy. John Irving is known to write with a seemingly bizarre fear of losing a child that tends to confuse the details of a loved one's death and the aftermath.

The story begins in Twisted River, New Hampshire with a young man drowning, an American Indian woman killed when mistaken for a bear, and the murder suspects, a logging camp cook and his son, taking it on the lam from the law. The journey takes us to New England, Iowa, Colorado, and Toronto, Canada over a period of nearly fifty years. Their sojourn seems to have been avoidable if only the cook and his young son, Dominic and Daniel Baciagalupo, hadn't run, but then there wouldn't have be a story. The cook's best friend is a crusty, tough logger named Ketchum, who will be the Baciagalupo's eyes, ears and adviser in New Hampshire for the next 47 years.

As time passes, Daniel becomes a famous writer using the pen name Danny Angel. Dominic and Daniel change their name's many times as they move from place to place to elude the constable from Twisted River. The fact that Daniel is a writer who happens to be writing a story within this story is a clever technique common to an Irving story. There are many delightful characters in this novel, such as Six-Pack Pam, Carmella and Lady Sky. The final conflict between the Baciagalupos and the retired, homicidal constable is somewhat predictable but still exciting.

The hero of this novel, Danny Angel, nee Daniel Baciagalupo, attended Phillips Exeter Academy and The University of Iowa Writers Workshop with Author Kurt Vonnegut as his teacher. Guess who else went to these schools and had the same teacher? You guessed it...John Irving! The reader will wonder if John Irving might really be the person who hit Injun Jane with the eight-inch cast-iron skillet. Anyway, I highly recommend this novel.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Some of John Irving's bestsellers include: The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, and The Hotel New Hampshire. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1999 for The Cider House Rules. Simon and Schuster will publish Irving's next book, In One Person, in the summer of 2012.