The Last Chairlift, John Irving
The Last Chairlift, John Irving
2 Rating(s)
List: $39.99 | Sale: $28.00
Club: $19.99

The Last Chairlift

Bestseller

Author: John Irving

Narrator: Jacques Roy, Raquel Beattie, Cassandra Campbell, Chris Henry Coffey, Piper Goodeve, Em Grosland, Aden Hakimi, Graham Halstead, Chanté McCormick, Natalie Naudus, Aida Reluzco, Pete Simonelli, Natasha Soudek, Travis Tonn, Erin Ruth Walker, Nancy Wu

Unabridged: 32 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/18/2022

Synopsis

John Irving’s fifteenth novel is “powerfully cinematic” (The Washington Post) and “eminently readable” (The Boston Globe). The Last Chairlift is part ghost story, part love story, spanning eight decades of sexual politics.

In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor.

Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, he will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts; in The Last Chairlift, they aren’t the first or last ghosts he sees.

John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time—among them, The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. A visionary voice on the subject of sexual tolerance, Irving is a bard of alternative families. In the “generously intertextual” (The New York Times) The Last Chairlift, readers will once more be in his thrall.

About John Irving

John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. He is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 1980, Mr. Irving won a National Book Award for his novel The World According to Garp. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel In One Person. Internationally renowned, his novels have been translated into almost forty languages. His all-time bestselling novel, in every language, is A Prayer for Owen Meany. A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, John Irving lives in Toronto.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on September 14, 2023

An Anthem For Our Times The Last Chairlift isn’t a perfect novel. In fact, it is an awful mess at times. But it speaks to me, and it moves me. Don’t read the book blurb. It doesn’t accurately describe The Last Chairlift. So what is The Last Chairlift about? Well….if it was easy to explain, the book blur......more

Goodreads review by Will on October 04, 2023

Think of your first good kiss. Was it life-changing, or was it no big deal? Do you remember how old you were? Did it matter, at the time, who gave it to you? Do you even remember who it was? I’ll tell you this: when you’re thirteen and your mother gives you your first good kiss, you better hope s......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on February 15, 2023

Whew! I made it to Chapter 12 (two and a half hours of a 33 hour audiobook) but could not continue. I think the world of John Irving and I grew up in Colorado and love to ski so I thought I would really enjoy The Last Chairlift. Please read all the reviews from other readers. It seems like readers e......more

Goodreads review by Tammy on July 03, 2022

Generally, I like Irving but this over blown novel about a small skier and her son left me cold. Irving revisits familiar territory; wrestling, small town New England, small mindedness and so on. It was just too much, too obvious, and entirely too long. It’s too bad.......more

Goodreads review by Ron on October 12, 2022

At 889 pages, John Irving’s new novel, “The Last Chairlift,” is an imposing brick of paper. This is, in every way, Irving cubed. I have no objection to long books. My favorite novel last year was “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois,” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, which also clocks in at more than 800 pag......more

Quotes

"Roy’s pleasing and cordial voice navigates the story of Rachel Brewster, Little Ray, and her son, Adam, as ghosts of former relatives haunt their unconventional family. Roy portrays gender twists and sexual violence with a steady hand."

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