John Irving, as a young man, starts off with a bang. His first chapter is an hilarious incursion into a very unpleasant situation. Officers and enlisted men in armed services around the world will knock themselves out laughing. But then, somewhat characteristically although certainly his Cider House Rules was well organized, he wanders here and there. However, as my favorite Irving character, Jillsy Sloper, explained, I just had to keep turning the pages to see what was going to happen.The Water-Method man is much more organized and better written than Garp and miles above those dreary bear and Vienna stories. And we can understand Irving's expression of pique with editors and others who hold a writer's destiny in their envious hands, for that is how I understand much of Garp to have been.This is a must and most entertaining read for Irving's male fans. I don't know how the ladies will regard it--probably not charitably.