Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Irving, John (Vol. 112) - Sven Birkerts (review date 4 February 1996)

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Sven Birkerts (review date 4 February 1996)

SOURCE: "A Son of the 19th Century," in The New York Times Book Review, February 4, 1996, p. 9.

[In the following review, Birkerts offers tempered criticism of Trying to Save Piggy Sneed.]

Reading Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, John Irving's ninth book but only his first compendium of assorted prose, duplicated for this reviewer the sensation of moving in a large airplane over a long stretch of tarmac before suddenly, thankfully, achieving liftoff. Mr. Irving's miscellany—divided into "Memoirs," "Fiction" (six short stories) and "Homage"—shows how one of our most widely read novelists fares in what he might consider a triathlon of lesser events. What we find, in this order, are disappointments, confirmations and surprises.

The author, an avowed Dickens lover, has from the first demonstrated a good bit of the master's ability with passionate impersonation: his fictional characters...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Jack Beatty (review date 23 September 1981)
   2. Caryn Fuoroli (review date January 1982)
   3. Evan Carton (essay date Fall 1986)
   4. Janice Doane and Devon Hodges (essay date 1986)
   5. Wendy Steiner (review date 19 May 1989)
   6. Robert Towers (review date 20 July 1989)
   7. Edward C. Reilly (essay date 1991)
   8. Kim McKay (essay date Winter 1992)
   9. Raymond J. Wilson III (essay date Fall 1992)
   10. Irving Weinman (review date 9 April 1993)
   11. Robert Towers (review date 4 September 1994)
   12. Sven Birkerts (review date 4 February 1996)
   13. Andrew Rosenheim (review date 4 February 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. John Irving