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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.
Tropes featured include:[]
- Broken Bird: Both Franny and Susie.
- Brother-Sister Incest: John and Franny, in a rare case where it doesn't end badly.
- 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.
- Misaimed Fandom: In-universe, Lilly's second book has one.
- Rape as Drama
- Taxidermy Terror: The preserved body of the Berry's 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.