The Water-method Man

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Irving testing the water for his later comic brilliance. - Rated
Fred 'Bogus' Trumper appears to sail through life, apparently with neither motive nor aim, and certainly without malice aforethought, but still manages to leave a trail of havoc in his wake. A hapless failed PhD student hoodwinking his professor by inventing his thesis text and destroying his marriage - to long-suffering if slightly violent ski champion Biggie - while trying to save it, Trumper believes that a magical cure for his unusual urinary tract complaint will lead to a similar transformation in his whole life.

John Irving's second novel has an experimental feel about it, with the author testing the style that makes his later novels bed-wettingly funny. However, as is the case with many experiments, it nearly, but not quite, succeeds. Parts of it, such as the genius use of Trumper's Old Low Norse PhD theory 'Akthelt and Gunnel', and the characterisation of Trumper's closest friend, Merrill Overturf, are distilled Irving, pure vintage genius. Irving draws clever, unlaboured, parallels between the subjects of Trumper's PhD and the people he encounters in real life - most notably, Akthelt's father Old Thak and Trumper's own father, the successful, daunting and opinionated urologist, and works these aspects of Trumper's life together well. However, the story leaps too wildly from first to third person narrator, and even beyond, making it complicated and sometimes tricky to identify who is saying what, and even why.

Irving certainly paints a full and colourful picture of Trumper's life, but it is hard to get to know him as a complete lead character as he is so very changeable. One minute the devoted father, the next AWOL from family responsibilities searching for Merrill Overturf, and possibly also his sanity, in Europe, it is impossible to work out whether he is sympathetic or highly frustrating. But at least as a character he inspires strong emotion - which he needs to, as the novel concentrates entirely on him. The other characters, rather two-dimensional, sketched not drawn, pawns in Trumper's ineptitude, are unsatisfactory when held up against him. But as it is Trumper's story, this is merely a complaint as opposed to a fatal flaw in the novel. 'The Water-Method Man' is almost like a series of short stories that feature separate episodes from the same protagonist's life. As such, it does start to make sense.

But as a novel, the storyline is too meandering and loose, and its different strands, which attempt to pull together Trumper's life into a cohesive whole at the end, fail to mesh fully and so do leave the reader confused, unlike in 'A Son of the Circus', where Irving weaves all his apparently disparate storylines tighter and tighter to create a true climax and highly satisfying ending.

Despite this, 'The Water-Method Man' is an excellent distraction, and if read as episodes in the story of one man's life that happen to be put together on paper and as such make a whole, it's certainly a worthwhile bedtime read.

Give me more of this method man! - Rated
This was my first John Irving book. I picked The Water Method Man for no other reason than that I found the opening chapter about male urinary health amusing. By the end of the book I was rejoicing in my discovery of a wonderful writer and an engrossing and enjoyable book.

The opening chapter draws you into the world of the self-obsessed but strangely likable male lead, Fred Trumper (aka Bogus or Thump-Thump), and takes you across the well trodden landscape of male mid-life crisis, broken love affairs, bereavement, male friendship and father son relationships. Published in the early seventies this novel deals with these subjects with a freshness that some recent literature seems to have lost.

This is the 1960's generation as it wakes up in the 70s and struggles to come to terms with the responsibility of married life, parenthood and the loss of personal freedom that tends to follow. Its about a man who amuses, infuriates, bores, attracts pity but eventually you grow to sympathise with and even quite like.

Irving uses a range of forms, first person narrative, third person, film script and the odd bit of Low Norse Ballad to entertain and enthrall. Read it while I reach for another of his works with excitement.