The Water-Method Man
May 2018 · Sold by Ballantine Books
4.5star
2 reviews
Ebook
288
Pages
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About this ebook
“John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist.”—Los Angeles Times
Fred "Bogus" Trumper has troubles. A divorced, broke graduate student of Old Norse in 1970s New York, Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes and the pursuit of happiness: His ex-wife has moved in with his childhood best friend, his life is the subject of a tell-all movie, and his chronic urinary tract infection requires surgery.
Trumper is determined to change. There's only one problem: it seems the harder he tries to alter his adolescent ways, the more he is drawn to repeating the mistakes of the past. . . .
Written when Irving was twenty-nine, Trumper's tale of woe is told with all the wit and humor that would become Irving's trademark.
“Three or four times as funny as most novels.”—The New Yorker
Praise for The Water-Method Man
“Friendship, marriage, and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly—something close to joyful malice—perpetually intrude and distrupt, often fatally. Life, in [John] Irving's fiction, is always under siege. Harm and disarray are daily fare, as if the course of love could not run true. . . . Irving's multiple manner . . . his will to come at the world from different directions, is one of the outstandint traits of The World According to Garp, but this remarkable flair for . . . stories inside stories . . . isalready handled with mastery . . . and with a freedom almost wanton in The Water-Method Man [which is Garp's predecessor by six years].”—Terrence Des Pres
“Brutal reality and hallucination, comedy and pathos. A rich, unified tapestry.”—Time
Fred "Bogus" Trumper has troubles. A divorced, broke graduate student of Old Norse in 1970s New York, Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes and the pursuit of happiness: His ex-wife has moved in with his childhood best friend, his life is the subject of a tell-all movie, and his chronic urinary tract infection requires surgery.
Trumper is determined to change. There's only one problem: it seems the harder he tries to alter his adolescent ways, the more he is drawn to repeating the mistakes of the past. . . .
Written when Irving was twenty-nine, Trumper's tale of woe is told with all the wit and humor that would become Irving's trademark.
“Three or four times as funny as most novels.”—The New Yorker
Praise for The Water-Method Man
“Friendship, marriage, and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly—something close to joyful malice—perpetually intrude and distrupt, often fatally. Life, in [John] Irving's fiction, is always under siege. Harm and disarray are daily fare, as if the course of love could not run true. . . . Irving's multiple manner . . . his will to come at the world from different directions, is one of the outstandint traits of The World According to Garp, but this remarkable flair for . . . stories inside stories . . . isalready handled with mastery . . . and with a freedom almost wanton in The Water-Method Man [which is Garp's predecessor by six years].”—Terrence Des Pres
“Brutal reality and hallucination, comedy and pathos. A rich, unified tapestry.”—Time
Ratings and reviews
4.5
2 reviews
Tyler Talkie
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June 3, 2022
This book is hilarious. Everything about it is funny. The main character, a comparative literature Ph.D. who's thesis is about an Old Low Norse epic poem, is incredibly iconic. His story is utterly relatable, his relationship is completely realistic and his tone of voice is perfectly imperfect. There is nothing toxic or bad about his behavior, which, in this day and age, is refreshing. Overall, this is simply one of the best comedic novels to have been published in the last sixty years. So, for that reason, it is worth every minute that a prospective reader might put into its contents.
Fred Clause
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December 24, 2019
Not one of John Irving's greatest novels, but still a pretty good read. Seems like the ending was a result of Irving's just running out of words.
About the author
John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a film with seven Academy Award nominations.
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