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  • Published: 1 August 1997
  • ISBN: 9780552996808
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $25.00
Categories:

The Imaginary Girlfriend



A great author's autobiography.

From a novelist known for the complexity of his novels - they are also long - comes an autobiography of compelling simplicity; it is also short. Dedicated to the memory of two wrestling coaches and two writer friends, The Imaginary Girlfriend is a lucid portrait of the writers and wrestlers who played a mentor role in John Irving's development as a novelist, a wrestler and a wrestling coach. Moreover, this candid memoir portrays a father's dedication to his children: Irving coached his sons Colin and Brendan to New England championship titles - a championship that, as a competitor, he himself was denied.

John Irving began writing and wrestling when he was fourteen. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, he was certified as a referee for twenty-four and he coached the sport until he was forty-seven. His thirty-three years in wrestling are three times those he spent as a student and a teacher of Creative Writing; yet his concise autobiography details the interrelationship of the disciplines of writing and wrestling - from the days when Irving was a beginner at both pursuits until his fourth wrestling-related surgery at the age of fifty-three.

The Imaginary Girlfriend is both a work of the utmost literary accomplishment and a paradigm for living.

  • Published: 1 August 1997
  • ISBN: 9780552996808
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $25.00
Categories:

About the author

John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times – winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story ‘Interior Space’. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules – a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. For more information about the author, please visit www.john-irving.com

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Praise for The Imaginary Girlfriend

Interesting and surprising revelations

Michael Moran, Literary Review

His "inexpressible personal opinions" as a critic are wonderful, slaying many a sacred cow

Tobias Jones, Spectator

The patent sincerity of his passion gives an appealing authenticity to this memoir... compelling and alive

Andrew Rosenheim, The Times Literary Supplement

Irving can transform sex and violence mythology with the best of 'em

Adrianne Blue, Independent on Sunday

Concise, original and enjoyable

The Times