The Last Chairlift

By: John Irving

Narrated by: 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

Length: 32 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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, listeners will once more be in his thrall.

©2022 John Irving (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

I endured hours and survived the book.

The narrator was very good, but I could not help thinking that this book would have been a perfect fit for Joe Barrett to narrate.

With lengthy books, I do not think about the length until it starts to feel arduous, which this book became well before the middle. Toward the latter part, I wanted to ski downhill right to the end, but fought the urge and finished the book, word by word.

It’s in a typical John Irving style, telling a story painstakingly, intelligently and creatively but I cannot say that I liked this book much in spite of an interesting synopsis by one of my favorite authors.

This book was a potpourri of social issues outside of the “norm” for the time where the story takes place. A slightly misplaced hippiesque story for 2022. I suppose considering that the book covers a life span of 70 plus years of the protagonist, perhaps almost 33 hours is justified, but the problem was that it was not that engaging (to me).

This book did not reach me as I had hoped, but I finished the book with a mindset of a cross country skier’s determination to reach the finish line out of my respect and admiration for the author.

Needs serious editing

I hate to say this, because I love John Irving. Overly long and repetitive. Screen writing parts take away from story. I will finish this only because it is John Irving. The editor should have been much more assertive in working with author I think.

Slow

Sorry, I couldn’t finish this one. Too much of everything, nicknames, hate of Republicans, just too much, too long.
Not the John Irvingive come to enjoy

Gotta love John Irving

Nobody writes like John Irving! What a romp with all the classic Irvingisms - sex, wrestling and politics all interwoven into a fascinating story.

Too weird for some

This story by John Irving is a love song to all people who don’t fit in. It’s touching and funny at times. I would have eliminated the screenplay sections. They were tedious. It could have used some editing. A bit too long.

Great Storyteller, But...

This book started out to be a great story by a great writer, but then turned into a political critique. The last 1/3 of the book turned into a political one-sided debate and really turned me off. I read fiction to escape all of the political bickering!

Good story

Great characters. A bit repetitive at times but a great story on living life and how we rescue each other like “the devious Rachel”

Why doesn’t Audible promote John Irving?

I’m 2 hours into this book, and I’m loving it. I found this by searching the author. I wouldn’t have found this gem by looking at new releases. Irving’s books are consistently excellent, yet you promote trashy fiction rather than Irving’s classics that will represent some of the best literature of my generation.

Meh

I waited and waited for the next John Irving book!
I hated the hours of listening to the narrator read it as a screenplay. I really wanted to love it, but it seemed tired and weary. The characters weren’t very original for John Irving, a rehash of people he created but with different names. I usually love his characters, they make him unique and fun to read. I was disappointed.

Awesome. Among his very best.

John Irving is without peer among today’s literary elite. The book is joyously long but keeps getting better and better with every word. It leaves the reader emotionally drained in the end, and as I envision he might have put it himself - just one outrageously loud and long orgasm.