The richness of familial detail is astounding. When I finished the book I felt like I had lived a lifetime with Adam and his family. The Last Chairlift ranks high along with Owen Meany and Garp.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- {THE LAST CHAIRLIFT - John Irving}

I have never read anything by John Irving before, but the synopsis on Net Galley peaked my interest. I had no clue the book was 912 pages long, took me about 2 weeks to read. If it wasn’t for Adam (who is narrating his life story) and his hilariously dysfunctional and unconventional family, I would not have labored through it. I fell in love with the eccentric band of characters: Adam, his mother Little Ray (a ski instructor), her lesbian life partner Molly (a ski patroller), Little Rays husband Mr. Barlow (English teacher/wrestling coach/eventual transgender woman), Adams cousin Nora and her nonspeaking girlfriend Em (pantomimes her way through life) and plenty more. Its a very non-traditional family to say the least, but the amount of love and support shared between them is moving.

The book spans between the 1940’s to present day with plenty of focus on sexual intolerance, the AIDS epidemic, political (republican) bashing over the decades. Some of it became a little long winded but again the moments of humor and my investment in the lives of the characters pulled me through.

Most of the book is narrated in first person by Adam, other parts were written as a screenplay. That was a little harder to follow but I guess it added another dimension to the book. Again Im not familiar with any of his previous work so I cant compare but I enjoyed it. I would only recommend it to committed lovers of reading, because you are going to invest a lot of time and it takes a little patience at moments.

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Oh this was a disappointment. It's been a good long while since Irving published and I was beyond excited. However this is the slowest chairlift possible ,traveling up Everest for how freaking long this book was. The normal Irving relationships are there, mother and son, daughter and father, a misbegotten youth. We have read this before, multiple times, in many of his other novels. Nothing new and definitely nothing exciting.

John Irving is a great writer. This book meandered back and forth between characters and time far too much for me. The mother/son relationship was disturbing. Most of the relationships were unorthodoxed. There was need of a good editor. I wanted to like this book but I was disappointed.
I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry, this book just isn't for me. I'm not enjoying spending time with these characters and there are many too many scatological references.

Being from NH myself, it amazes me how well John Irving captures the nuances of granite staters in his characters. Yes, I know he grew up in NH but not every author has the ability to get the people just right.

I started reading The Last Chairlift without realizing it is over 900 pages. Not that it intimidates me, it is more along the lines I have to be in the right mood and have the time to read something that long.

As I got a little further in the novel, I'm saying to myself that Irving once again is going to bring us down familiar territory with a single mother with a son, who is searching to find the identity of his father, the same private school, along with some eccentric characters. I really wasn't expecting to actually finish or like the novel if it didn't bring something new to the table. Fortunately in some ways Irving does and I highly enjoyed the read.

What makes this different from his best known novels, is it interweaves Adam's story with movie scenes, a film script, and of course long passages/conversations about Moby Dick, The Screenplay Adam is writing blurs the narrative of fact and fiction, which at times will tire a readers patience. At least it did for me anyways. Like why is this script so long? Why do you keep going on and on about Moby Dick? Some of it makes sense and at other times I was thinking will you just stick to the narrative and stop going on a tangent.

John Irving novels have always been political and The Last Chairlift is no exception. In many ways it reads as historical fiction most particularly for the LGBTQ+ Community that makes it accessible for readers to understand their history and what the community had/has to go through.

If you can get past the tangents of the novel and immersed into the characters, I would say it is up there with the best of Irving, but still nowhere near my favorites (A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampsire, and my personal favorite A Widow for a Year), nor is it even close to his worst (The Fourth Hand).

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.

There was a time when a new book by John Irving was an instant must-read and it rarelyy disappointed. Most likely my friends read it too so there was the added pleasure of discussing it. This new one doesn't quite repeat that experience. Given that I was an avid skier and some of the places described evoke happy memories, after a while of this I couldn't quite see where Irving was going with this and I found it more tedious than not-to-be-put-down.

A big fan of John Irving's previous novels, I was excited to read his latest and thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity. While the novel provides an interesting premise and the characters are quirky in a typical Irving style, I had a hard time staying focused and didn't feel the energy I usually associate with the author's work. The length seemed unnecessary for the story told and some of the meandering did not pay off. Overall, if you're a fan of Irving, you know what to expect, but this fell short of his stronger novels.

The Last Chairlift
by John Irving
Pub Date: October 18, 2022
Simon & Schuster
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This was not a hit for me.
I have enjoyed John Irving's books for many years and was excited to read this one but did find it really hard to get into. I generally like his unconventional, quirky characters and situations. I had a hard time really caring about these characters and the narrative was a little too predictable. It’s my hunch that most of my friends won’t want to bother with this 900-page book.
I cannot recommend it.
2 stars

I was so happy to receive the ARC of the The Last Chairlift by John Irving. I am familiar with his work only from the film adaptations and this provided me my first opportunity to read the source material. It has many of the themes you come to anticipate in an Irving story: sexual nonconformity , a mute woman, a boy being raised by a single mother, unknown father, wrestling and Exeter, just to name a few. While I don't mind the duplicative construct, you do need to have something new to say.
I found the first third of the book enjoyable. Irving's eccentric characters and the campy prose used to describe them was entertaining. I soon found myself pushing.to continue reading. When I reached the halfway mark, I was rocked to see that I still 500 pages to go!
The book takes the reader down many rabbit holes - deep rabbit holes. You get the tangents of war , politics, ghosts, sexuality, class divisions, you name it. These are not explored lightly, he goes into depth on each and then brings you back to the main story in the same way you can take a wrong exit on the freeway and drive for miles before you are on the right road again - only repeatedly. This makes for a very long and irritating road trip. What this really needed was an editor with a strong, bold pen.

My thanks to NetGalley and .Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

How does one begin to review the work of a man who is called one of the greatest novelists of our day? The Last Chairlift is John Irving’s first book in 7 years, and it is a tome, stretching 912 pages. In this new novel, the author is at his best. His is a unique humor that is subtle, often hidden between the lines, and his characters are eccentric creatures, making them even more memorable.
The Last Chairlift opens with Adam, a first-person narrator, who writes in a diary style. We are introduced to his family, each one dysfunctional in his or her own way. I loved the grandmother, who reads Moby Dick aloud to him and sparks his love of literature. If you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to read Melville’s great American classic again.
This novel could almost be characterized as historical fiction, for it includes content related to politics, war, the AIDS epidemic, and society’s ever-changing sexual mores. Irving has strong opinions and is open in sharing his views.
Destined to be one of those books that people either love or hate, The Last Chairlift will most certainly be discussed and debated by casual readers and literary scholars alike. But I have no doubt that fans of John Irving will race to purchase this new work.
This timeless author turned 80 this year, but his indomitable voice is as strong as ever. In the literary world, John Irving is ageless.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster, NetGalley, and the amazing John Irving for the advanced copy of this novel.

I have enjoyed John Irving's books for many years and was excited to read this one but did find it really hard to get in to. I generally like his unconventional, quirky characters and situations. I had a hard time really caring about these characters and the narrative was a little too predictable. I would certainly recommend the book to others who like John Irving's books but not whole-heartedly.

If you've read John Irving, you know what to expect here--Exeter, wrestling, absent fathers, writers, mute women, deviant sexuality, older men with younger women, Irving proxies. It's almost embarrassing at this point how many repetitive details I can pick out from earlier work. Remember the Ellen Jamesians of Garp? They're replaced by women with hangmen's nooses around their neck. Ellen James herself is replaced by the similarly-named Em, though she is mute by choice until, after decades with barely a word, she just decides to speak again with little logic. There are also ghosts, though there is little logic to them as well. Why are some confined to one location while others can travel? Why can some interact with material objects? Whatever suits the story.

Irving has said that some images wouldn't work in one of his movies but do work in writing. His example was Delroy Lindo sucking his thumb in "Cider House Rules"--it works on the page but would look strange in person. In The Last Chairlift, Irving has an incontinent grandfather regress in age from elderly man to diaper-wearing baby to...dog? He literally has the poor man, clad in a diaper, get on all fours and bark like a dog. He also has a woman and her husband continually give each other piggyback rides well into their seventies. These details, oft-repeated (and BOY are they repeated!) as they are, read just as oddly on the page as they would visually.

Speaking of "Cider House Rules," Irving has his narrator, Adam, a former wrestler, write a screenplay for a film that was filmed in 1998 in New England. Adam is nominated for a Golden Globe, which he loses, and an Oscar, which he wins. Adam's first wife (like Irving's second) is a publisher, and he and his second-wife emigrate to Toronto in 2019, where he remains very critical of the US Republican administration. Sound familiar? He includes so many autobiographical details that it's almost humorous. He even has another character who's an Irving proxy--Adam's dad, who was 14 years old when he impregnated Adam's 18/19-year-old mom. Paul, his father, is also a screenwriter who marries/beds women young enough to be his granddaughter. I have no way of knowing if this is how Irving sees himself, but this behavior is eerily reminiscent of Juan Diego in "The Avenue of Mysteries" If you want to read books about septuagenarian writers and their much-younger sexual partners, Irving is the author for you.

Irving's prose still sparkles with whimsy, but this bloated novel deserved a good editor.

I have tried and tried to get into The Last Chairlift, but to no avail. Although the prose is lovely and the satire is sharp and John Irving certainly has a sweeping vision, the repetition and very slow pace make the 912 pages of this novel feel overly self-indulgent, and I wish the book had been more closely edited. Though I made it to the end, I found that my opinion didn't change much.

This was my first time reading an Irving novel, and I want to try his other books, but I don't think that The Last Chairlift was the place to start.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the free advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A lot to love with this epic story from John Irving! In his inimitable style, John Irving delivers everything his fans have come to love and expect from him. It's easy to think The Last Chairlift is a coming of age story, which it is, but it goes much beyond into the realm of a saga about love and an unconventional family. This is the story of Adam's life and all the characters in it, and there are some interesting characters! Readers of Irving will immediately feel at home with the New England setting and quirky characters. There are movie stars and ghosts, there are pantomimists and lesbians, wrestling and even a fateful lightning strike. As Adam gets older, he becomes a novelist and screenwriter, and there are two lengthy sections of the book that are written in screenplay style. For me, these didn't flow as well as the other writing, although they did serve a purpose. The book covers a LOT, but by the end you can't help but feel intimate with the characters and touched by the poignancy of their story. All in all, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it. At 900+ pages, it's a major commitment and maybe not the best book to start with if you're new to John Irving. But for his fans, it's well worth your time!

I would like to thank Simon and Schuster, and Net Galley, for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I was very excited to receive this book. I loved The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules. Sadly, I did not like this book. First, it is extremely long-912 pages. John Irving has said that this , his first novel in 7 years, would be his last long novel. I almost wish he would have made 2 shorter novels . This book is both sprawling and overstuffed. It is about a writer named Adam , his life, his friends, his family , his work. It spans a time frame of 1941 to 2019. It is the story of Adam Brewster. Adam's mother is Rachel Brewster, called Little Ray. She is a ski instructor. She went to a ski race in 1941 in Aspen, and became pregnant. She did not name the father, and wanted to keep Adam as her "one and only". The story traces Rachel and Adam's life, as well as many members of their family, friends and acquaintances. I liked the character of Adam, however , most of the other characters were unlikable. There is a streak of meanness in almost all of them, particularly when it comes to describing Adam's old girlfriends. ( They all have nicknames- the limper for one).There are so many characters, and many are called by a variety of names/nicknames. Elliot Barlow comes into the book about a quarter of the way along. He is called , Elliott, Mr Barlow, the snowshoer, and the little English teacher interchangeably, and several times in the same sentence. It becomes annoying after a while. The familiar storylines for Irving books are there:wrestling, LGBTQ characters, strong mother and absent father figures. The book is especially strong in the storyline set in the 80's, during the Aids Epidemic. The blurb talks about it as a ghost story, and while there are ghosts, there are long stretches where that storyline is absent. There are a lot of death scenes, often in bizarre ways. There are uncomfortable sex scenes(ex the old girlfriend called the limper) . There is also a lot of discussion about the novel Moby Dick.It is quoted so often that I feel like read it as well as this book. I really wanted to like if not love this book, however I found it too long and convoluted for my taste.

I’ll start with the good news: Irving comes through with his talent for creating characters that stuck with me after I read the last page, characters I wished could step out of the pages and be my friends in real life. The book at times pulled hard at my emotions, centering on the close-knit group that surrounds our narrator Adam, who as a child doesn’t know his father and longs for his often-absent mother. With the book spanning many decades, readers are likely to connect deeply with the themes: embracing love in its sometimes surprising forms and sticking close together to keep the ones you love on the right side of the cliffs, to use a moving analogy by one of the characters. I loved the use of ghosts, who appear more in the latter part of the book and add both interest and emotional resonance to the work

Unfortunately, the strong moments in the book frequently get lost as the narration veers into long side stories that take attention away from the main plot. Because of this and other reasons, I didn’t feel I got as deep a look into some of the main characters as I would have liked. In addition, there is a lot of repetition of phrases and descriptions. Brief scenes and dialogue are repeated in ways that seemed unnecessary, which also slows the pacing of this lengthy book. While some of the humor is wonderful, some of it fell flat for me. Plus, my enjoyment of the early scenes was spoiled by some of the subject matter, including humor that revolved around a character’s dementia.

There is a lot to love, and I found myself really caring about what happened to the characters as their lives changed throughout the decades. But the unevenness and slow pace kept me from getting lost in the world of the story like I wanted to. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance read in exchange for my honest review

The Last Chairlift
by John Irving (Goodreads Author)
21819568
Anne Wolfe's reviewJul 11, 2022 · edit
really liked it

Where do I begin to write a review about the first John Irving book in 7 years that runs for 900 pages and took me three weeks to read? Perhaps I should get the negative comment over with first: There was SO much repetition, sometimes even word for word, that it became annoying. (And, perhaps, could have made the book considerably shorter and possibly earned five stars.)

But it showed John Irving at his best. No other writer has that particular humor that has you laughing out loud right from the beginning. As always, the characters are quirky and not ordinary in any way but three-dimensional, nevertheless.

The Last Chairlift begins with Adam, first person narrator, novelist and screen writer. We meet his mother, Little Ray and her lover, Molly, both of whom are involved in skiing, Ray as a former Slalom competitor and Molly, a snow groomer. Adam's grandmother, who reads Moby Dick to him, starts his love of literature - and makes you want to go back and re-read Melville, although not so soon after The Last Chairlift.

Has anyone ever written a character like Adam's demented grandfather, who wears diapers? I think not. The multiplicity of characters include the little snowshoer, his mystery-writing parents, bad comics and very bad girlfriends, as well as Adam's Cousin Nora, her mother and Aunt, his uncles, and Nora's loudly orgasmic but mute girlfriend, Em, as well as the little snowshoer who becomes Adam's stepfather figure prominently throughout.

The novel can be read as a history, dating from the forties to the present. It includes changes in our society brought about by politics, wars, protests and the AIDS epidemic, and changing sexual norms. Irving does NOT like Ronald Reagan, the Bushes or Donald Trump. (Neither do I.)

And then there are the ghosts, a continuing theme throughout. They are black and white photos or sometimes long and sometimes recently departed, some who interact and some who don't. The ghosts alone could inspire a graduate thesis. Wrestling? Comedy clubs in the 60's? Yes, they're here? Publishing and author readings? Yup. And noir movies and so much more.

When you get to the end, you will feel as if you have re-lived the last 70 years. You will have laughed and grieved, and you will have rejoiced in the experience of a new John Irving novel.

Thank you, thank you to Simon and Schuster, the author, and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel to read, and read and read and experience.





The Last Chairlift
by John Irving (Goodreads Author)
21819568
Anne Wolfe's reviewJul 11, 2022 · edit
really liked it

Where do I begin to write a review about the first John Irving book in 7 years that runs for 900 pages and took me three weeks to read? Perhaps I should get the negative comment over with first: There was SO much repetition, sometimes even word for word, that it became annoying. (And, perhaps, could have made the book considerably shorter and possibly earned five stars.)

But it showed John Irving at his best. No other writer has that particular humor that has you laughing out loud right from the beginning. As always, the characters are quirky and not ordinary in any way but three-dimensional, nevertheless.

The Last Chairlift begins with Adam, first person narrator, novelist and screen writer. We meet his mother, Little Ray and her lover, Molly, both of whom are involved in skiing, Ray as a former Slalom competitor and Molly, a snow groomer. Adam's grandmother, who reads Moby Dick to him, starts his love of literature - and makes you want to go back and re-read Melville, although not so soon after The Last Chairlift.

Has anyone ever written a character like Adam's demented grandfather, who wears diapers? I think not. The multiplicity of characters include the little snowshoer, his mystery-writing parents, bad comics and very bad girlfriends, as well as Adam's Cousin Nora, her mother and Aunt, his uncles, and Nora's loudly orgasmic but mute girlfriend, Em, as well as the little snowshoer who becomes Adam's stepfather figure prominently throughout.

The novel can be read as a history, dating from the forties to the present. It includes changes in our society brought about by politics, wars, protests and the AIDS epidemic, and changing sexual norms. Irving does NOT like Ronald Reagan, the Bushes or Donald Trump. (Neither do I.)

And then there are the ghosts, a continuing theme throughout. They are black and white photos or sometimes long and sometimes recently departed, some who interact and some who don't. The ghosts alone could inspire a graduate thesis. Wrestling? Comedy clubs in the 60's? Yes, they're here? Publishing and author readings? Yup. And noir movies and so much more.

When you get to the end, you will feel as if you have re-lived the last 70 years. You will have laughed and grieved, and you will have rejoiced in the experience of a new John Irving novel.

Thank you, thank you to Simon and Schuster, the author, and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel to read, and read and read and experience.





The Last Chairlift
by John Irving (Goodreads Author)
21819568
Anne Wolfe's reviewJul 11, 2022 · edit
really liked it

Where do I begin to write a review about the first John Irving book in 7 years that runs for 900 pages and took me three weeks to read? Perhaps I should get the negative comment over with first: There was SO much repetition, sometimes even word for word, that it became annoying. (And, perhaps, could have made the book considerably shorter and possibly earned five stars.)

But it showed John Irving at his best. No other writer has that particular humor that has you laughing out loud right from the beginning. As always, the characters are quirky and not ordinary in any way but three-dimensional, nevertheless.

The Last Chairlift begins with Adam, first person narrator, novelist and screen writer. We meet his mother, Little Ray and her lover, Molly, both of whom are involved in skiing, Ray as a former Slalom competitor and Molly, a snow groomer. Adam's grandmother, who reads Moby Dick to him, starts his love of literature - and makes you want to go back and re-read Melville, although not so soon after The Last Chairlift.

Has anyone ever written a character like Adam's demented grandfather, who wears diapers? I think not. The multiplicity of characters include the little snowshoer, his mystery-writing parents, bad comics and very bad girlfriends, as well as Adam's Cousin Nora, her mother and Aunt, his uncles, and Nora's loudly orgasmic but mute girlfriend, Em, as well as the little snowshoer who becomes Adam's stepfather figure prominently throughout.

The novel can be read as a history, dating from the forties to the present. It includes changes in our society brought about by politics, wars, protests and the AIDS epidemic, and changing sexual norms. Irving does NOT like Ronald Reagan, the Bushes or Donald Trump. (Neither do I.)

And then there are the ghosts, a continuing theme throughout. They are black and white photos or sometimes long and sometimes recently departed, some who interact and some who don't. The ghosts alone could inspire a graduate thesis. Wrestling? Comedy clubs in the 60's? Yes, they're here? Publishing and author readings? Yup. And noir movies and so much more.

When you get to the end, you will feel as if you have re-lived the last 70 years. You will have laughed and grieved, and you will have rejoiced in the experience of a new John Irving novel.

Thank you, thank you to Simon and Schuster, the author, and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel to read, and read and read and experience.

Irving fans will quickly notice the regular elements here: wrestling, New England, small people, sexual nonconformity, unusual families, non-speaking characters, the draw of Canada, writers and screenwriters, etc. As the book begins, it's easy to expect him to retread old ground and, while there's some truth to that idea, he does enough new work here that the novel does feel like a fresh entry into his bibliography. It sits most naturally next to Owen Meany and Garp (I haven't read his two previous novels yet so I'm not sure how it fits in with the recentish stuff). In many ways, it's a look at the politics (particularly the gender/sexual politics) of the US since about 1940, viewed through the history of one strange family, and suits this particularly moment.

At times, it's quite enjoyable and hard to put down (reading a digital ARC, I didn't realize how long it is, though it clearly felt long), but at times, it feels as if Irving is trying to write an Irving novel. Some of the wackiness -- particularly the wedding scene -- feels forced and some of the humor falls flat. It struggles, too, in its lack of a strong central storyline (one line, the mystery of the protagonist's parentage, just isn't that interesting or useful). Irving has no problem with episodic storytelling, but this book reads as if it's just a recounting of a bunch of stuff, the usual Dickensian coincidences and formal influences don't make for a strong as structure as in Irving's best work.

Too many of the characters aren't quite rich enough (as with Zimmerman, the narrator's good friend, who we don't even realize was such a good friend until he becomes a useful political argument) or are a little overdrawn, such as Ray, with her giggling and her uncritiqued inappropriateness (no spoilers, but the characters cover up some awful behavior). By the end of the book, they do have enough weight to provide some truly moving moments, even if the book winds down feeling more sad than profound.

The book's also too long for its own good. It doesn't have either the scope or the weight to warrant 900 pages. Some of the editing could have been full scenes or tangents, but much of it could have been just the trimming of repetitive phrases. Neither Irving nor his editor trust us to remember key moments from earlier in the book, so we sometimes get them verbatim to make sure we can connect all the dots. If some of the politics are heavy-handed, so is some of the writing.

If that's heavy criticism, it's because we've seen the heights Irving can reach throughout his career. But it's also true that this book does contain some wonderful moments, some unique and memorable characters. There's always empathy in Irving's novel, and that comes through in abundance here. The core of the book works better than the rest of my review might suggest, but it still remains one for hardcore Irving fans. I can think of a half dozen of his books better than this one, and some of the early ones that might not be "better," but are more enjoyable. It's a worthwhile entry in an important catalog, but it does have its issues.

I truly admire this seasoned author's skill, technique, and commitment to these characters. They live and breathe in all of their awkward glory.

If you have a hard time empathizing with gender-diverse people or those that live a much different life than your own I would skip this one. As I have no staunch political leanings and tend to enjoy stories that some might consider off-putting . . . I have a true soft spot for the struggles of underdogs and this story has more than one to choose from. This story focuses on Adam Brewster and his Mother Rachel who shows him how to be true to himself and brave enough to live his life fully and without apology.

This novel is a long one folks, but I enjoyed it even when the narrative became slow and meandering . . . it was a winding path of discovery and a road much less traveled.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Last Chairlift for my unbiased evaluation. 4 stars