john irving the world according to irving

Go back to the nineteenth century, especially Dickens, for more of the 'intelligent soap opera' Irving finds there or, for lighter soap, try Armistead Maupin.

His favourite novel is Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Writers he admires include Hawthorne, George Eliot, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Trollope, Günter Grass, Vonnegut and Marquez.

InfluencesĪs a child he 'couldn't get enough of' Dickens, and says Great Expectations made him a writer. The World According to Garp is Irving's classic - fresh, funny and boisterous A Prayer for Owen Meany his most weighty work. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply.' However, his novels carry this painstaking revision lightly. I work longer hours' - his dyslexia means that when reading he has to 'mouth every word') and characterisation ('a simple aim of the 19th-century novel. I don't think I write better than my fellow writers, but I believe I rewrite better. Irving has many fans and a reasonable critical profile he is quick to stress his literary shortcomings and ascribes his tragicomic rollercoaster epics to hard graft (he is 'not very talented, not at all 'naturally endowed'. Irving is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Other jobsĪfter combining teaching with writing, The World According to Garp allowed him to become a full-time author. University of New Hampshire studied in Vienna under Günter Grass, where he concentrated on Wittgenstein, Greek philosophy and the Victorian novel.

John irving the world according to irving