I’ve never read anything by John Irving, either.
(I could go on with this series forever! Esp. around Nobel time!)
A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
I’ve never read anything by John Irving, either.
(I could go on with this series forever! Esp. around Nobel time!)
Either it should be a category for your existing What It Is posts, or the kernel of the new What It Ain’t posts.
you never read “Garp”? why, even AR read that one!
You should really read… okay, I got nothin’.
I had to read “Garp” for a university class. I liked it a lot, but couldn’t get into anything else he wrote. Chip hated “Garp” … thought it cliche and predictable. Since I was a senior in university, he is probably right.
I have to believe that this is the first time I’ve ever been criticized by my mom for NOT being like my dad.
I did read A Prayer for Owen Meany because my brother liked it in high school and it was hanging around the house. Sort of depressing.
If we throw in John Cheever, we have a trifecta of WASPy Yankee male writers who spend a lot of time worrying about sex. Richard Russo does the same thing, but is funnier, I think.
Plus, you’d be adding to my 0-fer category! I’ve never read a word of Cheever or Russo! I’m starting to feel a lot better about myself!
“I have to believe that this is the first time I’ve ever been criticized by my mom for NOT being like my dad.” …
don’t worry Gil, it won’t happen again – and by the way, it wasn’t a criticism, just a statement of fact, since Garp and Portnoy’s Complaint were the only books I recall AR reading (and now you’re going to tell the world that you’ve never read Portnoy’s Complaint either!)
Of course I’ve read Portnoy’s Complaint! I’m a American Jew born after 1930!
I could have sworn it was you who first referred me to this.
Russo is way funnier than Irving, but no one’s ever going to cast Mimi Rogers in a film adapted from one of Russo’s novels.
John Irving’s favorite writers are, I believe, Charles Dickens and Robertson Davies. Are you 0-fer on them too?
For Irving, Son of the Circus is a sleeper.
Nope! I’ve read a bunch of Dickens, and hope to re-read Bleak House sometime in the next 2-3 years. And I read Fifth Business by Davies, although I don’t think I read the rest of that trilogy!