Thursday, February 20, 1997
BOOK:
‘How to Save Piggy Sneed’ includes lesser known works, new
author’s notesBy Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
A Rockefeller Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the
Arts Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an O. Henry Prize, not to
mention numerous readers, testify to John Irving’s success as an
American fiction writer. In his newest book Irving experiments with
different genres.
"Trying to Save Piggy Sneed," brings together some of Irving’s
lesser known work.
"Trying to Save Piggy Sneed" was many years in the making.
Almost all of the selections have been published earlier in other
countries or magazines. "Over the years, I had finally gathered
together (in my opinion) enough short pieces of quality to merit a
collection," Irving says. "This collection was published in Europe,
first, then in the U.S., where some of my more avid readers would
have had the means to seek out these shorter pieces when they were
first published. ‘The Imaginary Girlfriend’ was published all by
itself, as a book, in France, Germany, England, Holland and Canada.
And the rest of the ‘Piggy Sneed’ collection was published in those
countries years earlier."
Although the individual pieces in "Piggy Sneed" may not all be
new, the collection offers something more. Every piece has author’s
notes which update and provide insights to the writings.
Irving says, "I thought this put in perspective how I felt about
the pieces now, and what circumstances existed when the pieces were
first written. Readers like to know these things. In writing the
notes, I thought of the questions readers have asked me about my
writing over the years and answered these imaginary questions (so
to speak) in advance."
One question readers may wonder is the relation between Irving’s
passion for wrestling and his passion for writing. The novelist has
been known to credit wrestling with teaching him more about his
craft than any creative writing class. Irving says, "Discipline,
repetition, practice … I respect these things and I was taught
their importance in a sport long before I realized their
application as a writer."
However, Irving says at age 54, wrestling plays almost no part
in his life today. He no longer wrestles and rarely attends
wrestling matches.
"Wrestling is a memory now, although I still have a wrestling
room as part of my home gym," Irving confesses. "I still exercise
on the mat and roll around with my older sons. If my 5-year-old is
interested in wrestling, I’ll help him. But I would never push it
on him. It’s too personal. More than other sports, you have to love
it to do it  it’s not recreational, like skiing and tennis
can be. Wrestling is never ‘just for fun.’ It’s all business. You
can’t make someone want to do it, you shouldn’t even try."
Irving’s interest in wrestling is evident in the memoir "The
Imaginary Girlfriend" which talks about how one needn’t be a good
athlete to be a good wrestler and how talent can only take one so
far. The similar concept can be applied to writing. Irving has been
known to say that his life as a writer consists of one-eighth
talent and seven-eighths discipline. And Irving has a lot of
discipline. He writes virtually every single day.
"I write daily, sometimes even when I’m traveling," Irving says.
"I work all day most days … when I’m home, I work seven days a
week. Since Dec. 1, for example, I have taken the following days
off: Christmas, New Year’s Day and two days in January when I took
my 5-year-old skiing. Every other day I worked."
"The best advice for students who want to be writers is that
they should read, read, read  more than they write," Irving
reveals. "They should read now, when they’re young and
impressionable, because if they ever truly get to be writers, they
will want to write all the time. They won’t have time to read
anymore, and what they read will make next to no impression on
them."
BOOK: John Irving, author of "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed" will
be at the Powell Library Rotunda to read from his work in progress
"A Widow For One Year" at 3 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 23.
Cook Neilson
John Irving, author of "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed," wrestles
with his son.