There's no hiding that I'm a Garp-hater. I was put off by the [casual cruelty of The World According to Garp], by its calculated, unwieldy plot and its staggering long-windedness…. However, this is not to say that I'm a John Irving-hater, by any means. I admire his other writing immensely. He made a wonderful debut with Setting Free the Bears, his first novel…. Three by Irving contains not only [Setting Free the Bears, but also The Water-Method Man and The 158-Pound Marriage]….
[Setting Free the Bears is] a gargantuan book, both in length and in scope. It plunges dauntlessly into such diverse subjects as Serbo-Croatian politics, pre-war Vienna, and bee-keeping. There's no doubt it was written by someone young. Who else could sustain such manic high spirits, such jaunty heroics? Who else could be so spendthrift with ideas? (Well, actually, John Irving could at any age, as he's since proved.) There are times when this novel is downright exhausting—as youthful exuberance often is. But the author is clearly no beginner, even here. He writes with confidence and style, and he's obviously comfortable with his material. Setting Free the Bears has some fine humorous passages…. But for sheer irrepressible comedy, try the second novel. The Water-Method Man is consistently hilarious—an involved and richly textured tale about a graduate student whose life is collapsing about his ears. It contains what must surely be the funniest skiing scene in literature, and a ridiculous, totally plausible Old Low Norse Ballad called "Akthelt and Gunnel." (p. 32)
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Irving, John (Winslow) 1942–: Critical Essay by Anne Tyler Access Pass.
