Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ashlurtis 's review for:
Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
by John Irving
John Irving is hands down my favorite contemporary author. I'm always nervous that the next thing I read will change my opinion of him, but I just love him more the more of his work I read. When I realized this was a mix of memoirs, short fiction, and nonfiction, my usual anxiety kicked in. Maybe eventually I will learn to let that go. Like everything else I have read from Irving, this book surpassed all my expectations.
Beginning with memoirs, Irving sets the pace for an intimate look at his private life. Like his fiction, the memoirs are full of rich, vibrant details and "characters." The short stories in the middle are beautifully created and often harken back to his larger works. Three nonfiction pieces (two on the subject of Dickens and one of Gunter Grass) end the book.
One of the things I love the most about this collection is that every piece has an author's note at the end. These notes are less informative of the work preceding and more an insight from Irving about the writing process itself and the details that were going on in his life surrounding that piece. Having these notes after each work creates a dialogue between Irving and himself that is so thrilling for someone who is a big fan of his work already. The notes set this book apart and create a special piece of art for those who love Irving and writing in general.
This is something I think I will come back to once I have read more of Irving. Even with the few novels I have read, I picked up on a lot of insights from the memoir section (even without taking the notes into consideration). It is so cool to see how his writing is informed by his experiences and to get just a small glimpse of his wonderful mind. I highly recommend this book for any Irving fan.
Beginning with memoirs, Irving sets the pace for an intimate look at his private life. Like his fiction, the memoirs are full of rich, vibrant details and "characters." The short stories in the middle are beautifully created and often harken back to his larger works. Three nonfiction pieces (two on the subject of Dickens and one of Gunter Grass) end the book.
One of the things I love the most about this collection is that every piece has an author's note at the end. These notes are less informative of the work preceding and more an insight from Irving about the writing process itself and the details that were going on in his life surrounding that piece. Having these notes after each work creates a dialogue between Irving and himself that is so thrilling for someone who is a big fan of his work already. The notes set this book apart and create a special piece of art for those who love Irving and writing in general.
This is something I think I will come back to once I have read more of Irving. Even with the few novels I have read, I picked up on a lot of insights from the memoir section (even without taking the notes into consideration). It is so cool to see how his writing is informed by his experiences and to get just a small glimpse of his wonderful mind. I highly recommend this book for any Irving fan.