{"product_id":"books-the-water-method-man-by-john-irving","title":"The Water-Method Man","description":"\u003cb\u003eJohn Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist.--\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFred Bogus Trumper has troubles. A divorced, broke graduate student of Old Norse in 1970s New York, Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes and the pursuit of happiness: His ex-wife has moved in with his childhood best friend, his life is the subject of a tell-all movie, and his chronic urinary tract infection requires surgery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTrumper is determined to change. There's only one problem: it seems the harder he tries to alter his adolescent ways, the more he is drawn to repeating the mistakes of the past. . . . \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWritten when Irving was twenty-nine, Trumper's tale of woe is told with all the wit and humor that would become Irving's trademark. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThree or four times as funny as most novels.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003cb\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Water-Method Man \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFriendship, marriage, and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly--something close to joyful malice--perpetually intrude and distrupt, often fatally. Life, in  John] Irving's fiction, is always under siege. Harm and disarray are daily fare, as if the course of love could not run true. . . . Irving's multiple manner . . . his will to come at the world from different directions, is one of the outstandint traits of \u003ci\u003eThe World According to Garp, \u003c\/i\u003ebut this remarkable flair for . . . stories inside stories . . . isalready handled with mastery . . . and with a freedom almost wanton in \u003ci\u003eThe Water-Method Man\u003c\/i\u003e  which is Garp's predecessor by six years].\u003cb\u003e--Terrence Des Pres\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrutal reality and hallucination, comedy and pathos. A rich, unified tapestry.\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eTime\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53509582094609,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780345418005.jpg?v=1778163719","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/books-the-water-method-man-by-john-irving","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}