My Movie Business - a Memoir

John Irving's memoir describes the author's involvement (and lack thereof) in five of the films that have (and have not) been made from his nine novels. 'My Movie Business' focuses primarily on the thirteen years Mr. Irving spent writing and rewriting his screenplay of The Cider House Rules, for four different directors. A Miramax production, the film was finally shot in the fall of 1998 directed by the Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog), with Michael Caine in the role of Dr. Larch. The Cider House Rules is a November 1999 release. 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 Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire; and about his ongoing struggle to shepherd his screenplay of A Son of the Circus into production. 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. Never have the two forms of storytelling been so lucidly compared and contrasted; the details are memorable, the examples clarifying.