Books › Last Night in Twisted River
Last Night in Twisted River
a novel
First published 2009 · 554 pages
A sprawling, five-decade journey of a father and son on the run, blending taut anxiety with an elegiac meditation on sudden loss.
What it feels like
Spanning five decades of American history, this novel offers a steady, sprawling reading experience that balances taut, anxious momentum with deep emotional authority. The narrative voice is unmistakable and accomplished, guiding the reader through a violent and disturbing landscape where lethal hatreds are permitted to run their course. At its core, it is a moving exploration of fathers and sons, capturing the sudden, unpredictable ways people fall into and vanish from our lives. The atmosphere shifts from the immediate dread of a relentless pursuit to an elegiac, reflective tone as the years pass. It will deeply satisfy readers who crave historically authentic, multi-generational epics that do not shy away from the darker, more violent edges of survival and sudden loss.
- Mood
- anxious
- elegiac
- violent
- historical
- Tone
- elegiac
- authoritative
- moving
- taut
- disturbing
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- fathers and sons · sudden loss · lifelong pursuit · lethal hatreds · fugitive survival
- The writing
- Written with the unmistakable, authoritative voice of an accomplished storyteller, balancing taut action with moving reflections.
- The arc
- Moves from a taut, anxious rupture of everyday life into a sprawling, elegiac reflection on the suddenness of loss.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate sprawling, multi-decade historical epics that blend violent events with deep emotional authority and complex father-son dynamics.
Content notes
- violence
- sudden loss
About the book
In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County--to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto--pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them.In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River--John Irving's twelfth novel--depicts the recent half-century in the United States as "a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course." From the novel's taut opening sentence--"The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long"--to its elegiac final chapter, Last Night in Twisted River is written with the historical authenticity and emotional authority of The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is also as violent and disturbing a story as John Irving's breakthrough bestseller, The World According to Garp.What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author's unmistakable voice--the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller. Near the end of this moving novel, John Irving writes: "We don't always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly--as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth--the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives."From the Hardcover edition.
Description from Open Library.
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