Books, Arts & Manners: Happy Endings

The Hotel New Hampshire By John Irving

Dutton, 401 pp., $15.50 By now everyone should know that John Irving has followed the wildly popular World According to Garp with The Hotel New Hampshire. On radio, PBS even let Irving read excerpts as part of the “news.” Esquire (again) brought out a review long before bookstores had copies to sell. Time did a delirious cover story a month before official publication, but by then the publisher was shipping. Newsweek waited another three weeks to take the opposite tack and give the book an absolute dead pan, but by this time even The New York Times Book Review had given it lead space. Well before publication, then, the tally was up: amid wildly mixed reviews, James Atlas in the New York Times and James Wolcott in Esquire had found the right tone of mild disfavor and cautious respect.

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The Hotel New Hampshire By John Irving

Dutton, 401 pp., $15.50 By now everyone should know that John Irving has followed the wildly popular World According to Garp with The Hotel New Hampshire. On radio, PBS even let Irving read excerpts as part of the “news.” Esquire (again) brought out a review long before bookstores had copies to sell. Time did a delirious cover story a month before official publication, but by then the publisher was shipping. Newsweek waited another three weeks to take the opposite tack and give the book an absolute dead pan, but by this time even The New York Times Book Review had given it lead space. Well before publication, then, the tally was up: amid wildly mixed reviews, James Atlas in the New York Times and James Wolcott in Esquire had found the right tone of mild disfavor and cautious respect.