"Často říkám svým studentům v hodinách tvůrčího psaní: první stránka papíru, která čeká, až na ni napíšete první větu vaší další knihy, je nádherná a děsivá právě tím, že tento nepopsaný list papíru vůbec nezajímá, jestli jste nebo nejste slavní; tato prázdná stránka nečetla žádné vaše dosavadní dílo - nebude vás srovnávat s těmi romány, které se jí od vás líbily, ani se vám nebude posmívat za vaše předchozí neúspěchy. A to je na začátku - na každém novém začátku - to nejúžasnější a zároveň nejtěžší. V takové chvíli se i ten nejzkušenější učitel stává pokaždé znovu žákem."

I když obecně nevyhledávám životopisy a zápasení ani za mák nerozumím, Imaginární přítelkyně mě bavila a zaujala mě svou přímostí a nadhledem. Máte-li rádi Irvingova díla a zvládáte rozplétat jeho složité příběhy a zamilováváte se do jeho nemožně neobyčejných hrdinů, zkuste dát této útlé knížce šanci. Protože ona není jen o tom slibovaném zápasení, které poznamenalo celý Irvingův život a zmínku o něm najdete skoro v každém jeho díle. Je i o jeho osobním životě, rodině, štěstí i neštěstí a o lásce k literatuře a psaní. A nebýt té jedné imaginární přítelkyně, která posloužila Irvingovi jako milosrdná lež pro odchod z Pittsburghu, nikdy bychom se nedočkali jeho geniálních děl.

This is the best book about wrestling I've read, and also the worst book about wrestling I've read. I expect it will remain the only book I ever read about wrestling because it is really profoundly uninteresting to read about, as someone who knows precisely nothing about wrestling and doesn't care to learn.

That said, this is still a great book told with Irving's usual wit and charm, and with modesty and love. It's particularly interesting finding the autobiographical details that have appeared in distorted forms within the novels.

It is still however, first and foremost, considerably wrestling focused which is by far the least interesting aspect to me.

I LOVE JOHN IRVING’s novels so much! He’s a brilliant writer and creates the most wonderful characters and stories! This small memoir told a lot about his wresting life, coaches, cutting weight which I know are so important to his life but as I am not a huge fan of wresting, I found a bit boring. Never the less, I did enjoy having a small glimpse into his world.

3.5⭐️

It should be called "My Obsession with Wrestling"

i’m sure if i was a big wrestling fan then i would’ve really enjoyed this. he talks a lot about weight and other things that i had no idea what they were. there were a few things i found interesting and it was a quick read. i enjoyed hearing about his writing, his time teaching creative writing, his dyslexia, etc. but these topics weren’t the main focus of this book. i don’t think i’ll ever read it again. 3 stars because i am clearly not the target audience so i don’t want to be too harsh on it.

An easy-breezy read that is funny and honest. Irving writes about his career as a wrestler and as a novelist. The wrestling parts are not so technical as to put off a non-wrestler, and, in fact, they added to my limited knowledge of the sport as a casual observer. His story of life as a teacher and writer is well done as well and is dotted by cameo appearances of other famous writers.

Nemám rád zápasení a nevěřil bych, že o něm dokáži přečíst tolik stran. Irving prostě umí. V polovině jsem knihu nesnášel, jako jsem nesnášel Svět podle Garpa. A po dočtení mi zase chybí Irvingův svět.

Most memories I have of John Irving’s body of work stem from my grandma and her sister, who was really an additional grandma to me. That normally will get me way off track, but both of when factored in my reading and writing life for as long as they were lucid. When Forrest Gump came out, I happened to be visiting them, and none of us were blown away by the movie, myself only rating the soundtrack an A. Their critique is that Gump’s story did not rate as high as Being There, Zelig, or The World According to Garp. I had just finished ninth grade at the time and had never heard of any of these books or movies, so I researched all three the pre-internet way: at the library. Selecting Garp, I found the story to hold my interest as a summer reading book even if it did not end up on my all time favorites list. Years later, my other exposure to Irving was again with my grandma and her sister. This time we saw The Cider House Rules. The story was not my favorite either but I remember clearly the last line, “goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.” It has been years since either of these memories occurred; however, last week a review for The Imaginary Girlfriend appeared on my feed. After some vetting, I discovered that Irving spent time in Iowa City and had been an athlete concurrent as a writer. I need of shorter books to complete my reading year, I selected this memoir as part of my celebrity memoir December lineup.

John Irving comes from Maine and quotes other top flight authors including Stephen King in this gem of a novella memoir. After the reading year that I have just nearly completed I knew that it was divine providence that I added Irving to my year’s canon. Irving was not a top student in school. He attended Exeter Prep as a faculty kid and did not achieve the grades of the students who had to apply to the academy on merit. His father even gave him a C in a Russian Literature class, showing Irving that there are no freebies in life. One activity that young Irving gravitated to was wrestling. His coach Ted Seabrooke was an old school New Englander and imparted more lessons in the wrestling room than Irving learned in the classroom. Irving always wrestled at 130 or 137 pounds. He was the weakest link on a strong prep school squad. Seabrooke noted that wrestling is “seven eighths ability and one eighth preparation and enjoyment.” No one prepared more than John Irving because he wrestled for the love of the sport. He broke many bones and sustained a myriad of other injuries and never won a New England prep school championship. In baseball we would say that Irving wrestled for the love of the game. The sport was indeed his first love before either of his two marriages or before he settled on writing as a profession. One did not need to preclude the other; Seabrooke had encouraged a youth with little ability to become a wrestler for life.

Irving’s wrestling journey took him to Pitt, where he never got to participate. He then listened to Seabrooke and completed a year in Vienna to get the unhappy memories of Pitt out of his system. If he wanted to pursue wrestling rather than a career, Irving would have attended the University of Wisconsin; yet, he did not want to go halfway across the country from his family. To this I can relate. His journey took him from Vienna back to New England. He married his first wife Shyla and became a father at the young age of twenty three. Coaching for Exeter, Irving also began his journey on the writing life. He then became a student at the prestigious Iowa Writing Workshop but felt removed from the other students because he was already a husband and father at the time. He developed lifelong friendships with other writers such as John Cheever and Kurt Vonnegut and found solace in a place that Iowa is now famous for: the wrestling room. Although retired, Irving entered the renowned Iowa wrestling room from time to time, even meriting to train with Coach Dan Gable when he returned to teach at the Workshop five years later. Gable is on wrestling’s Mount Rushmore. Irving, not so much. At this point, Irving was a developing writer and wrestled for the fun of it, just as Seabrooke had predicted. The fact that he discovered this balance at Iowa made me wax nostalgic for my own time there, and for a more detailed description check out Petergiaquinta’s review.

Irving achieved his first big break with the publication of The World According to Garp. He was all of age twenty six. To put this into perspective, Americans cite Carson McCullers as being young at twenty three when she published The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Her career did not span as long as Irving’s, who is still writing today. Irving wrote in a tool shed to have space away from his sons Colin and Brendan. As a release away from writing, Irving entered wrestling rooms, coaching both sons, who turned into far superior wrestlers to their dad. The fact that both boys won New England Prep Wrestling titles gave Irving far more pride and joy than any of his own achievements in life. He wrote The Imaginary Girlfriend while recovering from his own wrestling related injuries. His publisher wanted another novel soon, but rehabbing did not mesh with writing. His second wife and editor Janet suggested a memoir, which could be shorter than a novel, and Irving knew to center it around wrestling. At the time of publication, Brendan had won his wrestling title, and Irving knew that his days as a wrestling coach were over. Driving back from the meet with his sons, he notes was the happiest moment in his life. He had a third son Emmett from his marriage to Janet, and he could turn out to be a superior wrestler as well. His dad is now a renowned author, so Emmett would have to achieve victory with another coach. With his genetics, he probably did.

It has been years since I read Garp or watched Cider House Rules. Moments like these make me wax nostalgic and think about the happy memories with my grandparents. A professor of Irving’s at the Iowa Writers Workshop noted that he read like a writer because he was critical of most characters and related them to his own life. I try to do the same thing at least in reviews, which I primarily write for myself. The other week, my fourteen year old asked me if I ever wanted to write full time. My honest answer is that if money was no object, then, yes, I would. I have both family histories and a lifetime of having an overactive imagination to preserve. One day maybe. One day soon I will have to reacquaint myself with one of John Irving’s novels. I feel I know him after reading this introspective memoir about his life as both an author and athlete. He views life from the lens of seven eighths ability and one eighth preparation and enjoyment, even after finding success in his profession. That he writes for the enjoyment he once brought to the wrestling mat tells me that he is a big name author who writes for the love of writing. For that reason, I will give him his due and hopefully read one of his chunky novels in the coming year. I just hope that it turns out as well as this unplanned gem of a memoir.

4.5 stars

I am such a John Irving fan, it was fascinating to understand where some of his themes came from.

More about the sport of wrestling than writing but well written and a quick read.

I bought this book at a John Irving talk at Babel - it was one of the few of his books for sale that I hadn’t already read, and the topic appealed to me.

I expected it to be more inclusive, covering his whole life, not just writing and wrestling… though, actually, those two topics do seem to be his main passions and to dominate his life. There is a nod to family life: he briefly discusses his two wives, and, in more depth, writes about the wrestling experiences of two of his three sons (the third was still a child at the time of writing this book).

I knew nothing about wrestling, so found it moderately interesting to learn more about its place in the academic world. I really enjoyed the passages about the process and business of writing, and I loved reading his opinions about different authors and their books. Irving’s early books are some of my all-time favorites; his later books are enjoyable but lengthy, and I haven't found them to be as "fresh" as his earlier books.

It's a short memoir, easily read. I'd rate it a 7 out of 10 (a low 4) - higher if wrestling is your thing!


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Random Notes:

3- I was surpriosed by how bad a student Irving was - one problem was his undiagnosed dyslexia. "bad spelling like mine was considered a psychological problem"
17 "The Books I Read" - liked Dickens, George Eliot, Robertson Davies, Trollope, Hardy, Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, Vonnegut, Mann, Greene - not Proust, Henry James, Conrad
21 Freddie Buechner- fun to read about him because of my personal relationship (he was an excellent speaker at a summer "retreat" I went to in high school, andI later found out that he's a nephew of one of my stepfathers, lving nearby at the time)
23 as perfunctory as masturbation "My contemporaries were being shcoked by the Catcher in The Rye, which I thought was as perfunctory as masturbation"
46 his made-up diary - funny (and where we learn of The Imaginary Girlfriend)
47 archaic semicolons - "In Pittsburgh in Freshman English I received the grade of C- and was told by an instructor...that my overuse of the semicolon was archaic". I agree with Irving here, a semicolon can be a delightful thing!
56 the tolerance of intolerance - in Vienna, he and his friend were shocked not as much by the sswastika-wearing skinheads' promotion of anti-Semitism, but rather by the shy citizens who looked away from the skinheads, pretending not to have seen them...The tolerance of intolerance allows the intolerance to persist"
70 Kurt Vonnegut was his teacher and friend at Iowa Writers Workshop
71 beginners' writing problems "I'm talking abouat technical blunders, the perpetration of sheer boredom, point-of-view problems, the different qualities of first-person and third-person voice, the deadening effect of exposition in dialogue, the crippling limitations of the present tense, the intrusions upon narrative momentum caused by puerile and pointless experimentation - and on and on. You just say "You're good at that." And: "You're not very good at this". These areas of complaint are so basic that most talented young writers will eventually spot their mistakes themselves, but perhaps at a time when a substantial revision of the manuscript might be necessary - or worse, after the book is published."
- he hates Oscar WIlde, inferior writer who makes fun of superior writers
-- wrestling terms 63: it's an illegal headlock if you lock up a man’s head, you’re supposed to include one of his arms in the headlock. to encircle just your opponent's head is illegal. -67 finger bending: if you grab your opponents fingers, you must grab all four not just two or one and not just the thumb
-104 Irving’s ongoing relationship to wrestling (John Cheever wrote ‘ John Irving has always struck me as having been saddened by the discovery that to have been captain of the Exeter Wrestling team was a fleeting honor.’. Irving says there's nothing fleeting about it.