Successful American novelist John Irving (http://john-irving.com/and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Irving) has published 19 works since his first – Setting Free the Bears in 1968. The one I’ve enjoyed most was his fifth, The Hotel New Hampshire (1981). This is a wildly eccentric family saga. John Berry is the son of a hapless dreamer, and brother to a cadre of crazy siblings. He is the chronicler of the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, bear owners, friends of an animal trainer and vaudevillian called Freud, and playthings of mad fate, they “dream on” in funny, sad, and outrageous ways. Prepare for settings in New Hampshire and Vienna. It’s oddball entertainment all the way with stylish writing to match.
This tale was brought to the screen in 1984 by director Tony Richardson with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087428/?ref_=nv_sr_1) and is available on DVD at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hotel-New-Hampshire-DVD/dp/B00015N5V0/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1440959262&sr=1-2&keywords=hotel+new+hampshire
For the novel enquire at your local library or consult http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hotel-New-Hampshire-Black-Swan/dp/0552992097/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1440957167&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=hotel+new+hampsjire for full bibliographic detail.
544 pages in Black Swan
First published 1981
ISBN 978-0552992091
John Irving