Trying to Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving, 0552995738, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

First - and only - collection of Irving's short stories

This is a fine collection of short stories, the only problem being that most people don't like short stories.

This is a particular problem for Irving since readers associate him with huge, emotional roller-coaster novels such as A Prayer for Owen Meany or The World According to Garp.

Also the selection here is a little odd: a mixture of the kind of fiction you might find in The New Yorker plus some non-fiction: autobiographical essays of childhood plus an introduction to a Dickens novel. Since I always thought Irving was more of a Hardy fan, I found this a little bemusing.

Overall, fans of Irving's longer work will tend to a little disappointed with this outing, though this is perhaps no fault of the author.

Not a good starter

An odd collection of early stories by my favourite author, but by the time I had finished it I was asking myself why. Apart from the title story and the rather bizarre Interior Space, there is little in these stories to inspire anyone to read the more famous (and frankly better) John Irving novels. Add to this a strange essay on Charles Dickens and you have a reasonable read but nowhere as good as The Hotel New Hampshire, Son of the Circus or A Prayer for Owen Meany. Weighty volumes to be sure but far more rewarding.

Prefer the long novels!

I enjoyed Piggy Sneed, but still prefer the gargantuan tales of Irving, like The Cider House Rules, Garp, etc.

I would recommend this to Irving fans though.

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