John Irving
Bloomsbury, 554pp, ISBN: 97814088 01840
John Irving has a peculiar, productive penchant for ursine
imagery. In the world according to Irving, bears, innocent and
savage, are often bearers of all manner of strange, brutal truths.
His first full-length novel, Setting Free the Bears
(1968), revolves around a plot to liberate animals from Vienna
Zoo; The Hotel New Hampshire features a
motorcycle-riding bear (a retired circus ...
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