July 29, 2023 EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK

John Irving is one of my all time favorite writers. He's won many awards including a National Book Award for The World According to Garp, an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules anda Lambda Literary Award for In One Person. His novels have also found International fame and have been translated into forty different languages. In addition, five of his novels have been made into movies. My personal favorites include: A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow for One Year and A Son of the Circus. Irving knew he wanted to be a writer after reading Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations when he was only fourteen years old. After reading Dickens, Irving said, he wanted to move the reader like Dickens moved him--both emotionally and intellectually.  At the heart of any Irving or Dickens novel is some type of social or moral dilemma--orphans, absent fathers, poverty, sexual identity.  Dickens' influence on Irving is obvious in his obsessive attention to detail that often leads to long, windy sentences, complex plots and a cast of unforgettable characters. Irving's fifteenth novel The Last Chair Lift is vintage Irving. You will feel right at home if you are an Irving fan as he touches on familiar themes including wrestling, New England, Exeter, absent fathers, sexual identity and politics. It's like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in seven years. As this NINE HUNDRED page novel unfolds, Ray Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill Slalom Championships in Aspen, Colorado. After the games, Little Ray goes back home to New Hampshire where she finds herself pregnant. Little Ray and her son, Adam, live with her parents--Nana and grandfather also known as --the mysteriously mute principal emeritus. The novel spans eight decades as Adam grows up and tackles childhood, puberty, sexuality, unconventional families, illness, LGBTQ, death and the Catholic Church. There are so many wonderful characters in this novel--Molly, Elliot Barlow, Nora, Em---who help Adam understand that love and family can come in many forms.  Irving has this amazing ability to make serious, sometimes tragic events LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY TOO. He's a genius. Warning: This is probably not for the first time reader of an Irving novel. It's long (maybe too long) but for the SUPERFAN it is a MUST READ. Let me know what you think.