Among them is "Interior Space," for which he won the O. Over a career that spans thirteen novels, these are the six stories that Mr. combines the lessons of both obsessions." The middle portion of the book is fiction. The longest of the memoirs is "The Imaginary Girlfriend," his candid account of his twin careers in writing and wrestling, which, as the Denver Post observed, is filled "with anecdotes that are every bit as hilarious as the antics in his novels. First published twenty years ago, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by the author, beginning with three memoirs. Here is a treat for devoted fans of John Irving. Are we next? Yes.Ī commemorative hardcover edition of the only collection ever published of the celebrated novelist's shorter works. Canada has its own, hidden debt crisis just as dire as the subprime mortgage fiasco, and the same self-dealing industry tactics have led us to put more than 80 per cent of our net worth into a single asset, ignoring the obvious threats and repeating the disastrous mistakes of others. When the average family can no longer afford the average home, how can so many people be deluded into believing a boom will last forever'when none has before? How could we have put so much money into something we might never be able to sell, except to a greater fool? Truth is, homeowners and homebuyers have been seduced by a cabal made up of real estate marketers, builders, lenders and bankers, along with a pliant media, to buy, buy, buy. Canadians are told it can't happen here, while first-time buyers outside Toronto sign up for monster houses with virtually no down payment and 40-year mortgages for 98 per cent of the cost. Millions of families are forced out of their homes. At the same time, real estate values in the US plunge for the first time since the Great Depression. In Saskatoon, house values rock higher 56 per cent in one year. In Vancouver the average bungalow soars past $900,000.
To further assist the reader, three introductory essays approach Ryokan from the diverse perspectives of his personal history and literary work.Ī young couple in Toronto starts house-hunting with a $450,000 budget and ends up with a $700,000 home, after losing fifteen bidding wars. Consisting of anecdotes and episodes, sketches from Ryokan's everyday life, the Curious Accounts is invaluable for showing how Ryokan was understood and remembered by his contemporaries. The volume also presents for the first time in English the Ryokan zenji kiwa (Curious Accounts of the Zen Master Ryokan), a firsthand source composed by a former student less than sixteen years after Ryokan's death. It includes not only an extensive collection of the master's kanshi, topically arranged to facilitate an appreciation of Ryokan's colorful world, but selections of his waka, essays, and letters.
Great Fool is the first study in a Western language to offer a comprehensive picture of the legendary poet-monk and his oeuvre. Instead of delivering sermons, he expressed himself through kanshi (poems composed in classical Chinese) and waka (poems in Japanese syllabary) and could typically be found playing with the village children in the course of his daily rounds of begging. In contrast to Zen masters of his time who presided over large monasteries, trained students, or produced recondite treatises, Ryokan followed a life of mendicancy in the countryside. Despite his religious and artistic sophistication (he excelled in scriptural studies, in calligraphy, and in poetry), Ryokan referred to himself as "Great Fool", refusing to place himself within any established religious institution. Taigu Ryokan (1758-1831) remains one of the most popular figures in Japanese Buddhist history.