Weighty Garpesque story will thrill John Irving fans

The Last Chairlift by John Irving, Simon and Schuster, $38 hardcover

I was quite thrilled to get sent John Irving’s latest novel. He is a prolific and prestigious author now 80 years old and to his credit being able to write a nearly 900 page novel is no mean feat.

However there is one major drawback — the novel had to be read sitting at the kitchen table. It is far too heavy to read in bed and too heavy to hold. But I persevered.

Irving’s main character is Adam Brewster, who tells his story. Adams mother is named little Ray. She is the youngest in her family and a passionate skier. Until she arrived home very pregnant she had spent most of her life on the Alps, a champion skier and then a ski instructor.

Having Adam did not deter her. She left him to be brought up by her family, reappearing occasionally for a few weeks in the down time. Adam’s father appeared to be a mystery even to little Ray who appeared totally unconcerned.

As Adam grew up he refused to have anything to do with skiing, instead he takes up snowshoeing. He becomes friendly with a college lecturer also a snowshoer, but a very little man, about the same size as little Ray. Adam introduces them and they marry. Adam now has a stepfather.

Adam’s sex instruction comes solely, initially anyway, from his older cousin Norah, a lesbian from an early age. A brief visit from his mother puts the cat among the pigeons so to speak. Little Ray insists on her sporadic visits home that she shares a bed with Adam.

When he is 13 on one of these visits she straddles Adam and gives him the sort of passionate kiss she bestows on her boyfriends. For the next few pages Adam struggles with feelings of an incest victim, curiosity and loyalty. The secrets begin.

Norah grows up and brings her lesbian partner to stay. The partner does not open her mouth during the day, but keeps the whole family awake during the night with orgasmic screams. The snowshoer husband has a sex change.

As Adam grows up, little Ray manages to demean any girlfriend.

Over the next 80 years Adam grows up, becomes a screen writer and the writing continues in detail. The whole story appears to be so authentic one can’t help wonder whether Irving is telling his own story.

It concludes on a telling but sad note. Little

Ray has now died. Adam reminisces about being a child and the most constant thing in his life was missing his mother. Now that his Mum has gone he no longer has that constant missing feeling. .

The Last Chairlift Is well-written as you would expect, but it is much too long and detailed. I have to confess after half way I did quite a bit of skimming.

There are great literary references throughout, Graeme Greene, Dickens, Updike and others.

It is a reasonably easy read, just so long and so detailed and I can’t say I felt any empathy with any of the characters. I believe John Irving never knew his father and many of his novels reflect this. Perhaps this is his last.

John Irving fans will be thrilled with his latest offering. No criticisms, I just have to have admiration for an 80-year-old novelist who can still write a 900 page novel.