Customer Reviews

My Movie Business: A Memoir

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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).

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.

A rare glimpse inside the mind of one of America's greatest novelists and screenwriters. It is both fun and rewarding to learn what goes on behind the scenes in the movie industry and what goes into a novel as complex as The Cider House Rules.

Mr. Irving is in a position to be entirely subjective - he's earned this forum and he uses it to his advantage. This is a book of opinion and nowhere does the author hold back.

If you care at all about what goes into the maknig of a top quality movie and what goes on inside the mind of one of our best, pick up My Movie Business.

This is a book for those that say, " the book was better than the movie." Irving relates many of the alternitive choices and reasons in cutting a big book into something "marketable." Who is in or out, which of your offspring are you willing to sacrifice for the common good, something a writer- screenwriter is loath to do. This is an education for those not conversant with movie making with allits permutations. Read the Novel, read this book, and see the movie. Ask yourself how you would have done it.Thank You, John Irving

John Irving's newest book, is a 'postcard' from the great novelist to his fans. Definitely not heavy reading, but enjoyable reading. Especially for those who love The Cider House Rules, the details he gives on how he came to write the book and the screenplay are great. Sweet and short!

After thoroughly enjoying both the film and novel version of "The Cider House Rules," "My Movie Business" seemed the perfect read to bring the two together. I was surprised at how slowly the book started. Although it was interesting to see how Irving's grandfather influenced his book, the first few chapters left me disappointed, and I almost put the book aside for good. Once Irving starts to chronicle the transformation of his novel into a script, however, the book picks up significantly, and can be finished in a day or two (it's only 170 pages long, with gratuitous spacing).

Irving also details the processes of changing his other novels into films, yet because I hadn't read or seen any of them, these sections didn't hold as much value to me as the ones of "The Cider House Rules." If you've seen or read John Irving's novels and films, especially "Cider House," this book gives you a behind the scenes view of the difficulties of making a movie out of an epic book. If you're not a John Irving fan though, you might want to stay away, or at least make a screening and reading of "Cider House" a prerequisite for purchasing "My Movie Business."

I am a huge fan of John Irving. I wait breathlessly for each of his new books, and he is one of only a few writers that I will actually spend the money to buy hardcover editions. I purchased "My Movie Business" yesterday and read it in one sitting, and I am left with one overall impression, "Why?". The book is put together in no particular order, each chapter containing little episodes of either Mr. Irving's personal history or antedotes from the filming of "The Cider House Rules". Since another memoir was just recently published (Piggy Snead) it seems as if this was just a waste of time, or, god forbid, a movie marketing ploy. Mr. Irving comes across as conceded in his non-fiction, alot of name dropping about his dinners with Salman Rushdie, or how he and Robin Williams have remained good friends. When I completed the very thin memoir (fairly expensive for such a short book), I can only hope that the writing of this book did not in anyway delay the next fiction title from my most beloved author, who makes fans wait extrodinary amounts of time between publications

If at first you don't succeed...

It took Irving a great amount of time and work to have one of his greatest novels turned into one of the most critically-acclaimed movies of the year. THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, perhaps the best known of Irving's novels, was finally made into a movie starring Michael Caine. MY MOVIE BUSINESS follows the variious difficulties he encounters, while also letting the reader in on his personal history with and opinions on the touchy subject of abortion. In true Irving style, he speaks seriously of the subject but relieves the viewer of its politics by telling some very funny anecdotes.

I highly suggest this book for any Irving fan. If you haven't really read anything of his before, I don't suggest this as a first book--read THE CIDER HOUSE RULES first.

How many times have I wished I could call an author and ask: "Why did you write that?" How many times have i read a book and loved it, only to hate the movie based on it? I lose count.

Well, John Irving answered my prayers, and in one short book replied to all of my questions and to a few more I didn't even know I had.

I am a huge fan of Irving. He writes like nobody can; he also takes himself very unseriously. I have enjoyed all of his books immensely. This one was a joy from beginning to end. For starters, it gives a fascinating insight into The Cider House Rules. He explains his characters, goes through the thought process that made him write the book this or that way.

This memoir explains very well why it is almost always impossible to transform a book into a movie script verbatim. Irving goes through the painful steps that he took to make The Cider House Rules into a successful movie. It was wonderful to read about the back and forth that Irving had with the director of the film, Lasse Hallstrom. It makes me think that making a movie based on a book is more than anything a labor of negotiation. For me, one of the most poignant moments of this memoir is when Irving tells why he chose the role of the stationmaster. "I just wanted to be there, in the stationmaster's wretched persona, to see Homer get off that train." As an author, this was probably a brilliant moment in his life, seeing his characters in the flesh.

Irving not only reminisces about the trials and tribulations he had to endure to see this book into a movie. He also writes about writing some of his other novels, and bringing them to film, and as always, about his sons. He also offers an unusual insider's account of what it is to be immersed in the movie world. So much of what we know is based on glossy magazines and celebrity TV programs, when the reality is far more crude and plain. Well, no one better than this man to do a bit of reporting, straight from the trenches.

This is a book you must read only after reading AND watching The Cider House Rules. Only then could you do it justice.