The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname Bogus. It follows a non-linear narrative in the form of a sort of 'confession' authored by Trumper, who humorously recounts his various failures in life and love, from his New England childhood through his experiences on foreign study in Vienna, Austria, and as a graduate student in Iowa, leading up to the present action setting, early 1970s New York. The title refers to a method prescribed to Trumper for the treatment of non-specific urological disorders relating to his abnormally narrow urinary tract, showcasing Irving's fixation on using physical ailment and disfiguration as metaphorical constructs.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of infidelity, commitment issues, and some possibly dated social attitudes.
Has Romance?
The novel features romantic elements, particularly through the protagonist's relationships with two significant women, depicting his struggles with commitment.
From The Publisher:
"John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist."-Los Angeles Times
Fred "Bogus" Trumper has troubles. A divorced, broke graduate student of Old Norse in 1970s New York, Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes and the pursuit of happiness: His ex-wife has moved in with his childhood best friend, his life is the subject of a tell-all movie, and his chronic urinary tract infection requires surgery.
Trumper is determined to change. There's only one problem: it seems the harder he tries to alter his adolescent ways, the more he is drawn to repeating the mistakes of the past. . . .
Written when Irving was twenty-nine, Trumper's tale of woe is told with all the wit and humor that would become Irving's trademark.
"Three or four times as funny as most novels."-The New Yorker
Praise for The Water-Method Man
"Friendship, marriage, and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly-something close to joyful malice-perpetually intrude and distrupt, often fatally. Life, in [John] Irving's fiction, is always under siege. Harm and disarray are daily fare, as if the course of love could not run true. . . . Irving's multiple manner . . . his will to come at the world from different directions, is one of the outstandint traits of The World According to Garp, but this remarkable flair for . . . stories inside stories . . . isalready handled with mastery . . . and with a freedom almost wanton in The Water-Method Man [which is Garp's predecessor by six years]."-Terrence Des Pres
"Brutal reality and hallucination, comedy and pathos. A rich, unified tapestry."-Time
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About the Author:
JOHN IRVING, born in Exeter, New Hampshire, published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, when he was twenty-six. His most popular novel, worldwide, is A Prayer for Owen Meany, published in 1989. In 2000, Mr. Irving won the Oscar…
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