The World According to Garp is probably my favourite book. Ever. I love many, many books, by many authors. But after Garp... I was linked to John Irving. I added him to my collection of special, awesome things that I consider to be mine.
During my early thirties, I made it my mission to own every single John Irving book ever published. I searched them all out: online, in dusty bookstores, in the huge mega stores (back in the days when there WERE huge mega bookstores... Aaah Kindle. I love you, but you killed the bookstore. You know that, right? I mean, I don't know if you meant to do that. Maybe you thought you could co-exist... like Coke and Pepsi.... But Kindle, you're the Coke and Bookstores are the Pepsi... and NOBODY wants the Pepsi)
I love that John Irving loves Bears and prostitutes. I love that his kooky characters more often than not pass through Vienna and/or New Hampshire. Like Stephen King, a lot of his characters are writers. I love the recurring subjects and themes in his books. Again, connections. There is security and familiarity in connection. Like a strange family, these books are distant cousins, sharing their bizarre, unique tales, with a little bit of Bear thrown in.
I like the Bears and the details. I remember it all..... Or, I imagine I do....
“Imagining something is better than remembering something.”
John Irving. 'The World According to Garp'
brilliant
ReplyDeleteI love John Irving! My personal favorite is A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I've read several times, and still cry at the end. (At the risk of exposing my lack of "manliness," the last time I read it, I told my wife, "I'm going upstairs to finish Owen Meany, so if you hear someone crying like a little girl, it's just me." We saw Irving speak at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, and it was marvelous...what an intelligent guy, and a great writer. One of these days, I will finally get around to reading 158-Pound Marriage, Water Method Man, Son of a Circus, and Setting Free the Bears. I've read all of his other books.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog today and I"m a super uber fan now! I loved The World According To Garp. It's one of those haunting books that never leaves you. I'm also a huge King fan, not for the bizarre so much as for the people. The amazing, real, colossally flawed, people.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by your charts!! I love the idea of the physical linking of the reoccurring.
So glad to meet you!
I. love. this.
ReplyDelete