Review Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel

Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel Best Review

A John Irving novel that does it again. In wonderfully constructed pros Mr. Irving develops and expands his major characters, Dominic Cookie Baciagalupo, his son, Danny, and a subordinate cast of highly unique people over a period of fifty years. The story starts in Coos County New Hampshire in 1954 with a deadly logging accident, winds its way to the Italian North end of Boston, to an Italian restaurant in Iowa City, and a Toronto French cafe. Danny becomes a famous writer. "Cookie" shares his wonderful recipes and Danny lets us in on his writing technique, which not too strangely is also John Irving's.

As a writer I savored every line of "Last Night In Twisted River" as a tutorial. As someone that ran for the New Hampshire State Senate from Coos County (unsuccessfully, as a progressive Democrat in a highly conservative district) it brought me back to countless nights on dark roads going though logging areas and very small towns on high alert for moose and bears who own the roads after dark. There's a surprise ending that I won't ruin for you that left me waiting for Mr. Irving's next book. Facing Fascism: The Threat to American Democracy in the 21st Century

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Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel Feature

• ISBN13: 9780345479730
• Condition: New
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Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel Overview

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable’s girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County—to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto—pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River depicts the recent half-century in the United States as “a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.” What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author’s unmistakable voice—the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller.

Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel Specifications

Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: A long, delicious trip to the land of Irving is hands-down the best way to begin the month of October. A trio of tragic events (though the prize for most hell-shocking goes to the third) exiles widower and camp cook Dominic Baciagalupo and his son Danny from a mid-century logging outpost called Twisted River. They leave behind the Bunyan-esque lumberjack Ketchum--a gruff, eccentric, dyed-in-the-wool Yankee--who remains their sole connection to the past. What's next neither father nor son knows: their rootless existence moves swiftly in and out of New England, tied ostensibly to jobs for Dominic and schools for Danny, but it seems one foot is always back in those New Hampshire woods. Theirs is a restless, richly observed journey, crowned by a reckoning no one could predict. Few writers can match John Irving's knack for denouement, and in Last Night in Twisted River, his extraordinary ending is made all the more powerful by a story that feasts on language, life, and love. --Anne Bartholomew

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Customer Reviews

Read the Whole Thing - Jeffrey Bradley - Rosepine, LA United States
If you are from NH you have to. Just read it and absorb what's real. John is real. Six Pack is real, Angelo is real...if you're from Nh then they are your neighbors.





John, go to therapy next time you want to vent for 600 pages - Rory - NYC
The THINLY veiled parallels to Irving's career and writing philosophy permeate this choppy and largely unfocused mess of a novel. I am a huge Irving fan, yet I only gave it even 2 stars because Twisted River's characters are just interesting enough to make it through, but they are about the only redeeming feature. Ironically, the main character, an author, states that "re-writing is writing," advice which Irving apparently did not heed himself. This reads like a first draft and a hastily constructed draft at that. This reads like a whiny memoir from an author who has lost touch with the humanism that once made his writing so captivating even in the midst of over the top and sensational plots. The authenticity of the human condition captured by Irving made the fantastic plots interesting versus distractions. Twisted manages to have neither. If I wasn't so far into the book I would have shut it when the main character starts lamenting the public's misinterpretation of his novels, particularly his abortion novel, which came off as so needy on Irving's part given his own history with the subject in Cider House Rules it was almost embarrassing. Big disappointment for one of my favorite contemporary writers.





Where is John Irving???? - MRB Tara - Eastchester,NY
Ugh! What has happened to the John Irving of yore? This product is just a little too full of bits and pieces (can we say "if it worked once it may work again") to remind you of the great characters, humor and wisdom of Cider House, A Prayer and The World but it just never makes it! Ugh.

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