'The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels'. So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they 'dream on' in this funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel. "A hectic gaudy saga with the verve of a Marx Brothers movie" The New York Times Book Review "Literate, ingenious and original" Observer "Irving is the wisest, most anguished and funniest novelist of his generation and The Hotel New Hampshire is his best work" Chicago Sun-Times "An American masterpiece" -- Anthony Burgess