Another beautiful Saturday morning and

Another beautiful Saturday morning and I am the pilot (I choose where to
go) and flight attendant (retrieve myself homemade toffee bars and coffee laden
with cream) of my own virtual trip across the world. John Irving is one of my
favorite authors. I first saw "The World According to Garp" and then the read
book six years later. I preferred the book, but thought that the movie was an
acceptable adaptation of the novel. "The Hotel New Hampshire" was an extremely
disappointing movie and seemed to purposely leave out all the elements of the
novel that made it so interesting. Put a bit more clearly: the movie was
strange. I was first introduced to A Prayer for Owen Meany by a former friend. I
read it while pregnant with E and have often attributed her precocious
relationship with literature and language to it. I would stay up late into the
night waiting for R to call me from Saudi Arabia. Our conversations were better
if I was awake rather than groggy. So, I read to not fall asleep. He would ask
me about the details of my day and what I was doing. I recounted my steps
through the house, stores, and streets of Chesterfield and then would tell him
of Owen. R still remembers something that Owen once said and he likes to lean
over and whisper it to me when in public places, that he might evoke a private
smile or stifled laugh: "Your mother has the best breasts of all mothers." Only
John Irving would think of something like that. I have yet to read anything like
his anywhere else. He has been compared to several authors that he admires, but
I think him great in his own right. I love that he gives follow-ups of the
characters. I become attached to them and feel satisfied when I get to see past
"the end." I just finished his mini-autobiography, The Imaginary Girlfriend. It
was succinctly satisfying. He wrote with humor, introspection, and respect. I
loved reading about all the wrestling. I appreciated how the pictures were in
the back of the book. I didn't realize that photos had been included, so I read
the whole thing and then got to see all the people he discussed. He is a very
good-looking man. His smile is charismatic and big. His brows make him appear
serious or pensive, but as I do not know him, then it is my assumption from a
photo only. I enjoyed reading how he taught and learned and related to the
people he encountered in his life and all in only 101 pages.