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again_dangerous_visions_4952 's review for:
Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
by John Irving
It can’t be overstated how important peak Irving was to my reading youth and how he shaped my lifelong love of long form storytelling. Garp, Hotel New Hampshire and Cider House have each been read and reread over decades.
This book has inexplicably sat on my shelves unread since the late 1990s, travelled two states - packed and unpacked and shelved and shelved again home after home. Having finally read it, I share the opinions of some readers here who say this book is for Irving completists only. I didn’t finish it.
I enjoyed his fiction pieces. In the endnotes, he accurately called out the good and flaws of each. All are good and flawed. As are we all. Most fascinating are the bits in the nonfiction in which he writes about writing. I could have spent hours reading his thoughts on this, but he shared only minutes of input. Trade secrets, I guess.
I skipped the essays on the greatness of Dickens, not that I disagree necessarily, but I’d rather spend my time reading items that compel me to read more, not endure to finish. Life, at this stage, is too short for any less for living contemporary Irving fans, isn’t it?
This book has inexplicably sat on my shelves unread since the late 1990s, travelled two states - packed and unpacked and shelved and shelved again home after home. Having finally read it, I share the opinions of some readers here who say this book is for Irving completists only. I didn’t finish it.
I enjoyed his fiction pieces. In the endnotes, he accurately called out the good and flaws of each. All are good and flawed. As are we all. Most fascinating are the bits in the nonfiction in which he writes about writing. I could have spent hours reading his thoughts on this, but he shared only minutes of input. Trade secrets, I guess.
I skipped the essays on the greatness of Dickens, not that I disagree necessarily, but I’d rather spend my time reading items that compel me to read more, not endure to finish. Life, at this stage, is too short for any less for living contemporary Irving fans, isn’t it?