Lori Knowles's Blog
February 9, 2024
John Irving: From One Skier to Another
Reading John Irving’s The Last Chairlift is a little like skiing that meandering run down the backside of an old mountain like Tremblant or Red Mountain: It’s long, too flat in places, too steep in others, and it’s filled with tricky twists and turns. Yet every weekend we ski it anyway because, every time, we learn something about ourselves.The Last Chairlift
Now based in Toronto, the author of The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany raised his family around ski towns. Son Brendan is director of Winter Park’s ski patrol in Colorado, grandson Birk is a freeskier for Team USA. From Aspen to Stowe and Wengen to North Conway, The Last Chairlift dips in and out of iconic ski spots, touching on special moments in skiing’s history. Toni Sailer is in this book. So is Hannes Schneider. Irving hails the bravery of the 10th Mountain Division. Ghostly scenes take place inside Aspen’s Hotel Jerome. Reverence is paid to ski pros, patrollers, racers, snowshoers and snow groomers. And, as the title suggests, chairlifts—especially last ones—do figure in.
Still, this book is not about skiing. Narrator Adam has the only straight role in a Dickensian cast of LGBTQ characters. “The queer people outnumber him,” Irving says. “The straight guy is the queer one, and he’s also the dumbest one in the room.” Intolerance, sexual politics, homophobia and Republicanism get major play in this semi-autobiographical story. The Last Chairlift sweeps through the war in Vietnam, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and a lot more that is both cinematic and very, very weird. Yet at its heart, this novel is about family, the odd places we find it, and how much it hurts when it’s gone.
Reviewers complain The Last Chairlift is long—it is. Like that old-school ski trail, it meanders all over the place, takes half the morning to ski, and it delivers you to a spot so far down the mountain you have to ride three fixed-grip doubles to get back up. But like those old-school runs, it was created by a master—John Irving—and in reading his masterpieces, every time, we learn something about ourselves.
For more from Lori, sign up free to LORI'S STORIES on Substack.
Lori is co-editor of SKI CANADA magazine and debut author of SUMMERS WITH MISS ELIZABETH, a summer read coming May 1, 2024. www.loriknowles.com
Now based in Toronto, the author of The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany raised his family around ski towns. Son Brendan is director of Winter Park’s ski patrol in Colorado, grandson Birk is a freeskier for Team USA. From Aspen to Stowe and Wengen to North Conway, The Last Chairlift dips in and out of iconic ski spots, touching on special moments in skiing’s history. Toni Sailer is in this book. So is Hannes Schneider. Irving hails the bravery of the 10th Mountain Division. Ghostly scenes take place inside Aspen’s Hotel Jerome. Reverence is paid to ski pros, patrollers, racers, snowshoers and snow groomers. And, as the title suggests, chairlifts—especially last ones—do figure in.
Still, this book is not about skiing. Narrator Adam has the only straight role in a Dickensian cast of LGBTQ characters. “The queer people outnumber him,” Irving says. “The straight guy is the queer one, and he’s also the dumbest one in the room.” Intolerance, sexual politics, homophobia and Republicanism get major play in this semi-autobiographical story. The Last Chairlift sweeps through the war in Vietnam, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and a lot more that is both cinematic and very, very weird. Yet at its heart, this novel is about family, the odd places we find it, and how much it hurts when it’s gone.
Reviewers complain The Last Chairlift is long—it is. Like that old-school ski trail, it meanders all over the place, takes half the morning to ski, and it delivers you to a spot so far down the mountain you have to ride three fixed-grip doubles to get back up. But like those old-school runs, it was created by a master—John Irving—and in reading his masterpieces, every time, we learn something about ourselves.
For more from Lori, sign up free to LORI'S STORIES on Substack.
Lori is co-editor of SKI CANADA magazine and debut author of SUMMERS WITH MISS ELIZABETH, a summer read coming May 1, 2024. www.loriknowles.com
Ann Patchett Writes 'The Best Book Ever'?
Tom LakeTom LakeI’m one of those readers who, for whichever book she happens to be reading, thinks THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER! I’ve read about a book a week this summer—A Spy Among Friends, Two Nights in Lisbon—and I’ve said it every time. Even the James Patterson/Dolly Parton duo’s commercial Run Rose, Run got my rapt attention. “Here,” I say to whomever’s passing me by, “read this one. IT’S THE BEST BOOK EVER.”
And yet… and yet, Ann Patchett’s latest, Tom Lake, really is the best book ever. Maybe I think this because it’s summer, and the book is set in summer. Maybe it’s because it’s about family, and first loves, and being nostalgic (or not) for times you can’t get back (which I’m very good at.) Or maybe it’s because Patchett, a PEN/Faulkner winner, is the Carol Shields of our time—a writer who can distill meaning from domestic life into a single, simple sentence. One phrase means the world.
Example: “There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened…” OR “The rage dissipates along with the love, and all we’re left with is a story.”
Set during the pandemic, Tom Lake is a mom telling her grown daughters a story while sequestered on their bucolic cherry farm in upper Michigan. The story is about one summer long ago while the mother acted in a summer stock theatre at Tom Lake. I won’t tell you much more, beyond that it’s a story about first loves and summer loves, parts of which most of us will relate to. Tom Lake is, of course, about much more than that—Chekov is in there somewhere. But that’s it in a nutshell, and that’s what Patchett is so good at: putting things in a nutshell.
So yeah. Here, read this. Tom Lake. It’s THE BEST BOOK EVER.
For more, read LORI'S STORIES free on Substack.
Lori Knowles is author of SUMMERS WITH MISS ELIZABETH debuting May 1, 2024. Pre-order now: www.loriknowles.com
And yet… and yet, Ann Patchett’s latest, Tom Lake, really is the best book ever. Maybe I think this because it’s summer, and the book is set in summer. Maybe it’s because it’s about family, and first loves, and being nostalgic (or not) for times you can’t get back (which I’m very good at.) Or maybe it’s because Patchett, a PEN/Faulkner winner, is the Carol Shields of our time—a writer who can distill meaning from domestic life into a single, simple sentence. One phrase means the world.
Example: “There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened…” OR “The rage dissipates along with the love, and all we’re left with is a story.”
Set during the pandemic, Tom Lake is a mom telling her grown daughters a story while sequestered on their bucolic cherry farm in upper Michigan. The story is about one summer long ago while the mother acted in a summer stock theatre at Tom Lake. I won’t tell you much more, beyond that it’s a story about first loves and summer loves, parts of which most of us will relate to. Tom Lake is, of course, about much more than that—Chekov is in there somewhere. But that’s it in a nutshell, and that’s what Patchett is so good at: putting things in a nutshell.
So yeah. Here, read this. Tom Lake. It’s THE BEST BOOK EVER.
For more, read LORI'S STORIES free on Substack.
Lori Knowles is author of SUMMERS WITH MISS ELIZABETH debuting May 1, 2024. Pre-order now: www.loriknowles.com
