One of our best storytellers. I’ve been reading John Irving’s books since high school when I first read The World According to Garp
My family are all huge John Irving fans – and my group of college friends are all Irving maniacs – led by Mitchell and David, primarily. I strayed away from the Irving oeuvre in the late 90s … I just felt too wiped OUT by Owen Meany – which I had read in 1991 (I remember where I was, what I was wearing, what the day was like, etc., when I finished that book) – and somehow … I was done with John Irving. For a while. Mitchell and David were the torch-bearers for Irving, saying to me… “Have you read A Widow for One Year
The story of how Garp came to be – and how his fourth novel took off in a way that other writers only DREAM of – is now the stuff of legend. Irving is quite honest about the fact that all of his books somehow have to do with absentee fathers – because he has never met his father. His father took off when Irving was a baby, never to be heard from again. One of the reasons that Irving’s idol, as a writer, is Charles Dickens (no surprise there – he is Dickens’ American heir) – is because of Dickens’ neverending theme of abandoned children. Children have to fend for themselves in Dickens’ work – and adults are notoriously unreliable, evil, and selfish. Irving felt really inspired by that. He said once: “My imaginary reader has been my father. Surely, in one novel after another, I’ve been inventing fathers. I’ve been making them up. I have a ceaseless capacity to make up the missing part, to fill in the blanks, and he was a blank in my life.”
Amazing … if Irving’s father HADN’T abandoned his child – then perhaps John Irving would not be the artist he is today.
Irving fans: what are your favorites of his books?
Such a tough, tough choice, but I too have to lean towards Cider House Rules. I think it’s a masterpiece.
What’s better than discovering new John Irving characters? April can’t come fast enough.
I just love Hester the Molester so much. I love Owen – but I REALLY love Hester the Molester.
Prayer for Owen Meany – it knocked my socks off. I re-read it every year or two and it’s high on my list of favourite books. I just recently recommended it to a woman who had no plans for the weekend and wanted to be engrossed by a book. She loved it of course.
I use to have to take the city bus to school, and than work, for years. I would read on the bus to pass the time. When I was reading Owen Meany, I had 4 or 5 strangers come up to me and mention how great the book was. People wanted to share how the book made them feel. I read dozens of books while on the bus and Owen Meany is the only one where people felt compelled to come up to me and talk about it.
It’s a brilliant story.
I think I have read everything except the circus one and I really enjoy Irving a great deal – so to pick a favorite is really hard, I liked Garp, Cider House rules was excellent – i should reread that one, and I read recently A widow for one year and the fourth hand, both good – Owne meany was a little too much I think – his last one was excellent too – Until I meet you i thinkl is the title – (post 40 the mind goes) but cider house rules is amazing
I couldn’t stop thinking about/talking about/obsessing over A Prayer for Owen Meany when I read it. I had just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany when I was writing my college applications, and one of the essay topics was “What fictional character or characters have intrigued or taught you something and why?” I totally ditched my original idea, mostly so I could talk more about Owen Meany and Homer Wells. Love.
I went through a big John Irving period, reading everything by him I could get my hands on. (If I’d had a bear I’d have named it State O’ Maine.) And Owen Meany was my favorite.
But ultimately, his politics lost me. Here he is on abortion:
I have no respect for the right-to-life position, though I have every respect for an individual who says, “I could never have that procedure, I could never see a film or read a book about that procedure.” It doesn’t bother me if people feel that way. But when you legislate personal belief, you’re in violation of freedom of religion. The Catholic Church may espouse its opinion on abortion to the members of its congregation. But they are in violation of separation of church and state when they try to proselytize their abortion politics on people who are not Catholics.
This, in my view, is moral idiocy. He may tell a colorful story, but his view of life is callous, and as for being tolerant, he seems anything but. This took the enjoyment out of his books for me.
MCNS – Ultimately, I feel sad for you that you see him through a filter of politics. It’s really too bad. But you probably don’t even realize how silly you sound to someone like me when you use such terms as “moral idiocy”. Like maybe in your world people nod with agreement when you say things like that – but to me it’s like you’re speaking a foreign language. An obnoxious foreign language.
Plese read my comment policy before you comment here again.
Thanks.
Red, my apologies. I hadn’t been aware of the ground rules. Mea culpa!
favourite book? tongue in cheek, i would say prayer for owen meany but i don t want to commit. garp is awesome and it was the first irving book i ever read. New hampshire, love it for little nuggets of wisdom. cider house rules? i am unable to articulate how much i love that book or why i just do. a widow for one year? don’t get me started…. i can,t choose, its too hard.