Best of - John Irving: A Literary Life

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2022 was a big year for John Irving, the author of "The World According to Garp," "A Prayer for Owen Meany," and "The Cider House Rules." He turned 80, and just recently published The Last Chairlift, his first novel in seven years. It is 913 pages long and is, he says, the last long book he will ever write. Seemed like a great time to bring back our 2016 episode on John Irving. In it, he talks about why he approaches every book by writing the last sentence first. And he might just convince you that his uncommon approach is the only one that makes any sense. In this episode, he also opens up about his early life, and reveals how his mysteriously absent father, his learning disability, and his passion for wrestling, all contributed to his success as a writer. Whether you've read every John Irving novel or none, this is a fascinating story about the writing process, and about an author some critics have called the Charles Dickens of our time. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016-2022

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Alice.
0:02.0	2002 has been a big year for John Irving.
0:08.0	That's why we're bringing back our episode for you,
0:11.0	featuring a fantastic interview with this beloved writer.
0:15.0	In the spring, Irving turned 80, and just a couple of months ago he published his first novel in seven years,
0:22.0	the last chairlift. It's about a writer, it's about ghosts, and it's
0:27.4	about sexual politics over the eight decades that John Irving has been alive.
0:32.8	It is also, he says, the last long book he will ever write.
0:37.9	John Irving has written plenty of epic books of epic length,
0:42.0	but this, his 15thth tops them all at 913 pages. That might be
0:48.0	intimidating to some, but for John Irving's many many many, many fans, it is a gift.
0:55.0	More time to revel in his words, more time to relish the scenes he crafts so brilliantly.
1:02.0	Here's a little sample from Chapter 1 of the
1:04.0	audiobook version of The Last Chairlift, read by Jacques Roy.
1:08.0	I'm first and foremost a novelist, but even when I write a novel, I'm a
1:12.2	visualizer. I'm seeing the story unfold as if it were already on film.
1:17.0	Like some novelists, I know the titles and plots for novels that I won't live long enough to begin. Like screenwriters everywhere,
1:25.6	I've imagined more movies than I'll ever write. Like many screenwriters I've written screenplays
1:31.4	that I'll never see made his films. I see unmade movies
1:35.8	for a living. I watch them all the time. My life is just another unmade movie, one I've
1:42.3	seen before, when I'll go on seeing again and
1:46.0	again.
	...

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