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This book is great! I had a ball reading this one. I remember reading Garp years ago, and this one is similar in that it follows the lives of a family. An interesting one. I guess it wouldn't make sense to write about a family that isn't interesting, but this family is on the fringes.

The writing is sharp, elegant, and easy to read. And there is as much told by what isn't said. Irving doesn't take his reader for granted, but does expect that you'll bring something to the party. Therefor, I'm not sure that everyone will read this story the same way.

The depth and richness of this family's life, will probably have something that everyone can related to, and plenty that lots of folks won't relate to at all. But that's, I think, where the fun lies. There are things that I recognized from my own childhood and young adult life, and there were other thing that were just bizarre. Maybe so bizarre, that in another book, it may have been enough to turn me off, but Irving had me rapt.

It was fun, irreverent (and then some) strange, and, dare I say it, even madcap. This isn't a fast read, but it was a fun one. Read this book.