- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (31 Dec 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345458265
- ISBN-13: 978-0345458261
- Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 1.3 x 20.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 748,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Imaginary Girlfriend: A Memoir
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
“The Imaginary Girlfriend is a miniature autobiography detailing Irving’s parallel careers of writing and wrestling. . . . Tales of encounters with writers (John Cheever, Nelson Algren, Kurt Vonnegut) are intertwined with those about his wrestling teammates and coaches. With humor and compassion, [Irving] details the few truly important lessons he learned about writing. . . . And in beefing up his narrative with anecdotes that are every bit as hilarious as the antics in his novels, Irving combines the lessons of both obsessions (wrestling and writing) . . . into a somber reflection on the importance of living well.”
–The Denver Post
–The Denver Post
From the Back Cover
From a novelist known for the complexity of his novels - they are also long - comes an autobiography of compelling simplicity; it is also short. Dedicated to the memory of two wrestling coaches and two writer friends, The Imaginary Girlfriend is a lucid portrait of the writers and wrestlers who played a mentor role in John Irving's development as a novelist, a wrestler and a wrestling coach. Moreover, this candid memoir portrays a father's dedication to his children: Irving coached his sons Colin and Brendan to New England championship titles - a championship that, as a competitor, he himself was denied.
John Irving began writing and wrestling when he was fourteen. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, he was certified as a referee for twenty-four and he coached the sport until he was forty-seven. His thirty-three years in wrestling are three times those he spent as a student and a teacher of Creative Writing; yet his concise autobiography details the interrelationship of the disciplines of writing and wrestling - from the days when Irving was a beginner at both pursuits until his fourth wrestling-related surgery at the age of fifty-three.
The Imaginary Girlfriend is both a work of the utmost literary accomplishment and a paradigm for living.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Writing wasn'taught-the essay was all-important there-but in my years at the academy I nevertheless wrote more short stories than anything else; I showed them (out of class) to George Bennett, my best friend'father. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Writing wasn'taught-the essay was all-important there-but in my years at the academy I nevertheless wrote more short stories than anything else; I showed them (out of class) to George Bennett, my best friend'father. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Being a huge John Irving fan I'd been looking forward to reading his memoirs for a long time. Although the book is clearly and humourously written, I found it slightly disappointing. This is because it quickly becomes apparent that Irving is a HUGE wrestling fan. Wrestling has been his obsession throughout his life and consequently features prominently in the book. If you aren't interested in wrestling, you may want to give the book a miss.
The reader is taken through Irving's wrestling and academic/writing career meticulously, but personal details to do with his family are virtually omitted (there are fleeting references to his parents and wives), although he does describe his sons' wrestling accolades with great pride and affection.
I enjoyed the book because Irving's gift for describing characters shines through, as we are introduced to friends and colleagues he has met during his lifetime. I finished the book feeling as if I had known some of them personally.
If you admire Irving's work, you will probably like this book; otherwise I would suggest that you stick to reading his fiction (all of which is fantastic).
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not a complete auto-biography but selected recollections from the authors life. There is a wealth of information about the author's (and his son's) wrestling career(s) which turns out not to be as quirky and fabulous as any of his novels.
Format:Paperback
Interesting book(let) about John Irving himself as a person. But no knock-out like all of his other books. My advise: don't start to read Irving with this one. But never stop reading the many other monuments of his writing! Hans Horwitz, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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