"The temptation to label LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER as a return to form is considerable....[It] abounds with melancholic humor and comic absurdity, and its themes amount to a greatest-hits recap of his 11 previous novels....[A]fter two disappointing books, Irving confirms that his knack for creating humorously bizarre and excessive, but still credible, characters remains intact....[T]his agile, sometimes tricky novel is the closest he has come to meta-fiction, with sudden shifts in points of view that give new meaning to the passage you have just read and leaps in chronology that keep crucial incidents offstage." "LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER showcases all of John Irving's biggest liabilities as a writer: a tricked-up, gimmicky plot; cartoony characters; absurd contrivances; cheesy sentimentality; and a thoroughly preposterous ending. And yet, at the same time, it evolves into a deeply felt and often moving story--a story that with some diligent editing might have ranked right up there with THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR as one of Mr. Irving's more powerful works." "LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER is not an autobiographical novel, at least not exactly. Instead, what the author has done is re-create landscapes familiar to him, then populate them with his wholly fictional creations moving toward wholly fictional ends. Where it all does lead is to a novel that feels a lot like life writ large, filled with the kind of unplanned accidents and haphazard moments, sudden threats and humorous asides that we can all recognize..." "LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER is about the forces that shape a writer's life, that create literary sensibility and the compulsion to use writing as a way of managing life's essential chaos and randomness....It is a book that never lets you forget that it is a book, a written thing, full of commentary and repetition (and parenthetical clarifications) and foreshadowing and explanation." "Irving's twelfth novel is full to bursting with story, character, and emotion...At once a moving portrait of a father-and-son relationship, a homage to a quintessentially American fortitude forged by treacherous work and scant wages, and a tribute to the bonds of friendship, it offers multiple, beautifully written set pieces on grief, love, food, and family." (starred review) "[I]f you're a fan of ambitious, chaotic, plot- and character-driven storytelling, you'll love this book....Irving, defying the precepts of critics once again, has created another sprawling, sentimental, emotional tale, the kind that readers crave..."