This isn't like other Irving: if you're new to him, I would not suggest you start here. This is really more for established fans. There are several stories, of varying quality. I enjoyed, in particular, "Interior Space" and "Almost in Iowa". I also love "The Pension Grillparzer", but it's hard to say that here because I will always think of it in terms of Garp, not of Irving.

As for the memoir and non-fiction: I find Irving, himself, to be a bit prickly. Maybe you can even leave off the "ly". If you can ride with his voice and accept his point of view during the time you read, you'll do fine, I think. Parts of his story of dining at the White House are quite comical. NB: the version I had here did not include "The Imaginary Girlfriend" which appears to be a remembrance of his time as a wrestler. I have no guidance for that. I found I agreed with his views on Dickens, who I also love, and let his views on Grass, who I have no experience with, wash over me.

If you love Irving, you should check this out. If you don't, or are just starting, I'd skip to something else. May I recommend "A Prayer for Owen Meany"?

Includes the stories "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed," "Interior Space," "Almost in Iowa," "Weary Kingdom," "Brennbar's Rant," "Other People's Dreams," "The Pension Grillparzer," and "The King of the Novel."

Short stories don't often stick with me, but a few of these managed to linger in my memory. The title story is about the cruelty of children, esp when faced with anyone different. Piggy was a mentally handicapped garbage man whom the children of the town taunted. Irving writes this story as memoir and indicates that it was his first scrape w/ storytelling. In "Almost in Iowa" a man runs away from home w/ his beloved Volvo and both get punished for that decision. In "Brennbar's Rant," a man equates racial and sexual discrimination w/ the shunning he received due to his acne. In "The Pension Grillparzer" we get a glimpse of a hotel that is almost The Hotel New Hampshire.

One of the reasons reading Irving is such a great pleasure is because he loves his fellow humans. His characters are wonderful; they are hopeful and vibrant and always striving. They make mistakes, as humans will do, but at heart they are not evil. Other writers (Alice Munroe, Richard Ford, to name a recent few) leave very little hope for their characters, and maybe that is life, but sometimes we want to read something that lifts us out of that brutal reality.

I love John Irving. This book is a memoir about wrestling, his short stories, Dickens and a German author who I should’ve remembered but didn’t. Sorry. Needless to say I downloaded Dickens numerous stories to Nook for $2.99. It made an impact. Though I don’t think I’ll be wrestling anytime soon.

Well, I learned that I don't like Irving's short pieces as much as I like his novels. I think his novels give the space required for all of his weird specific details to breathe and intertwine. I did like having the author's notes after each piece to see his perspective and process.

I admit that I didn't finish the last three essays in the book, which are in homage to writers he admires (and which I haven't read myself).

For Irving completists like me. Some memoir, some short stories, some works praising Dickens and Gunter Grass. The stories range from good (Almost In Iowa) to terrific (The Pension Grillparzer). The memoirs are mostly interesting, with a very, very detailed account of his love of wrestling and his wrestling career (The Imaginary Girlfriend), his politics (My Dinner at the White House), and the wonderful title memoir detailing why he became a writer. The last third of the book praising Charles Dickens and Gunter Grass is there if you want it, I found myself skimming through most of it, although I may finally actually read 'A Christmas Carol.' Definitely time to re-read 'A Widow for One Year.'

Can't pretend to understand all the stories in this John Irving novel. Some were funny, like Piggy Snead and Interior Space, others morbid like The Pension Grillparzer, while others were somewhat confusing, like Brennbar's Rant and Almost in Iowa. I have realized over the years that the longevity of a book is not in its first reading but rather the re-reads you do as you grow older and mature. This book sat a while on my bookshelf...I hope one day to be drawn to it again and read it once again with a new understanding.

Six stories enveloped by one memoir-bit and one essay on Charles Dickens (for the latter, I have to ask: Why? Why this utterly inappropriate placing of an essay after the nugget of "The Pension Grillparzer"?)
For some of the stories I was surprised about the style (such as the story about a man and his relationship to his Volvo). But actually, the stories got better and better as I moved along.
Taking everything together, a solid three from my point of view.

Couldn’t even finish the last 30 pages because I was bored and not engaged with the subject. The last 75ish pages are about Authors that Irving respects and I, unfortunately, was not interested in what he had to say about them.

3,5⭐️ Długo mi zajęło skończenie tej książki i ciężko mi opisać moje odczucia co do niej. Mamy tutaj zbiór opowiadań bez morału, bez jakiegoś konkretnego zakończenia, abstrakcyjnych, czasem niepokojących i po prostu dziwnych. A jednak pozostawiają po sobie jakieś wrażenie i czasami, w bardzo randomowych momentach, wracałam do nich myślami. Nie będę ukrywać, że bardzo zdziwiło mnie ostatnie opowiadanie a właściwie nagły, niespodziewany esej na temat Dickensa a szczególnie „Wielkich nadziei”. Czy bym ją poleciła? Napewno nie każdemu.

Het boek bevatte enkele kortverhalen en essays van John Irving. Ik vond de kortverhalen persoonlijk niet erg sterk en hier en daar onaf naar mijn mening. De Essays waren soms ook wat uitputtend om in een keer door te geraken. De manier waarop Irving zijn verhalen schrijft heeft daarentegen wel mijn aandacht getrokken. Ik kijk er naar uit om een van zijn klassiekers te lezen.

Buddy of mine gave me this at a party last spring. I'd never read Irving and wanted to give him a shot. This book is a collection of short works, split into three sections. The first is "memoir." This section concludes with an interminable tale of every wrestling match that Irving had either competed in, presided over as an official or even heard a story about. Scores and moves and competitors names that draw out into the most specifically uninteresting writing imaginable.

After being bogged down in that story for months, I kicked the shit out of my complete-ist nature and skipped on to the next story. It was the middle section, "Fiction," that made the book fun again. After each story is an author's reflection, almost every one of which begins "I wasn't going to include [insert title here] in this collection, but . . . " This gave me another perfect opportunity to teach myself that not every printed word I come across is as deserving of my attention as all of the others. The short stories themselves, though, were quite enjoyable.

The final section contains "Homage." Starting with a long diatribe about why the author likes Dickens and why other people don't. I've never read Dickens, but I'm pretty sure he's one of the most popular writers of the past millennium. I'm guessing there are a fair number of people who *also* like Dickens, though at this point in the book Irving's intellectual snobbery is no longer up for debate. The second piece in this section is a pleasant reflection on A Christmas Carol, and that's about where I decided to set this book back on my shelf. Rather than give it the opportunity to alienate me again with a story about some German author I've never heard of, I'm giving it (and me) the gift of parting ways while we're still friends.

I really enjoyed the first short stories and I especially liked reading the author's comments after each story. Each of these had characters that interested me. I thought the intro for Dickens was informative. The last short story was about an author I did not know so wasn't as involved.