Well, don’t panic. If I’m honest, I don’t even know John, never met him. Nope.

But I’ve read many of his books and have sometimes already asked myself why exactly this is the case. I’m talking about John Irving, the brain that invented Garp and lions who bite off hands of journalists and women with big size bras. Very big size bras*.

Recently, while reading his “In one person”, it struck me why I love his writing.

Let me quote from the scene where he introduces the son of the protagonist’s landlady’s divorced daughter:

“The five-year-old, Siegfried, had a sly, demonic way of staring at me; he ate a soft-boiled egg for breakfast every morning – including the eggshell.”

This sentence alone let me have a clear picture of little Siegfried in my head. Including the eggshell, how very strange is this? Irving creates pictures of very strange people in just one sentence.

Phrases like this let me overlook some weaknesses in the plot which troubled me towards the end of the story. I’d say, he seemed to rush through decades as if to get done with the book, as if he had some messages he was keen to convey, and he needed time to pass to do so. In total, the book is a pledge for tolerance towards diverse sexual orientation, told from the perspective of a young boy who keeps having “crushes on the wrong people”.

I don’t want to spoil the story, so this is a confidential question to John: Hey, c’mon, you don’t really believe what happened to Kittredge, do you?

* P.S.: This time, Irvings women have small breasts, very small breasts indeed.

image