Irving's newest brick of a novel is a journey to experience. At times it's messy, rambling, and moves forward without a clear goal in mind–yet it's beautiful, haunting, and will stick with you after the final page.

Late career books are often fascinating to delve into. What has the author brought from their cumulative years of writing, hits, and misses? Adam's story over eighty-some years and eight hundred-some pages won't be for everyone, but there's plenty to ruminate over if you're willing to put in the work.

DNF at 20%. This is a thousand-page novel, so getting to 20% meant I was 200 pages in. So I think I did give it a fair go, and I wanted to like it, but I didn’t have the heart to carry on. And that was the essential truth of the book for me: it was missing a heart. Irving’s usual easy-flowing prose was there, as were many of his common themes and tropes. But it all struck me as just so joyless. For instance, the oddball wedding that takes place early on was way over the top, in a bad way. Picture an elderly grandfather with dementia and in diapers wandering around without his clothes, and you get a taste of it. While in a past Irving novel he might have made this a zany set piece that had you chuckling, this was jaw-droppingly unfunny, simply tedious as it dragged on. What a disappointment.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with John Irving. "The World According to Garp" meant a lot to me in my formative reading years.
So, when I saw John Irving had a new one out, I felt like I had to read it.
I am glad I did.
It is a slog, but in a good way. It is over 900 pages!
It feels like quintessential Irving.
I feel like the narrator Adam, is the least important of all the characters and yet he is surrounded but wonderful and strange women and does a good job telling their stories.
I forgot Irving could be so funny. There were many times I laughed out loud for real.
It is a journey of life, of meaning, or family.
It is a love story and a ghost story.
It is fantastical and silly.
It is deep with unforgettable characters.

John Irving Always Different, Always the Same. Magical.

John Peel's quote about The Fall is totally appropriate to John Irving's latest (last?) novel. It has all the usual Irving ingredients: wrestling, an absentee father, a novel writer, gender and sexual politics, uncomfortable sexual episodes, tragic and bizarre deaths etc. Who envisaged combining sex and ghosts could be so funny? John Irving, that's who.
So I knew exactly what to expect. And I wouldn't have it any other way.. I totally bought into Adam's complex and often inappropriate family and friend dynamics taking place over the decades.
If you 'get' John Irving then you will love this book
I would like to thank Penguin Random House Canada for the DAC of The Last Chairlift and NetGalley as well. This opinions are expressly my own.

I have been reading this book for almost a month. I am on page 104 of over 900 pages. At this rate I will still be reading it several months from now.

This book seems to be a mash up of John Irving's other books. There is a lot of the same themes and tropes as A Prayer For Owen Meany and The World According to Garp, which are the other two Irving books I've read. If you're a reader who loves John Irving books, you will probably love this one. I am a reader who loves some portions of John Irving books, and strongly dislikes other portions of his books.

I have read Irving before and loved his novels but I do not feel that "The Last Chairlift" is one of his better books. The story felt slow and it was incredibly hard to get invested in the narrative. The book did pick up later on but if you are not already an avid Irving fan, I doubt you will make it that far.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of The Last Chairlift
This was not my cup of tea for sure. I found it really hard to get into the book, although I tried, to no avail, I could not finish, I have read reviews of those who loved it. This is a first read of this author for me, not likely to read any others. I found the story was not getting anywhere, there was way to much description that wasn't helping me get into the story.

I have been a fan of Irving in the past - especially Owen Meany and Cider House Rules. At times there were glimpses of the kind of writing that Irving can do in the early chapters, but unfortunately my wife and I both found that we were unable to make it through "Act 1" and we gave up. Maybe it comes to shine later on, but the length of the novel combined with what we read so far made it feel self-indulgent and unworthy of the many hours it would have taken to attend to it all.

The life story of Adam. Born out of wedlock, to his ski instructors mother, Adam did not know who his father was. In his life he will meet many people and those people will shape his life.
This book started off slow. It was daunting because it is over 900 pages and the first couple of chapters did not draw me in. I wondered if it was worth it.
If you start this book and feel that was, stick with it.
This story is worth it and once it gets going it does not stop.

3.5 stars

The Last Chairlift although quite long was a read that is well worthwhile and I am glad that I had the opportunity to read the latest John Irving book.

The book is full of quirky characters that begins with Adam who is the narrator of the book which spans over decades. ( I loved Adam )

His family is large and unconventional to say the least . Some likeable some not so much

At times I laughed at out loud, at times I was a bit confused but it all came together.

The ghosts added a certain touch to the story that I quite enjoyed.

The Last Chair Lift which I felt could have been shorter but its worth investing your time in the latest and what John Irving has said his last big book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada , Knopf Canada for an intriguing read.

Thank you so much for the advance copy of John Irving's the Last Chairlift. I've been a long time fan of Irving's and was delighted to see he had a new book out after seven years! Getting the book, I can see why - the novel is ENORMOUS. Somewhat daunted, I set out to read and was immediately captivated by Irving's incredible character development and story. Thank you!

I struggled with this book! I was so looking forward to an engaging read but couldn't quit get into it. Some very creative characters which I liked learning about but overall it was just too much of a slog...with an unsatisfying ending. Not one of Irving's best....

I am unable to finish this book. I can't follow the story or the characters. It's slow and repetitive and so boring. I know that other books by this author are slow to get going but I just can't push through to get to the potentialities of the good stuff. I have to force myself to return to the app to continue reading.

𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 (𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫) 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬? I’ll go first…. John Irving’s 𝘈 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘖𝘸𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘺 & 𝘛𝘰 𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘈 𝘔𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 by Harper Lee⁣
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Those two books I still have copies of from the 90’s when I was in HS. They were maybe one of the first books that challenged me to be a thoughtful reader.⁣
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So imagine my shock when I saw the possibility of an arc by THE John Irving. I had no idea he was writing still nor did I hesitate request it 😁⁣
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I know huge books like this (900+ pages) aren’t going to be for everyone. I also know that some readers don’t like massive books like this. But for me, I had to see if the 80 yr old Irving gave me the same feelings as when he was writing in his early years. ⁣
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This book spans 80 years (𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘯𝘰𝘵) …. Against the backdrop of so many historical events, we hear the voice of Adam who is raised by a single mother. The characters that have entered so far are complicated and flawed, which actually makes them more relatable. ⁣
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It is like Irving has found a way that spotlights the massive changes in societal attitudes by decades. Adam’s characters bends and changes (or experiences) based on what was happening in the world. ⁣
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There are moments I have cringed at, no doubt a reader will too, but it’s also a book that is making me think about just how much change there’s been in the last 80 yrs. ⁣

It’s a beast in size but that’s never shocking to me as an Irving fan. This book may not be my favourite of his (yes I still love Owen Meany) but it’s one that would be perfect for a book club to dissect. Lovers of literacy fiction are in for a treat
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Oh and Adam sees Ghosts… just to add a little humdinger of intrigue 😉⁣

Ps. I would love to hear the author speak and am hoping to this next month. I am so curious on how much of this is a “fictionalized” version of his own life.

I wanted to read this book based on the reputation of John Irving. I appreciate that it is a tomb, as is his other works, and set about reading it. Very detailed, very complex upbringing and very elucidating of how convoluted one's life can become. Again, for anyone interested in social psychology, I strongly recommend this book. One just has to have patience and persistence in getting through it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to see a John Irving book pop up on NetGalley. Unfortunately it did not live up to his other work.

This book had funny moments and was emotional (in a good way) but oh man it was way too long. I am not generally opposed to long books as long as they are well-paced and able to hold my attention and this one just wasn’t. Parts felt like a chore to read.

The characters are well developed, eccentric and unique in the way you except of John Irving’s characters. Overall this book was enjoyable but I do think quite a bit could be cut out without affecting the storyline.

The following review will be posted on my blog on Tuesday, October 18th, the day of publication. It will be shared on Twitter and Instagram that same day, and has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.






“Screenplays are written in the present tense, as if what you see is happening for the first time. That’s why what happened to me in Aspen is a movie; it’s always happening, again and again, for the first time. I will always see it as a movie.”

Genre: Fiction
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: Very disturbing
Content Warnings: Describes (sort of) incest, infidelity, death, sickness, mental deterioration, dysfunctional families, having children out of wedlock in conservative families, and hiding your sexuality and gender identity. This is overall a very troubling and dark read, these content warnings don’t encompass that too well.

“The Last Chairlift” is a 889-paged novel, so it’s understandable that the blurb doesn’t really describe what it’s all about. But, essentially, throughout this book, we live the life of Adam Brewster, the bastard child of a prominent skier known as Little Ray, as he is, honestly, heavily traumatized by his mother and somewhat rescued by his stepfather.

It is also fair to note that when they talk about ghosts on the blurb, they’re literally talking about ghosts as in dead people, not as in people Adam hasn’t seen in a long time. Maybe keep that in mind when grabbing this book—it is a bit surrealistic and odd.

I am still not sure how I feel about this read, other than heavy, weighted down. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a very real way. This book not only touched on a fictional or fantastical world, it takes from our history and inserts a group of characters that are living through it too.

Something very unique about “The Last Chairlift” is how some parts are told through screenplay. When Adam goes to Aspen in search of answers about his origins, this is all told through a script, which was hard to adjust to, but also kind of welcomed, as it broke the narrative for a while—gave you a break through a very long novel.

I found some of the things about this book to be extremely disturbing. Things like Adam’s fascination for his cousin Nora, how Little Ray kissed Adam, how the sweet angel of Adam’s step father (Elliot, the little snowshoer) was treated at times, and then bring in how some people are pointing out how some things are practically autobiographical. It makes me wonder where fiction and reality become one.

This book reminded me of one of my favorite reads last year, “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara, but I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, because I will never be reading that book again. It was just too heavy (and perhaps this book is too).

Overall, if you’ve read other John Irving books and you’re up to reading this chunk of a novel, then might as well grab it. It’s not bad, it just maybe didn’t have to be almost 900 pages long.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: October 18, 2022

This was incredibly disappointing. I love John Irving. My favorite book in the world is A Prayer for Owen Meany. SI was excited to hear he was coming out with a new book. I got about 14% into this book and decided I just couldn't read any more of it. It was incredibly long and boring. There was nothing to grab my attention and urge me to read more. It does not have any of the masterful writing that I associate with John Irving. This book just wasn't for me. It could have used some serious editing. Perhaps if they had done a significant edit, it could have been readable.

A book written in true John Irving fashion. Although I had difficulty focusing during the screenplay dialogue, overall I embraced this book. Love, family, gender identity ,relationships, politics and religion are the focus of this book. Most of all, relationships are complicated and can be messy but the focus of love is why I appreciated this book so much.

Adam was born to a single mother and always wanted became a writer, and has always wanted to know who his father was.

This book was not for me, I get 100 pages in and I could not continue. The writing was not for me, and the family relationships made me very uncomfortable.