Reviews

The Imaginary Girlfriend by John Irving

laurenleyendolibros's review

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funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

eggbeater's review against another edition

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3.0

John Irving is one of my favorite authors, so much so that if I had to pick an author to write my life story I would choose him, but I found his memoir to be only mediocre. He always manages to make wrestling sound interesting, but overall his life was pretty boring and I get the feeling he left a lot out. For instance, it’s almost as though women don’t exist in his life. His ex wife and current wife are mentioned only in passing with no detail. I like to think this was done out of respect for their privacy, but it leaves the reader feeling like the only thing that ever counted in Irving’s life was his wrestling buddies.
He does have some good things to say about his journey in becoming a writer and admits that he doesn’t consider himself a “born” writer so much as a good re-writer and he talks about talent being only an eighth of his ability. This gave me some hope for myself. All-in-all I don’t think this memoir would be interesting to someone who is not a big John Irving fan.
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