Author John Irving visits Yale

Irving

The prolific writer, whose works include Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and The World According to Garp, spoke to a capacity crowd as this year's Rubin-Cooke Lecturer. The Rubin-Cooke Lecture, an annual talk by a respected member of the literary community, was originally arranged in memory of Michael Cooke, a former Master of Trumbull College and professor of English at Yale who died in an automobile accident a few years ago.

Irving presented details on a novel-in-progress, whose working title is A Widow for One Year. He went on to give two readings related to the work.

The first, "The Red and Blue Air Mattress," was a short story a glimpse into the life of subject of his current work, a widowed novelist. The second, titled "The Inadequate Lamp Shade" offered not only a further look into the life of his heroine, but also an actual glimpse of the novel, from which the excerpt was taken.

Based upon the enthusiastic response of the audience, his forthcoming novel promises to be a success. Irving is also currently working on screenplays for two of his previous novels, Cider House Rules and Son of the Circus.

--Shahen Alexanian