John Irving and me

 

John Irving doesn't know me, but I feel I know him. It isn't because we were born the same year and it isn't because we have both lived in Exeter, NH.

It's his books. 

I fell in love with his book, World According to Garp and then read all his earlier ones. 

It took me a little while to get into A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I was afraid it would be like James Joyce's Ulysses, where I never got beyond page 42 (the year of Irving's and my birth) and I'd have to have written on my tombstone, "She never finished Ulysses and A Prayer for Owen Meany."

Then one weekend in Môtiers Switzerland, I was curled up in bed with the book. Outside it was snowing. I fell asleep reading it, picked it up as soon as I woke. Read it through meals, read it before walking the dogs and after walking them, read it as I washed dishes by stacking it on the windowsill over the sink.

When he tied it altogether at the end, I knew I had read something better than Ulysses, a brilliant work.

Other Irving books followed.

When I was getting my masters in creative writing at Glamorgan University in Pontypridd, Wales, not only did I have to produce a novel, but a masters thesis. I decided to do it on repeated symbolism in John Irving. I scoured his novels, line by line for examples of wrestling, bears, hotels, Vienna, etc.

I argued with my reader (that's what they call the thesis advisors) that Irving uses biographical details beyond Exeter where he grew up. He refused to accept it, but after I had my degree I came across a quote in a newspaper, which I can't find now, where Irving says he takes a bit of biographical details and adds a little bit hit and there until it is on its way of becoming a lie. My reader apologized. It is something I incorporated into my own writing.

On Facebook the other day I saw Irving said, he might be working on his last novel. Since we share an age, I feel the same about the novel I just started to write. I also felt that way I just finished. We are both facing natural timelines.

I'm not comparing my success to his. The fact that I've been able to write and publish so many novels www.dlnelsonwriter.com is more than many writers do. Many of those writers might be more talented than either Irving or myself, but we had the luck of finding publishers. 

We also had the opportunity to live the life of writers and if it took me longer to become full time so be it.

Irving added much to my life by his work.