Irving's memoir about writing film adaptations of his novels.

If you've read the Cider House Rules and seen the movie, this is the best companion to explain why it is John Irving did what he did when he wrote the screenplay. I was upset about the movie after having read the book, realizing that only half the story was there. But Irving clearly explains why certain scenes are missing and how he introduced new characters in order to round the story out without making the movie 5 hours long.

1st edition, signed by author; also own 2nd copy not signed

Rather focused on The Cyder House Rules , than on the rest of his novels until 2000. Yet worth a reading as it shows differences between final scripts and novels.

After three of his novels became motion pictures scripted by other writers (The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany, which was rechristened on screen as Simon Birch), and two of his own screenplays languished unproduced, Irving finally got his chance to adapt one of his novels to film. The focus of this slim, eloquent memoir is Irving's 13-year struggle to bring The Cider House Rules to the big screen, and its passage through the hands of various producers, four different directors and numerous rewrites.

Backtracking to illuminate the origin of the novel's pro-abortion stance, Irving introduces readers to his grandfather, an obstetrician and gynecologist, and to the history of abortion. (Abortions didn't become illegal throughout the U.S. until 1846, when physicians sought to take the procedure--and financial rewards--out of the hands of midwives, Irving reveals.) He also offers a fascinating and detailed look at how he trimmed his huge novel into a workable screenplay. Although he professes to love the final product, Irving details each scene and line that was cut as the film was edited down to two hours.

While he claims to be pleased with the screen treatments of his previous novels, he is disappointingly silent on the subject of Simon Birch (he refused the filmmakers the use of the protagonist's name and also insisted that the screen credit state that the film was "Suggested by the novel").

Irving even makes the book-to-film journey of one of his novels boring.

A rare Irving piece that I missed somehow. Not a novel, but a great glimpse into some of Irving's family, life, background and personality. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Well written but I was a bit disappointed, since it was called "My Movie Business", I thought it would have expanded more on all his novels to movies and/or novels to unfulfilled movies. I did contain those but primarily it was about Cider House Rules, which is a great book and movie but I was yearning for more of his other stories.

Good insight into how John Irving writes and thinks.
And what it takes to make a film from a book.

I read this in one sitting, which is something I never thought I'd say about something by John Irving. It's insightful, indeed. The books he's turned into movies have been pretty hit or miss. I watched The Hotel New Hampshire right after I read this and he was right, it's basically god awful. But then you see where he had really terrible ideas about The Cider House Rules and how turning a book into a film is really quite difficult. This would have been a perfect book to read on a flight.

Irving relata los pormenores de adaptar una obra suya al cine. Los conflictos con los productores, directores, las cancelaciones momentáneas de los inicios de filmación, la elección de los actores, etc. pero en el fondo no deja de ser una encendida defensa al aborto.
Tema que no está en el texto es que Irving ganó el Oscar por la adaptación a la que hace referencia este libro.

This John Irving memoir is about making one of my favorite books into one of my favorite movies (The Cider House Rules). Irving discusses the long process of going through four directors, choosing the cast, writing the screenplay, and editing scenes. It was great to get a behind-the-scenes look at an author adapting his novel to the screen.