Trying to Save Piggy Sneed: 20th Anniversary Edition - Couverture souple

Here is a treat for devoted fans of John Irving. First published twenty years ago, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by the author, beginning with three memoirs. The longest of the memoirs is "The Imaginary Girlfriend," his candid account of his twin careers in writing and wrestling, which, as the Denver Post observed, is filled "with anecdotes that are every bit as hilarious as the antics in his novels . . . [and] combines the lessons of both obsessions."

The middle portion of the book is fiction. Over a career that spans thirteen novels, these are the six stories that Mr. Irving considers finished. Among them is "Interior Space," for which he won the O. Henry Award. In the third and final section are three homages: one to Günter Grass and two to Charles Dickens. To each of the twelve pieces, he has contributed author's notes, which provide some perspective on the circumstances surrounding the writing of each piece. For readers who prefer a hardcover, this commemorative edition is a book to treasure. For new readers, it is a perfect introduction to the author of works as moving and mischievous as The World According to Garp,A Prayer for Owen Meany, and In One Person.

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"A rich, wonderful, and diverse look at the creative mind of one of America's most imaginative and passionate novelists." Denver Post

Supple and energetic as a stylist, Mr. Irving also knows just how to create in the reader's mind a vivid impression of an existing world and just how to populate it.” New York Times Book Review

[This] affable collection of fiction and nonfiction is never less than opinionated." Detroit News/Free Press

"The essays on himself and other writers make the book valuable, for they tell us a great deal about Irving's view of fiction." Newsday

"Irving proves himself, once again, a garrulous and engaging raconteur." Publishers Weekly

"Candid . . . colorful . . . Those who have followed John Irving's writing career will delight in his newest, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed. . . . Readers will leave this book feeling as if they have had a terrific conversation with Irving about why he writes and how he goes about it." USA Today

"[This] newest book is a first for Irving: a collection of memoirs, short fiction, and essays. Trying to Save Piggy Sneed features tributes to Dickens and Günter Grass, whose novels percolate with a political and moral courage Irving admires. It also includes six short stories, a form Irving doesn't claim as his own. Reminiscences round out the collection, from his caustic recollections of an awkward dinner with former President Reagan to the title piece, in which the death of his town's garbage collector symbolically sparked the teenage Irving's desire to write." Minneapolis Star Tribune

"These pieces are worth saving and savoring. . . . Trying to Save Piggy Sneed is a welcome oasis on the long desert passage leading to John Irving's next novel." Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer