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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
A bit of a random collection: fiction short stories of different genres, snippets of memoir, and essay commentary on various classic novels. It was worth a listen though. Some pieces were quite good, others not so much.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A collection of short works grouped into three sections: memoir, fiction, and tribute.
I picked this up thinking it was a novel, so at first I was a bit thrown off.
I did eventually get into the stories, and I don't know its because it was not what I was expecting... but I didn't enjoy it as much as have Irving's other works.
I'm a mood read and I was in the mood for The World According to Garp ... so maybe I'm just salty
I picked this up thinking it was a novel, so at first I was a bit thrown off.
I did eventually get into the stories, and I don't know its because it was not what I was expecting... but I didn't enjoy it as much as have Irving's other works.
I'm a mood read and I was in the mood for The World According to Garp ... so maybe I'm just salty
Not a big John Irving fan. I enjoyed the short stories though.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A couple of stories sort of caught up with me later (Almost in Iowa, Other people's dreams and The Pension Grillparzer), the rest I found to be a tad on the dull side, and the ranting on Dickens sounded like a rather poor essay even at A level standards.
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read quite a lot of John Irving in my early twenties (Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Cider House Rules) and he was probably my first exposure to Important Men Writing Literary Fiction. Since then, I've read a lot more of all sorts of fiction, and maybe I'm harder to impress, or these stories weren't Irving at his finest.
I think there are various editions of this with various short stories, but mine contained the following.
Trying to save Piggy Sneed: this claim to be pseudo-autobiographical. It's classic Irving - cruelty to the less fortunate, deliberately quite uncomfortable while being well observed.
Interior Space: larger than life characters going to war over a tree between their houses, interspersed with musings about venereal disease.
Almost in Iowa: probably the weirdest one - an anthropomorphic car being taken on a car trip across America. I found this annoying simply because my American geography isn't good enough to find the place names meaningful.
Brennbar's rant: people arguing at a dinner party about prejudice, again sort of supposed to make you think and feel a bit uncomfortable.
Other people's dream's: another very short one about a man who finds he can dream other people's dreams if he sleeps where they slept.
The Pension Grillparzer: this is actually from The World According to Garp, I think, and I vaguely remember it from there. It's weird and interesting and has the same sorts of strange circus characters and families that you get throughout his books.
The King of the Novel: this is a non-fiction essay (I think an introduction to an edition) about Great Expectations, and it was absolutely fascinating (I really like Great Expectations and remember it well).
There were a lot of classic Irving techniques and his style is always there, but I'm not sure they all worked as short stories. A friend once described his writing as feeling like he's trying to tell you something really important, but you can't tell what. Like his writing is weird, as if it's going to all be explained later, and things feel heavy with hidden meaning, but nothing actually ever gets sorted out. That's even less satisfying in a short story, where I think I'm more trained to expect a twist or a neat ending, and there generally isn't one. But I didn't dislike any of them (some are deliberately unpleasant in a trying to shock you way, but that's Irving for you) and the non-fiction essay was really interesting.
I think there are various editions of this with various short stories, but mine contained the following.
Trying to save Piggy Sneed: this claim to be pseudo-autobiographical. It's classic Irving - cruelty to the less fortunate, deliberately quite uncomfortable while being well observed.
Interior Space: larger than life characters going to war over a tree between their houses, interspersed with musings about venereal disease.
Almost in Iowa: probably the weirdest one - an anthropomorphic car being taken on a car trip across America. I found this annoying simply because my American geography isn't good enough to find the place names meaningful.
Brennbar's rant: people arguing at a dinner party about prejudice, again sort of supposed to make you think and feel a bit uncomfortable.
Other people's dream's: another very short one about a man who finds he can dream other people's dreams if he sleeps where they slept.
The Pension Grillparzer: this is actually from The World According to Garp, I think, and I vaguely remember it from there. It's weird and interesting and has the same sorts of strange circus characters and families that you get throughout his books.
The King of the Novel: this is a non-fiction essay (I think an introduction to an edition) about Great Expectations, and it was absolutely fascinating (I really like Great Expectations and remember it well).
There were a lot of classic Irving techniques and his style is always there, but I'm not sure they all worked as short stories. A friend once described his writing as feeling like he's trying to tell you something really important, but you can't tell what. Like his writing is weird, as if it's going to all be explained later, and things feel heavy with hidden meaning, but nothing actually ever gets sorted out. That's even less satisfying in a short story, where I think I'm more trained to expect a twist or a neat ending, and there generally isn't one. But I didn't dislike any of them (some are deliberately unpleasant in a trying to shock you way, but that's Irving for you) and the non-fiction essay was really interesting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit
Too much wrestling, but piggy sneed was a great short story, and the pension grillparzer was by far the best thing in the book/maybe the best thing I've ever read of Irving - tragic sideshowish mysticism comically conveyed.
I really liked a great deal of this book. It is a collection of short memoir pieces, short fiction, and essays. The memoir pieces are nice although there is quite a bit about wrestling in there, my son wrestled and I didn't mind so much although there was QUITE A BIT about wrestling. The short fiction pieces were mostly good with a couple of exceptions that Irving himself didn't seem to like too much. I didn't like the one about politically correct people because I am tired of people taking potshots at politically correct people and I didn't much like the one about the car because it was a little boring. I didn't read the essays at the end because I already know that I love Dickens and I know why. But most of the stories were wonderful. I loved the story about Piggy Sneed because it was so honest and raw and such a loving homage to his grandmother. I don't generally like short stories because they often read to me like story ideas that weren't good enough to turn into novels, but these short stories (with the two exceptions) were very moving.
The story about refereeing in Maine is amazing. If you find yourself glazing over in the wrestling part, skip to that.
The story about refereeing in Maine is amazing. If you find yourself glazing over in the wrestling part, skip to that.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
John Irving manages to inject almost as much personality and wit and warmth into these short stories as he does his 700 page books.