Tilt it Sideways!

<-- No, this is NOT a blog about George Clooney!
I'm halfway through reading John Irving's [1981] novel The Hotel New Hampshire.
My enjoyment of it is no surprise to me.
Just tonight I have been wondering though, why it is I like the novels of John Irving, as much as I do.
Because truly, he is one of my favorite authors. And yet, at times, he does things that I would not tolerate in any other novelist. I refer to his dwelling on, and [in my opinion] over-emphasizing of certain quirky traits in his [already quirky-enough] characters.
Already in New Hampshire, Irving has had the protagonist Win Berry say "Jesus God" enough times that I am expecting the Lord Himself to return to Earth way ahead of schedule!
It's driving me CRAZY!
Yet I love John Irving.
I just love how he writes.
I enter fully into the nutty... storyness of his [nutty] stories!

This is the sixth of his novels I have read, and I have loved them all. But when I say "love" I mean it in the sense that at times he pisses me off. He gets too [what is the word?] caricaturish!
As in, "I know you are trying to create this persona for your character, Mr. Irving, but could you ease up a tad on the Pokey-and-Gumby two-dimensionalness a bit?"
Yet I love him. Oh, assuredly, as I have breath and eyes, I intend to read everything this man hath writ.
And so, one might say, I love him in the purest sense, faults known!
Not according to a false sense of perfection.

I think that part of my infatuation.... no... pure love, is a result of reading the best novel first.
A Prayer For Owen Meany.
I began there, and after that novel, John Irving can do no wrong.

Now -- listen up, fellow fans.
[And if you are not an Irvingite, read Owen Meany, and get in the game...] but, I recently unearthed a delightful factoid.
NEW IRVING NOVEL, COMING OUT IN OCTOBER OF 2009.

Seriously, it is called Last Night in Twisted River.
Become a disciple.
Listen to this pre-release promotional video, which I myself have watched until I can recite it.

Keep reading folks.
Turn the damn TV off.
Cancel your cable!
Tilt it sideways. Turn that satellite dish into a huge ostrich-size birdbath.
[It's what an Irving character would do]!

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