"The Last Night in Twisted River" by John Irving

American literature has been blessed with a plethora of good storytellers, and that tradition continues today with John Irving. He spins a yarn with the best of them.

Having just finished "The Last Night in Twisted River," I was pleased to see that Irving has returned to his unique type of story, a story in the tradition of "The World according to Garp," "A Prayer for Owen Meany," and "Cider House Rules." This newest novel weaves several story lines together, but the basic story is that Domonic's 12 year old son, Danny, mistakenly kills the Constable's girlfriend with the result that Dominic and Danny have to sneak out of Twisted River (a violent and troubled environment) and go underground in various places throughout the United States and Canada with the Constable in pursuit.

As with other Irving works, the cast of characters is an interesting group of troubled misfits, each of whom is carrying too much baggage. Perhaps the only two characters that seem to have a chance of achieving some sort of happiness are Danny and Lady Sky. Even the animals, particularly a dog named Hero, seem to have a set of psychological problems. A Paul Bunyon-like, Libertarian logger, Ketchum, who because of a bizarre situation in Twisted River, assumes the role of protector for Danny and his father, is perhaps the most memorable. Several of the female characters, Carmella, Injun Jane, Six-Pack Pam, and Lady Sky, although not normal, are each interesting in their own way.

Since Dominic is a cook, there is a generous amount of culinary detail. And, once again, the main character, Danny, is a successful, novelist and this results in an abundance of autobiographical detail. But much of the charm of reading Irving is the detail.

What appears to me to be a departure from earlier works is the inclusion of political comment. Ketchum and later, Danny, taking a dim view of "the scoundrel" George Bush, the stolen election, and the stupidity of the Invasion of Iraq, refers to the U.S. as "an empire in decline, and a "Lost Nation," and is fond of quoting Samuel Johnson, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

John Irving's novels usually have a line or lines that permanently embed themselves in my memory, and in this one, it is the line: "Doesn't something have to happen to you before you jump naked out of an airplane?" (p.449)

Another piece of trivia for those who remember the Vietnam War is the reference to "Kennedy Fathers." Those too young to remember will understand when they read the novel.

Irving fans and those reading him for the first time, will thoroughly enjoy the elaborate detail, the twisted characters, and the various stories that he weaves together in another successful literary novel.