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John Irving is a novelist known for multi-generational family epics with themes of wrestling, bears, and Vienna. His fourth novel, The World According to Garp, was a commercial success and adapted into a film. Irving’s later novels sold well but received less critical praise. He also writes autobiographical essays and lives in Vermont.
John Irving is a modern novelist, known for epic and sprawling works that often deal with several generations of a particular family. His work is also notable for frequent themes relating to wrestling, bears, and Vienna. Although he is primarily a fiction writer, he has also written several collections of autobiographical essays and a children’s book.
In 1968, John Irving published his first book, Setting Free the Bears, at the age of 26. This novel and the two that followed failed to create much following. However, Irving’s fourth novel, The World According to Garp, published in 1978, was a huge commercial success. The novel, which follows a writer’s life from birth to death, features a number of bizarre and eccentric characters and storylines, including Garp’s mother, a feminist icon who conceived Garp with the help of a soldier in coma. Garp was later made into a film starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close and John Lithgow.
John Irving’s next two novels, The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, were serious but humorous books dealing with the subjects of abortion and religion. John Irving adapted The Cider House Rules into a screenplay, which took ten years to complete. The film, starring ToMcGuire and Charlize Theron, was critically acclaimed and John Irving received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. A film adaptation by Owen Meany resulted in the cheesier Simon Birch; the name change was at the request of John Irving, who wanted no association with the final version of the film.
None of the novels that followed A Prayer for Owen Meany received the same critical praise as John Irving’s earlier work, although all sold relatively well. He has also written several short memoirs in recent years, including an account of the script for The Cider House Rules.
John Irving lives in Vermont with his wife and young son; he has two eldest children from a previous marriage. He is known to be dyslexic and serves as a high school wrestling coach in addition to his literary pursuits.
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