John Irving, Author . Random $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-375-50627-7
A touch of the bizarre has always enlivened Irving's novels, and here he outdoes himself in spinning a grotesque incident into a dramatic story brimming with humor, sexual shenanigans and unexpected poignancy. While reporting on a trapeze artist
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John Irving, Author , illus. by Tatjana Hauptmann. Doubleday $15.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-385-74680-9
Irving's first book for children, an atmospheric story originally included as part of his adult novel A Widow for One Year
, introduces wide-eyed Tom, pictured in adorably rumpled pajamas. The boy wakes up in the night to a mysterious sound. "
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John Irving, Author . Random $27.95 (824p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6383-3
Actor Jack Burns seeks a sense of identity and father figures while accommodating a host of overbearing and elaborately dysfunctional women in Irving's latest sprawling novel (after The Fourth Hand
). At the novel's onset (in 1969), four-year
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John Irving, Author Ballantine Books $7.99 (640p) ISBN 978-0-345-36179-0
Although he is convincing in his appraisal of the tragedy of Vietnam and in his religious philosophizing, ``Irving's storytelling skills have gone seriously astray in this contrived, preachy, tedious tale of the eponymous Owen Meany, a latter-day...
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John Irving, Author Arcade Publishing $21.95 (432p) ISBN 978-1-55970-323-9
Irving proves himself, once again, a garrulous and engaging raconteur in this collection of fiction and nonfiction divided into three sections: Memoirs, Fiction and Homage. In the last, while admiring the work of Gunter Grass, he notes that ``Grass...
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John Irving, Author William Morrow & Company $25 (543p) ISBN 978-0-688-07708-2
Irving's storytelling skills have gone seriously astray in this contrived, preachy, tedious tale of the eponymous Owen Meany, a latter-day prophet and Christ-like figure who dies a martyr after having inspired true Christian belief in the narrator,...
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John Irving, Author Random House (NY) $25 (633p) ISBN 978-0-679-43496-2
Though there are flashes here of the dramatic verve of The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules , Irving's long-awaited eighth novel is generally a tedious affair: rambling; lacking suspense; devoid of energetic or lyric prose; sometimes...
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John Irving, Author Random House (NY) $19.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-375-50368-9
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...
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John Irving. Simon & Schuster, $28 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4516-6412-6
Prep school. Wrestling. Unconventional sexual practices. Viennese interlude. This bill of particulars could only fit one American author: John Irving. His 13th novel (after Last Night in Twisted River) tells the oftentimes outrageous story of...
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John Irving. Simon & Schuster, $28 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4516-6416-4
Irving’s (In One Person) latest depicts Juan Diego, an aging novelist on a pilgrimage to the Philippines and set on fulfilling a promise he made in his childhood to a dying friend. Juan Diego was a “dump kid,” living with his sister, Lupe, in a...
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John Irving, Author, Jason Culp, Read by , read by Jason Culp. Random Audio Books $39.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-375-41895-2
As the world watches, handsome TV journalist Patrick Wallingford, who is obsessed with minutely described one-night stands, has his hand eaten by a lion at the Gnesh Circus. (The gnesh is an Indian symbol of new beginnings). Viewer Doris and her...
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Elizabeth Benedict, Author, Anne Rice, Author, John Irving, Author Soho Press $24 (256p) ISBN 978-1-56947-145-6
Lubed for publication during National Condom Week, this anthology of short fiction, comic essays and verse offers a variety of flavors and textures. Anne Rice, John Irving, Martin Amis and other luminaries are represented by excerpts from novels and
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John Irving, Author . Random $28 (576p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6384-0
Irving (The World According to Garp
) returns with a scattershot novel, the overriding themes, locations and sensibilities of which will probably neither surprise longtime fans nor win over the uninitiated. Dominic “Cookie” Baciagalupo...
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John Irving, Author, Joe Barrett, Read by , read by Joe Barrett. Brilliance Audio $49.99 (0p) ISBN 978-1-4233-9163-0
Joe Barrett captures the humor and sorrow of Irving's classic novel about faith, friendship and fate. We follow the adventures of diminutive Owen Meany and his best friend Johnny Wheelwright as they grapple with life, death and devotion and...
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John Irving, read by John Benjamin Hickey. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, 15 CDs, 16.25 hrs., $49.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-4915-5
John Benjamin Hickey more than does justice to Irving’s simple but effective prose in this unusual coming-of-age novel that sensitively explores sexual identity and orientation. Hickey gets this audio edition off to a good start with his reading of...
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John Irving, read by Armando Duran. S&S Audio, unabridged, 17 CDs, 21 hrs., $49.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-8449-1
Duran manages this multifaceted, character-rich tome with aplomb. He has quirky tones that catch Irving’s humor, humanism, and intellectual and political acumen, as well as his salacious eccentricities. The brilliant, self-educated 14-year-old Juan...
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John Irving. Simon & Schuster, $35 (912p) ISBN 978-1-5011-8927-2
This overblown and underplotted behemoth of a novel from Irving (The World According to Garp) follows the idiosyncratic journey to adulthood of Adam, an illegitimate child born and raised in New England who becomes a writer. The search for Adam’s...
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