The Hotel New Hampshire

The Hotel New Hampshire is a 1981 novel by John Irving. It tells the story of the Berrys, an eccentric family, as they attempt to run a series of hotels.

It could be said to be Irving's most typical novel; That Other Wiki has a chart of all the recurring motifs in Irving's fiction (bears, prostitution, the city of Vienna, and so on) and The Hotel New Hampshire is the only one of his books that contains all of them.


 * Arc Words: "Keep passing the open windows."
 * Broken Bird: Both Franny and Susie.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: John and Franny, in a rare case where it doesn't end badly. It also isn't played for titillation value, either -- their years-long attraction to each other is perceived by both as a disaster waiting to happen, which they finally avert by.
 * Coming of Age Story: For John and his siblings.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Bears real (State o'Maine), costumed (Susie) and metaphorical pervade the book.
 * Hot Guy, Ugly Wife:
 * Jumping on a Grenade:
 * Misaimed Fandom: In-universe, Lilly's second book has one.
 * Misaimed Fandoms are common in Irving's works.
 * Rape as Backstory:.
 * Rape as Drama:.
 * Rape Is OK When It Is Bear On Male:
 * Suicide:
 * Symbolism: Sorrow, both alive and dead.
 * Lilly's dwarfism.
 * Taxidermy Terror: The preserved body of the Berrys' dead dog Sorrow frightens quite a few people before sinking into the icy waters of the North Atlantic; among other things, it prevents John from losing his virginity and literally frightens his grandfather to death.
 * Terrorists Without a Cause: The radicals in Vienna are nominally Communist, but they're extremely vague about what their actual goals are other than violence for violence's sake.