John Irving, página 3 de 8

Billy Abbott, nato nel 1942, è cresciuto in una cittadina del Vermont senza aver conosciuto il padre, in una famiglia di uomini eccentrici e donne puritane. Si rende conto di essere attratto dalle "persone sbagliate" ragazzi efebici, donne mascoline, travestiti e transgender - e a occuparsi della sua educazione letteraria e sessuale è Miss Frost, la bibliotecaria. Negli anni successivi Billy attraverserà l'oceano, vedrà morire amici e amanti nell'ecatombe dell'Aids, diventerà scrittore, ritroverà suo padre. I grandi temi tipici dei libri di Irving - la ricerca di un padre mai conosciuto per svelare il mistero che lo avvolge, la profonda verità delle passioni che ci abitano, la necessità di non incasellare le persone in uno schema - danno vita a una toccante epopea sul terrore di essere diversi, e sulla felice impossibilità di essere altro da sé.

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, a twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, pursued by the constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades, "Last Night in Twisted River" - John Irving's twelfth novel - depicts the recent half-century in the United States as a world 'where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course'. From the novel's taut opening sentence to its elegiac final chapter, what distinguishes "Last Night in Twisted River" is the author's unmistakable voice, the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller.

Adolescent, Bill est troublé par ses béguins contre nature pour son beau-père, ses camarades de classe, et pour des femmes adultes aux petits seins juvéniles. Plus tard, il assume son statut de suspe

John Irving Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or scratcher. Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England including, tellingly, a girls school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hildas, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym. Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jacks hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, sleeping in the needles and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonists unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vividdetail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we cant get rid of. Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older and when his mother dies he starts to doubt the portrait of his fathers character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County - to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto - pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River - John Irving's twelfth novel - depicts the recent half-century in the United States as 'a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course'. From the novel's taut opening sentence - 'The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long' - to its elegiac final chapter, Last Night in Twisted River is written with the historical authenticity and emotional authority of The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is also as violent and disturbing a story as John Irving's breakthrough bestseller, The World According to Garp. What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author's unmistakable voice - the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller. Near the end of this moving novel, John Irving writes: 'We don't always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly - as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth - the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives'.

1954. A la cuina d'una casa de menjars d'una remota zona del nord de New Hampshire, en Danny, un inquiet noi de dotze anys, confon un moment de passió entre el seu pare i la parella del policia del poble amb un ós llegendari, i sense voler, mata la dona. A partir d'aquest moment, el noi i el seu pare es converteixen en fugitius i recorren els Estats Units mentre el policia els persegueix durant cinc dècades per venjar-se. Mentre el pare treballa de cuiner aquí i allà, el noi creix, va a la universitat, coneix l'amor i el desamor, té un fill i es converteix en un escriptor famós. Però, finalment, el vell policia localitza el cuiner i li dispara un tret. La mort del pare provoca un gran sentiment de culpabilitat a en Danny. Només la tornada als paratges de la infància li permeten retrobar-se amb ell mateix i iniciar la frase amb què comença a escriure de nou: «L'última nit a Twisted River...». Amb un to amarat d'emotivitat, marca de la casa, que li permet moments d'humor, aventures, màgia i realitat, Irving sap com fer que els lectors s'enamorin dels personatges, tan peculiars i commovedors, i gaudeixin amb la història d'un pare i un fill fugitius de la vida.

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, a twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, pursued by the constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. A breathtaking story of a father and a son in 20th-century North America from the award-winning author of A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Sintió que la gran aventura de su vida no había hecho más que empezar, lo mismo que debió de sentir su padre en las difíciles circunstancias de su última noche en Twisted River.Corre el año 1954. La vida en el aserradero de una explotacion forestal al norte de New Hampshire no resulta facil y las desgracias estan a la orden del dia. Una noche, Dominic Baciagalupo, el cocinero del aserradero, y su hijo Danny, de doce años, se ven obligados a abandonar apresuradamente el lugar cuando Danny, en un fatal accidente, mata a la novia de un alguacil llamado Carl. Dominic y Danny inician entonces una extenuante huida, pues Carl, en su afan de venganza, los perseguira primero hasta Boston, luego hasta Vermont e Iowa, y finalmente hasta Canada. En cada ciudad a la que lleguen, padre e hijo se veran obligados a adaptarse a las costumbres y personas del lugar, a inventarse una nueva identidad. Sin darnos tregua, peripecia tras peripecia, John Irving nos sumerge de lleno en la vida estadounidense durante las ultimas cinco decadas del siglo xx.

Patrick Wallingford fait un rêve : il est couché sur le ponton d'un lac vert émeraude et une femme à la voix sensuelle, qu'il entend sans la voir, lui propose de retirer leurs maillots mouillés. C'est qu'il est sous le coup d'un puissant analgésique, administré après qu'un lion lui a avalé la main gauche lors d'un reportage sur un cirque, en Inde. Avec sa verve drolatique, John Irving nous raconte la rencontre entre ce candidat à la greffe, un brillant chirurgien sauvé de l'anorexie par sa jeune bonne marathonienne, une yupette aux dents longues, une maquilleuse mâcheuse de gomme, et enfin une sirène vêtue d'un sweat-shirt vert, dans un récit sur la perte et la récupération, qui mène un adolescent attardé à l'âge d'homme - de père - par l'attraction d'un être et d'un lieu magnétiques. Et si l'auteur cherchait à nous prouver que la force du désir est la plus magique des prothèses ?.

The Fourth Hand asks an interesting question: "How can anyone identify a dream of the future?" The answer: "Destiny is not imaginable, except in dreams or to those in love.

Until I Find You is John Irving's eleventh novel: set in Canada and New England, as well as Hollywood and the North Sea ports of Europe, it is epic in scope, and Irving's most ambitious and moving work to date.Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns. His mother, Alice, is a Toronto tattoo artist. His father, William, is an Edinburgh organist who is addicted to being tattooed. When Jack is four, he travels with Alice to several North Sea ports - Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, and Amsterdam, in search of his father, who is missing. But Alice is a mystery, and William can't be found. Even Jack's memories are subject to doubt.Jack Burns goes to schools in Canada and New England, but what shapes him are his relationships with older women. Mr Irving renders Jack's life as an actor in Hollywood with the same richness of detail and range of emotions he uses to describe the tattoo parlours in those North Sea ports and the reverberating music Jack heard as a child in European churches.

John Irving's first picture book for children is a story excerpted from his adult novel A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR about a little boy frightened by strange noises in the night. Little Tom tells his father that he's heard a terrifying creature that "pulls itself along on its teeth." Tom and his teddy bear timidly look around the house for whatever unspeakable horror was making "the sound of an armless, legless monster dragging its thick, wet fur." Eventually, his father points out that it's "just a mouse crawling between the walls," reassuring his son that there was no reason to be afraid. Muted pencil-and-watercolor-wash illustrations capture the shadowy world of the scared child.

Una dona difícil és un tríptic sobre la vida de Ruth Cole. La novel·la s´obre l´estiu de 1958, quan la Ruth tan sols té quatre anys i viu a l´ombra de la separació imminent dels seus pares i els fantasmes dels germans morts. La retrobem al cap de trenta anys, convertida en una novel·lista de renom però insatisfeta. El tríptic es tanca el 1995, quan la Ruth, vídua i mare, està a punt d´enamorar-se per primera vegada. A Una dona difícil John Irving ha tornat a sorprendre els lectors amb una història còmica i pertorbadora alhora, sobre els dimonis familiars i la necessitat de trobar la redempció personal.

This is the story of the actor Jack Burns, the bastard son of Alice, a tattoo-artist. Alice and Jack travel through the Baltic's port cities in search of William Burns, Jack's absconding father and 'ink addict'. But William, a church organist and profligate womaniser, is always one step ahead - always departing in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local 'scratcher'. William can't be found and Jack must grow up without a father. His childhood and education shaped by sexual experiences with older women. Later, as a young man with a beautiful face, Jack moves to Hollywood where international fame and stardom await. But with the shadow of his absent father always looming, Jack sets off again in search of the truth. An absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, and the traces we can't get rid of, Until I Find You is John Irving's giant tapestry of life's hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with Irving's great novels, and restates his position as the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.