The Wrestler

He slaps the side of my head--twice, in quick succession--then hooks a hand behind my neck, and we lean hard into each other, our weight stuttering us one way,...

TIME Spends the Weekend with John Irving, Literary Legend

John Irving was the quintessential American novelist. Now he's poised to reclaim his title with his most controversial novel since The Cider House Rules. We...

Books: A Saga of Loss And Recovery

It has been 20 years since John Irving's fourth novel, The World According to Garp, made its author famous. Not only did the book attract a massive readership,...

A Letter From The Publisher: Aug. 31, 1981

In his 1978 review of The World According to Garp, Senior Writer R.Z. Sheppard declared that John Irving had moved into "the front rank of America's young...

Books: The Message Is the Message

A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving; Morrow; 543 pages; $19.95 Accidents usually accelerate John Irving's antic plots and keep his readers tuned for what...

Life into Art: Novelist John Irving

COVER STORY Garp Creator John Irving strikes again The pieces of the dream machine are in place. Scaffolding has been erected against a brick building for a...

Books: An Orphan Or an Abortion: The Cider House Rules

Although he appears in name only, Charles Dickens is one of the undisputed heroes of John Irving's sixth novel. This homage seems both fitting and inevitable...

Letters: Sep. 21, 1981

Irving's World To the Editors: John Irving [Aug. 31] is not only a masterly writer, he is a master teacher as well. At a Breadloaf workshop, he read a...

Books: Love, Art and the Last Puritan

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving; Dutton; 437pages; $10.95 Why is an artist like a bear on a unicycle? John Irving does not have an answer; he does...

Books: Trumper's Complaint

THE WATER-METHOD MAN by JOHN IRVING 365 pages. Random House. $6.95. In John Irving's fine first novel, Setting Free the Bears, two Vienna University students...