Unremarkable

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.

LOVE John Irving, but didn't realize this is a love story to wrestling. I'm not a fan.

Let me save you a lot of time and offer the sixty-second summary of this book:

"I'm John Irving. I have written lots of excellent books. This memoir offers no information on any of them. Instead, please enjoy a long list of people I have wrestled with, or against, and the people they have wrestled with, or against, and the names of the coaches who watched us wrestle, and the names of the wrestlers that I have coached. I will also provide details like how much all these people weighed, at the time of wrestling and at the time of this writing, and whether they won or lost various matches. If at any time the narrative strays towards a humourous or informative anecdote, it's time to end the chapter and change the subject."

If this sounds fun to you, then by all means, read the book!

Disclaimer: I am a huge John Irving fan and have read everything he has written; so I am not objective about this book rating. This book is a short autobiography of his life thru 1997. It tells his personal and writing history but is dominated by the role of wrestling in his life. I really enjoyed the insights into his life (school, teaching, role of wrestling, kids), was amused by his anecdotes (dinners with the Vonnegut's, teaching moments, and wrestling stories), and loved his discussions on the life of a writer (conflicts with teaching, coexistence with wrestling, imagination vs reality). On particular interest were his insights into tolerance and his (and my) central dilemma of intolerance of the intolerant. His wrestling stories were slightly overdone but were so critical to his life that they had to be included in detail. Very insightful book into the life on my favorite author - loved the inner look into and greater knowledge of him. But not sure non John Irving fans will love it.

Interesting quick read. It's much better if the reader has a keen interest in wrestling. Myself, not so much -- but there are some good tips for aspiring writers as well. I was surprised to learn that Irving didn't like Vienna, since he tapped that experience in several of his novels.

***1/2

I'm a fan of John Irving's writing. He's one of the few authors who I monitor and when a new novel is out I buy it unseen. I'm a writer and if I could write half as well as Irving... well you probably would have heard of me by now.

I don't 'get' wrestling. Why would two men want to grapple in close proximity to each other's sweaty armpits and crutches? Even in the name of sport. And this mini-biography is more about wrestling than writing.

Nevertheless, Irving makes it interesting because of his facility with words. Some passages have his trademark touch and the book is worthwhile for these alone. But if you're looking for a book to help your writing this isn't it.

An Insight Into A Favorite Author

I have long enjoyed John Irving's writing. His ability to tell a story that you become part of brings his books to life for me. In this memoir he shares a great deal of who he is and what shaped him. Some of the wrestling terminology was a little baffling but all-in-all it is a good read.

I decided to pick up this book after reading about Markus Zusak’s love for John Irving and this memoir in particular. ‘The Imaginary Girlfriend’ is my first experience of Irving, so it has likely lessened my view of this memoir, but it was still a great read. Balancing his career as a wrestler with that of a writer, Irving is short and sharp in his anecdotes and chapters, reflecting on his life and moments that were important to him. Overall, a worthwhile read for those who have read John Irving or are interested in the lives of writers.

The Imaginary Girlfriend gets three stars rather than five because it's a memoir (though Irving makes it clear he remembers things as an author does, meaning more inventively than actually) and there's nothing jaw-dropping about reality as it happened, in my mind.
It gets three stars rather than none, however, because it's written cleanly and succinctly. For a writer who says he doesn't like Hemingway (and how dare he?!), he seems to prefer sparse prose to overwritten.
The book ties wrestling to writing, showing how one has bolstered the other throughout his life. There are some funny bits about travelling for matches, as well as the authors he's met during his career: "The finals were at night. Scary people from the middle of Maine emerged in the night. (My good friend Stephen King doesn't make up everything; he knows the people I mean.)"
It's peppered with advice for would-be writers ("That you're not very talented needn't be the end of it"... "It is not believable solely for the fact that it happened. The truth is, the imagination can select more plausible details than those incredible-but-true details we can remember.").
Also lots of simple observations about life: "It seems idiotic, but I think it's very common that we meet people of importance to us just before we are going away somewhere."
Unless you're an aspiring writer or a die-hard Irving fan, I'd say skip this one, but otherwise it's a nice read.

Weirdly, a lot about wrestling, but maybe even more weirdly I enjoyed it.