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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.
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.
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John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, and he once admitted that he was a 'grim' child. Although he excelled in English at school and knew by the time he graduated that he wanted to write novels, it was not until he met a young Southern novelist named John Yount, at the University of New Hampshire, that he received encouragement. 'It was so simple,' he remembers. 'Yount was the first person to point out that anything I did except writing was going to be vaguely unsatisfying.'
In 1963, Irving enrolled at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, and he later worked as a university lecturer. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, about a plot to release all the animals from the Vienna Zoo, was followed by The Water-Method Man, a comic tale of a man with a urinary complaint, and The 158-Pound Marriage, which exposes the complications of spouse-swapping. Irving achieved international recognition with The World According to Garp, which he hoped would 'cause a few smiles among the tough-minded and break a few softer hearts'.
The Hotel New Hampshire is a startlingly original family saga, and The Cider House Rules is the story of Doctor Wilbur Larch - saint, obstetrician, founder of an orphanage, ether addict and abortionist - and of his favourite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted. A Prayer for Owen Meany features the most unforgettable character Irving has yet created. A Son of the Circus is an extraordinary evocation of modern day India. He is the author of the international bestsellers A Widow for One Year, The Fourth Hand and Until I Find You.
A collection of John Irving's shorter writing, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, was published in 1993. Irving has also written the screenplays for The Cider House Rules and A Son of the Circus, and wrote about his experiences in the world of movies in his memoir My Movie Business.
Irving has had a life-long passion for wrestling, and he plays a wrestling referee in the film of The World According to Garp. In his memoir, The Imaginary Girlfriend, John Irving writes about his life as a wrestler, a novelist and as a wrestling coach. He now writes full-time, has three children and lives in Vermont and Toronto.
In 1963, Irving enrolled at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, and he later worked as a university lecturer. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, about a plot to release all the animals from the Vienna Zoo, was followed by The Water-Method Man, a comic tale of a man with a urinary complaint, and The 158-Pound Marriage, which exposes the complications of spouse-swapping. Irving achieved international recognition with The World According to Garp, which he hoped would 'cause a few smiles among the tough-minded and break a few softer hearts'.
The Hotel New Hampshire is a startlingly original family saga, and The Cider House Rules is the story of Doctor Wilbur Larch - saint, obstetrician, founder of an orphanage, ether addict and abortionist - and of his favourite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted. A Prayer for Owen Meany features the most unforgettable character Irving has yet created. A Son of the Circus is an extraordinary evocation of modern day India. He is the author of the international bestsellers A Widow for One Year, The Fourth Hand and Until I Find You.
A collection of John Irving's shorter writing, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, was published in 1993. Irving has also written the screenplays for The Cider House Rules and A Son of the Circus, and wrote about his experiences in the world of movies in his memoir My Movie Business.
Irving has had a life-long passion for wrestling, and he plays a wrestling referee in the film of The World According to Garp. In his memoir, The Imaginary Girlfriend, John Irving writes about his life as a wrestler, a novelist and as a wrestling coach. He now writes full-time, has three children and lives in Vermont and Toronto.
© Jane Sobel Klonsky
Mit behaarten Armen: John Irving über Schreiben und Ringen
Warum schreibt einer seine Autobiographie? Oft geschieht es aus Eitelkeit, manchmal aus Selbstüberschätzung, seltener aus Langeweile. 1994, nach Erscheinen des Romans "Zirkuskind", wird John Irving an der Schulter operiert; danach stehen ihm vier Monate Krankengymnastik und Aufbautraining bevor - nicht gerade der günstigste Zeitpunkt, um einen neuen Roman zu beginnen. Und so verfaßt er aus Langeweile einen Bericht über seine Doppelexistenz als Ringer und Schriftsteller.
Irving ringt und schreibt seit dem vierzehnten Lebensjahr. Es stört ihn nicht, daß er als Ringer nur "halbwegs passabel" ist. "Daß du nicht besonders begabt bist", sagt ihm sein erster Trainer, "braucht nicht das Ende vom Lied zu sein." Und so verbissen Irving auf der Matte trainiert, so beharrlich verbessert er auch sein Schreiben. "Für mich steht zweifellos fest, daß ich durch das Ringen mehr gelernt habe als durch Creative-Writing-Kurse; gut schreiben bedeutet umschreiben, und um gut zu ringen, muß man es immer wieder tun - man muß die Griffe und Bewegungen unermüdlich wiederholen, bis sie einem zur zweiten Natur werden. Ich habe mich weder je als ,geborenen' Schriftsteller empfunden noch als ,geborenen' oder auch nur guten Athleten. Gut bin ich im Umschreiben; auf Anhieb bekomme ich nie etwas richtig hin, aber ich weiß, wie man verbessert, und verbessere immer wieder."
Nichts liegt Irving ferner als Mythenbildung. Niemals glorifiziert er das Ringen so, wie es Hemingway oder Algren mit dem Boxsport taten. "Ringen", definiert er, "ist wie Boxen ein Gewichtsklassensport, bei dem man mit Leuten gleicher Größe aufeinanderprallt."
Leider werden die Leute, mit denen Irving zusammenprallt, alle namentlich genannt. Der Arbeitstitel des Buches lautete "Mentoren", und letztendlich ist es eine umfangreiche Variante der freundlichen Danksagungen, die man aus Irvings Romanen kennt (in den Vereinigten Staaten erschien der großzügig bebilderte Text nicht selbständig, sondern wurde einer Storysammlung beigegeben).
Gut ist Irving immer dann, wenn er zu erzählen beginnt, wenn er zum Beispiel beschreibt, wie ein Taxifahrer drei junge Ringer von New York nach West Point fährt. Der Taxifahrer, der New York noch nie verlassen hat, jammert plötzlich: "Ich hab noch nie so viele Bäume gesehen." In dem verängstigten Taxifahrer erkennt der Leser einen alten Bekannten, nämlich den Chauffeur Dante Calicchio, der Fred Bogus Trumper in "Die wilde Geschichte vom Wassertrinker" für 100 Dollar von New York nach Maine bringt. Aber das ist nur eines der zahllosen Déjà-vus, die durch den Text geistern.
Die anrührendsten Stellen des flüssig übersetzten Buches handeln von den verstorbenen Freunden, und ganz wie in seinen Romanen überzeugen Ehrlichkeit und schmuckloser, präziser Stil. In der Erzählung "Rettungsversuch für Piggy Sneed" spricht Irving von der "rigorosen Plackerei mit der Sprache". Diese Plackerei ist wohl das Geheimnis seiner Unmittelbarkeit: Seine Sätze wirken wie gesprochen. Auf Irving trifft zu, was er über Dickens schreibt: "Seine Bücher sind nie eitel . . . Er war auch nicht so eingebildet zu glauben, daß seine Liebe zur Sprache oder sein Gebrauch der Sprache etwas Besonderes seien; er konnte sehr elegante Prosa schreiben, wenn er wollte, aber er hatte nie so wenig zu sagen, daß es ihm beim Schreiben einzig um die Schönheit der Sprache zu tun gewesen wäre." CHRISTOPHER ECKER
John Irving: "Die imaginäre Freundin". Vom Ringen und Schreiben. Aus dem Amerikanischen übersetzt von Irene Rumler. Diogenes Verlag, Zürich 1996. 165 S., geb., 32,- DM.
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