[Dr. Drib]

I can highly recommend John Irving's newest novel, "Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel."

I've already written some of my thoughts about this novel when I was still in the process of reading it.

I finished about 1 month ago and found that - like most of Irving's work - it's a wonderful commentary on life. It's also a ruminative study of the Artist and the Artistic Temperament. Because of this, it's necessarily a study of John Irving, a kind of autobiography - but not really. It has autobiographical elements from Irving's life, but the story is pure Story, a drama with characters that will come to own you.

I'm not going to write an exhaustive review of this deeply satisfying and rich novel - I don't have the time and no one's offering me any money - but I want to leave with this main idea (which is my opinion):

Irving is a committed Artist, one who is deeply concerned with the Human Experience. In his best work, he displays the best and worst of what it means to survive in this world, whether it be to fail with dignity, or to love with the committed contradictions attendant upon such a choice. He presents us with characters that display our own foibles. He shows us the foolish face we sometimes wear; but, he also shows us the majesty of being Human.


Don


Now, back to killing Zombies and roasting dead, furry creatures.