The Hotel New Hampshire
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The Hotel New Hampshire is a novel by John Irving. Published in 1981 it was made into a film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, and Beau Bridges.
Among the plentiful colourful characters is Susie the Bear, played by model/actress Nastassja Kinski, a girl who essentially lives her life in a bear mascot costume. Rob Lowe broke his nose while filming a fight scene with Susie.
One of the most prominent themes of this story is that of the conventional brother-sister relationship. John (Lowe) falls in love with his sister—and even states that after Franny (his sister, Foster) no other woman could truly satisfy him. This relationship is accepted by his siblings; his older brother, after all, is gay, and his younger sister is a dwarf. Franny and John cure their lust and passion for each other in that particularly useful method of doing or taking something in excess up till the point that you never want to experience that something anymore. For them, that is the turning point of their lives, and their relationship. They move on, and their relationship once again becomes strictly brother-sister.
The novel is clearly descriptive and vivacious, set in rustic ambience with a firm emphasis on nature and the outdoors of New Hampshire during Irving's childhood days that he spent there. The reader gets a feeling of all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes that the author had experienced in his real life and lulls one into love with the place with his humourous, uninhibited and explicit detailing skills. The author is boldly forthcoming about even the most embarassing events and adventures that he encountered. It may belong in the same class as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, except that this, of course, is not a children's book.