A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
Ever since the Christmas of 1953, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or who must admit to any imperfection; the so-called spirit of giving can be as greedy as receiving-Christmas is our time to be aware of what we lack, of who's not home.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Christmas can be a painful reminder of loss and imperfection for families.
In this quote, John Irving reflects on how the Christmas season, often seen as a time of joy and giving, can instead highlight feelings of loss and inadequacy for families who are grieving or facing challenges. The societal pressure to embrace the 'spirit of giving' may inadvertently emphasize what is absent in their lives, making the holiday a bittersweet experience rather than one of pure joy.
Themes
ChristmasLossFamilyGivingImperfection
In practice
Example use cases
During a holiday gathering, one might say this quote to acknowledge the complexities of emotions during Christmas.
More from John Irving
All quotes →No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
John IrvingRead
It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.
John IrvingRead
It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.
John IrvingRead
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
John IrvingRead
I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
John IrvingRead
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