Ebook: My movie business: a memoir

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from John Irving'sIn One Person.

John Irving's memoir begins with his account of the distinguished career and medical writings of the novelist's grandfather Dr. Frederick C. Irving, a renowned obstetrician and gynecologist, and includes Mr. Irving's incisive history of abortion politics in the United States. ButMy Movie Businessfocuses primarily on the thirteen years John Irving spent adapting his novelThe Cider House Rulesfor the screen--for four different directors.

Mr. Irving also writes about the failed effort to make his first novel,Setting Free the Bears, into a movie; about two of the films that were made from his novels (but not from his screenplays),The World According to GarpandThe Hotel New Hampshire; about his slow progress at shepherding his screenplay ofA Son of the Circusinto production.

Not least, and in addition to its qualities as a memoir--anecdotal, comic, affectionate, and candid--My Movie Business is an insightful essay on the essential differences between writing a novel and writing a screenplay.

The photographs inMy Movie Businesswere taken by Stephen Vaughan, the still photographer on the set of The Cider House Rules--a Miramax production directed by Lasse Hallström, with Michael Caine in the role of Dr. Larch. Concurrently with the November 1999 release of the film, Talk Miramax Books will publish John Irving's screenplay.