The Imaginary Girlfriend

The Imaginary Girlfriend

<DIV><B>“Detail[s] Irving’s parallel careers of writing and wrestling . . . with anecdotes that are every bit as hilarious as the antics in his novels” (<I>The Denver Post</I>).</B><BR />  <BR /> Dedicated to the memory of two wrestling coaches and two writer friends, <I>The Imaginary Girlfriend </I>is John Irving’s candid memoir of his twin careers in writing and wrestling. The award-winning author of bestselling novels from <I>The World According to Garp </I>to <I>Avenue of Mysteries</I>, Irving began writing when he was fourteen, the same age at which he began to wrestle at Exeter. From those early days until his fourth wrestling-related surgery at the age of fifty-three, he explores the interrelationship between the two disciplines.<BR />  <BR /> Writing as a father and mentor, Irving offers a lucid portrait of those writers and wrestlers—from Kurt Vonnegut to Ted Seabrooke—who guided him in his own development as a novelist, wrestler, and wrestling coach. As <I>The Denver Post</I> observed, this memoir is “a rich, wonderful, and diverse look into the creative mind of one of America’s most imaginative and passionate novelists.”<BR />  <BR /> “The nearest thing to an autobiography Irving has written . . . Worth saving and savoring.” —<I>The Seattle Times</I><BR />  <BR /> “Irving’s wrestling coaches, his writing mentors, and his family are vivid, inviting readers into a colorful world.” —<I>USA Today</I><BR />  <BR /> “A masterpiece . . . The generosity of spirit that marks his fiction leaks into his memoir in tender and surprising ways.” —<I>Edmonton Journal</I></DIV>