The temptation to label “Last Night in Twisted River” as a return to form is considerable, especially in the wake of Irving’s previous two books, the underwhelming “The Fourth Hand” and the bloated, exasperating “Until I Find You.” The new story abounds with melancholic humor and comic absurdity, and its themes amount to a greatest-hits recap of his 11 previous novels.īut Irving is bent on more than just giving readers what they want. Like so much of Irving’s work, “Last Night in Twisted River” unfolds in “a world of accidents” and coincidences and random bad luck, beginning with the first sentence and the soon-to-be-fallen Angel Pope: “The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long.” And everyone must share the burden of those misfortunes - and learn to accept grief and mourning as life’s permanent counterbalances to joy. “It was an accident,” a character declares after the unfortunate death that triggers the plot of “Last Night in Twisted River.” “It’s nobody’s fault.” Because we’re in a John Irving novel, tragedy is practically guaranteed to follow.
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