MY MOVIE BUSINESS [Hardcover]

John. Irving (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First edition. edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0676972667
• ISBN-13: 978-0676972665
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,375,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story "Interior Space." In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules-a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Last Night in Twisted River is John Irving's twelfth novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book, But Will Appeal to a Select Audience, November 23, 1999

By 

Donald Beale - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Movie Business: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Not everyone will be interested to read this book. If you are a fan of John Irving, however, or interested in the process of adapting a film from a novel, you'll find this a quick, fun read, and informative to some extent. What I found most interesting was Mr. Irving's views on adaptation and the glimpses on how those views changed over the years. Most authors and readers presume that the only good adaptation is one literal to the book. Mr. Irving shows why that isn't the case, and he does so by relating his own experiences as author and screenwriter. Most of the book is about the upcoming Cider House Rules; I would have liked to have read more about the previous films adapted from other novels. Nevertheless, as a novelist's honest assessment of adaptation, it is an unusual and valuable document.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "a hair-raising revelation...", November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: My Movie Business: A Memoir (Hardcover)

It only took John Irving ("A Widow For One Year," "A Son of the Circus") thirty years to break into the movie business. His first attempt cam in 1968, when he was hired to draft a screenplay for his first novel, "Setting Free the Bears." Since that time, Irving has seen three of his novels turned into films, written one original (but, as of yet, unproduced screenplay) and spent thirteen years shepherding his screenplay of "The Cider House Rules" onto the Silver Screen. "My Movie Business" is a record of all that, and more. Because "The Cider House Rules" (screenplay and novel) relies on the subject of abortion as a central issue, Irving starts his memoir by telling us about his grandfather, Dr. Frederick C. Irving. Not only was Dr. Irving chief of staff at Boston Lying-In (one of the world's leading obstetrical hospitals in the early 1900's), he was a writer who cobbled up numerous limericks (many of which live on through medical students) and published three books. Irving's quotes from his grandfather's reveal a "Victorian prose" style that (along with the novels of Charles Dickens) belie an early influence. In writing about grandfather, Irving succinctly sums up his own creed as a novelist: "Grandfather was a man of extreme erudition and unaccountable, even inspired, bad taste; as such, he would have been a terrific novelist, for a good novel is at once sophisticated in its understanding of human behavior and utterly rebellious in its response to the conventions of good taste." Irving uses most of the first nine chapters to educate the reader on the history of abortions in America, detailing his grandfather's personal involvement as well. The author even goes so far as to take a stand on the Right-to-Life movement: "Let doctors practice medicine. Let religious zealots practice their religion, but let them keep their religion to themselves." From there, the author delves into the business of drafting screenplays for Hollywood. It is, Irving realizes, a business of compromise. During the course of developing the film and writing the screenplay, Irving works with no less than four directors (the last one, Lasse Halstrom, saw the film to completion). And in order to make more room for the relationship between Dr. Larch and Homer Wells, Irving has to excise at least one major character and lose all of Homer's history as an orphan. Forced to cut more portions of the film (to make it more stream-lined), he finds that all attempts at humor are excised. As Irving writes, "...these scenes were a comic interlude that would have...reminded my readers of the tone of my novels." In typical Irving fashion, there are digressions, albeit interesting ones. Such as the story about his relationship with Irving Kirshner, who was to direct "Setting Free the Bears"; or that Paul Newman was approached to play Dr. Larch, but was uncomfortable with scenes involving an incinerator; and Irving includes his feelings about the films of his novels "The World According to Garp" and "The Hotel New Hampshire." (The only noticeable exclusion is any mention of "Simon Birch," the Disney version of "A Prayer for Owen Meany," from which Irving disassociated himself). Insightful and informative, "My Movie Business" is a candid glimpse into the film-making process and a hair-raising revelation of how art must always battle commerce in the bottom-line land of Hollywood. (Nov. 1999, San Antonio Express-News).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and Fun, January 9, 2000

By 

Supadlicious (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Movie Business: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I am, admittedly, an avid John Irving fan, and to finally have a book not only by, but about him was thrilling. It is so nice to finally get a glimpse of the man behind the novels. What an interesting person! He is witty, intelligent, and engaging. The only thing I regret is that he included only two stanzas of his grandfather's infamous poem. I am very eager to read it in it's entirety. Hopefully, Mr. Irving will include it in a future book. This memoir, while short, was very informative, and even persuaded me to consider seeing the movie. In general I refuse to see movies that are based on novels, especially if they are novels I enjoyed. However, since Irving explains his motives for cutting out certain characters, as well as the other changes he made to the plot, I am prepared for an equally beautiful, if different, story. Overall, I enjoyed every aspect of this book, from the history of abortion in the United States to the digressions about other novels of his. A fine book, and a fascinating person! Highly recommended.