Setting Free the Bears

Easily the best Irving book that I've ever read. This is an especially good read if you're not a huge Irving fan. Much more complex underneath, it does take an appreciation of fine art to understand the subtle nuances in this book, and if you're used to mainstream (boring) fiction, you may not like it. But if you like to see how unreal reality can sometimes be, this is truly a winner.

I have always felt that John Irving is a literary idealist of very respectable stature. This book is vintage Irving in terms of its outrageous story line, cast of soul-searching characters, and witticism-infused style of prose, but it lacks the formality which is the inescapable inheritance of a Writer of Major Recognition. This being his first novel, it seems to be the one written with the greatest freedom, and as a tale of misguided, wayfaring characters bound to their less than idyllic fates, it still manages to be heartbreaking in its portrayal of innocent idealism. This is a great book; I consider it Irving's best. I can't say many bad things about _A Prayer For Owen Meany_, either, but the manner in which it is told is much different than this story about the reckless spirit of youth.

I've read at least five other Irving books including Garp and none left me as satisfied. The stories were cleverly interwoven and like so many Irving stories included traumatic turns that where you least expect them. Siggy's life could only be fully realized by the grandest of schemes and it plays out in beautiful chaos. I liked all the stories in this book. I only wish that Irving would doctor this one into a screen play and let some cool young director go nuts with it.

Having read Garp, Owen, Hotel NH, and Widow, I decided that I should read some of Irving's earlier stuff. I tore through 158-lb., but not because it was any good. It was, in fact, one of the most poorly-written novels I've read in a long time. Setting Free the Bears, on the other hand, was absolutely marvelous. The zoo-diary interspersed with the 'highly-selective autobiography' was pure magic, and the end, with the Rare Spectacled Bears loping across a field together after Gallen had just left the hero (I'm blanking on his name) was an exquisite, classic Irving irony.

This work, my introduction to the brilliant John Irving, was exquisite. I was drawn into the protagonist's world, and then into another world, via a diary, that the protagonist was pulled into. These worlds had such texture, rich characters, and fascinating plot developments, that I feared reaching the end of the novel. To my utmost satisfaction however, the work culminated in a thrilling and deeply gratifying series of events, and i left this novel at peace with myself and the world.