LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER
John Irving
Black Swan, $28.99, pbk
You can always rely on John Irving to tell a well-crafted story full of unexpected and complex characters.
You can also rely on him to put them through the wringer, both emotionally and physically.
Last Night in Twisted River is no exception and is even more bleak than usual, with the first 147 pages set in a depressing New Hampshire logging town.
Here we meet the novel's three central characters: Dominic the cook, his son Daniel, and the ornery, mysterious Ketchum.
Life in the town is miserable yet Dominic can't quite bring himself to leave.
An accidental death sends him and Danny on the run, pursued for years by a crazed and vengeful constable.
The two move around a lot and so does the story - Dominic takes various restaurant jobs and pursues his fondness for large women, and Daniel grows up to become author Danny Angel and have a son of his own.
Meanwhile they stay close with Ketchum, who seems to get more paranoid and political as the years pass.
The line between Danny and Irving is blurry.
Both men are writers, both passionate defenders of fiction and both start writing their novels with the last sentence.
And they're both drawn to the dark side.
Irving writes, "The writer Danny Angel seemed driven to imagine the worst things that could happen in any given situation."
As well as these worst things, readers of previous Irving novels will recognise other familiar elements - bears, wrestling, dodging the draft, incestuous relationships, even the way Irving kills off one of his characters is recycled.
This was so prevalent I ended up playing spot the reference and name the Irving novel/s I'd seen it before.
This in turn was distracting, and made it hard for me to believe in the story.
Irving says he'd had the idea of a father and son on the run in his head for more than 20 years, and the story has its good moments.
The character of Ketchum provides some much-needed fire as well as many of the more thought-provoking views.
While this wasn't my favourite Irving novel, it should satisfy fans of his work.
Laura Hewson is a Dunedin journalist.
