The Last Chairlift

Irving returns with his first novel since 2015’s Avenue of Mysteries, calling it his “last long novel.” Another semi-autobiographical work, it features Adam Brewster, a wrestler who becomes a novelist/screenwriter growing up in 1950s Exeter, NH. His mother, Rachel (Little Ray) is a ski instructor in Vermont who leaves Adam with his grandmother and aunts in Exeter during ski season. Adam is raised in a sexually and gender-fluid home, unusual for that time. He and other family members see ghosts in their home and elsewhere. In adulthood, Adam searches his young mother’s haunts in Aspen to hunt down his biological father. Sections of this novel are in screenplay form, which can feel cumbersome. However, audiences who like to delve into an Irving-esque world will feel quirkily at home. Some sentences, paragraphs, and images are so beautifully poignant that readers will need to pause to breathe and let them soak in.