Irving's plot, characters make for warm read

Just as the nights turn long and cold, a new John Irving saga arrives to carry us away. "Last Night in Twisted River," Irving's 12th novel, is a luxuriously written book that can distract a reader for many a chilly evening.

It begins crisply, as the writer of "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules" takes us to a logging village in 1950s New Hampshire. Here, young widower Dominic Balciagalupo - better known as "the cook" - slings hash for the loggers, makes love to his lusciously large assistant, "Injun Jane," and watches over his son, Daniel.

Injun Jane, incidentally, wears a "Chief Wahoo" cap and Irving makes intriguing use of it - describing the old-fashioned, extra-offensive logo as "grinning maniacally."

The first page plunges the reader into the action: "The young Canadian, who could not have been more than 15, has hesitated too long. For a frozen moment, his feet had stopped moving on the floating logs in the basin above the river bend; he'd slipped entirely underwater before anyone could grab his outstretched hand."

Irving is a master plotter, so it's no surprise when this tragedy sets off a chain of events that lead to difficulties for Dominic, son Daniel and their logger friend, Ketchum. This friend is bound to father and son by circumstances revealed slowly in a novel that spans half a century, several states and Canada.

It's hard to speak about the plot without spoiling it. Suffice it to say that Dominic and Daniel go on the run to avoid paying a heavy price for an accident as tragic as the drowning death of the "young Canadian."

Humor and well-written characters help balance some big flaws.

Irving often displays a virtuoso's touch with story structure, but the twists through time veer toward baffling. I spent far too many pages wondering, "Wait - which Iowa City era IS this?"

Then, too, the author indulges himself through a novelist character who comes to think a little too often about such problems as granting interviews to journalists, "most of whom lacked the imagination to believe that anything credible in a novel had been wholly imagined."

To be sure, this unimaginative journalist doesn't believe for a minute that Irving invented all of his character's frustrations.

Yet like an overly expansive party guest, this heartfelt tale wins our affection despite imperfections. With tons of warmth and intrigue, "Last Night in Twisted River" is an Irving success and a novel lover's book for a long winter.

Sandstrom is a writer and an art student in South Euclid.

To reach Karen Sandstrom:

books@plaind.com