Costco Connection - July 2005

book
pick

By D orman T. Shindler

Finding himself

With Until I Find You, John Irving

comes to terms with his past

Pe_pnn_ıie_c’s_k

FRANCE FREEMAN

OVER THE 37-YEAR span of his career convinced,” says Irving, “that William as a novelist, bestselling author and Burns and Alice Stronach were the Oscar-winning screenwriter, John Irving main characters in the book, and that has often written about characters who their son, the narrator, was trying to lose one or both parents, either to the reconstruct their lives. I didn’t realize forces of chaos or to the vagaries of mod- that Jack Burns was the main character ern-day relationships. “Let’s just say that of the story.” the theme of absent parents is not a new And now that Irving has realized one,”Irving tells The Connection during a that his curiosity about his biological recent interview from his home in New father was more important than he England. His first bestseller, The World previously wanted to admit, it’s easier According to Garp,features a father who for him to admit that the fictional dies before his son is born. Ruth Cole, _John _Irvingsearch for his father was significant. the heroine of A Widow for One Year, is “I’ve been inventing that character for raised by her father when her mom leaves while she is most of my books,” says Irving. And where Jack still quite young; John Berry and his siblings suffer the Burns and the other characters of Until I Find You death of their mother in The Hotel New Hampshire. are concerned, art comes rather close to imitating Homer Wells, the lovesick hero of The Cider House life. “Not autobiographically, in terms of what hap- Rules, is an orphan in search of parents; the narrator pens in this story,” Irving says, “but, psychologically, of A Prayer for Owen Meany is the son of a single this was much closer to home.” C mother who refuses to reveal his father’s identity.

COOK NEILSON

But it wasn’t until Irving created the character Dorman T. Shindler, a freelancer from Missouri, of Jack Burns, in search of his father, for his latest contributes regularly to several nationally published novel, Until I Find You, that the recurring theme he magazines and newspapers. had been circling hit close to home. In fact, the novel resonated so deeply that he took it upon himself to rewrite all 828 pages last year, changing the narration of the book from first person to third person.

It helped, says Irving, to change the book’s narrative voice and “get myself away from Jack Burns, because I feel a lot of emotional and psychological closeness to that character. It was easier for me to write about him in the third person than to be him.

Signed book

I had trouble being him.”

Irving has never known his biological father, who divorced his mother before Irving’s birth in 1942. His mother remarried, and while the author has always stated that he lived a happy, normal life, never obsessing over the identity of his biological father, many of his novels seem to indicate otherwise. The mysterious past of his biological father— indeed, his own past—Irving has said, has never been more than grist for the creative mill, the stuff of which bigger and better stories are made.

While all of that is certainly true, Irving has finally come to terms with this recurring fictional theme and his need to invent his biological father through his fiction. Indeed, it happened while he was in the midst of writing Until I Find You. “I was

giveaway

COSTCO HAS 10 autographed copies of John Irving’s Until I

Find You to give away. To enter, print your name, membership number, address and daytime phone number on a postcard or letter and send it to: John Irving, The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088; or fax it to (425) 313-6718.

No purchase is necessary. Entries must be received or postmarked by midnight, August 1, 2005. Void where prohibited. Employees of Costco and their families are not eligible. Winners will be notified by mail. One entry per household.

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Pennie Clark Ianniciello Costco Book Buyer

LONGTIME Connection readers know that I love first-time authors. That being said, I also relish the works of my favorite authors, whose words are as cozy and comfortable as a sweater on a cool evening. John Irving’s Until I Find You, this month’s Book Pick, is just that kind of book.

A humorous and
heartwarming tale, Until
I Find You is the story
of famous actor Jack
Burns; his relationship
with his mother, Alice,
a tattoo artist; and
their search for
Jack’s father,
William, a church
organist and tattoo
addict. The novel
tackles emotional
issues such as a son
coming to terms with
a father he never
knew, the inherent
mystery in all relation-
ships—even those with
our parents—and how the
loss of innocence affects
both our passage into
adulthood and the memo-
ries of our childhood.