NONFICTION - March 17, 1996

TRYING TO SAVE PIGGY SNEED by John Irving (Arcade: $21.95; 432 pp.) “Piggy Sneed” is one-third memoir, one-third previously published short fiction and one-third essays of appreciation, all accompanied by author’s notes. The memoir includes a lovely tale about how Irving became a writer (inspired by the combination of his grandmother’s graciousness and a retarded pig farmer in his hometown of Exeter, N.H.), some confessions (“I can’t read Proust or Henry James; reading Conrad almost kills me”) and a rather long nostalgic bit on wrestling (Irving’s other passion), which can be a little dire if you have no interest in wrestling.

Irving thankfully remembers some of his teachers, including Kurt Vonnegut and Nelson Algren, and mentions a few of his students, vigorously denying his influence on their futures as writers. The author is clearly and proudly a jock, allowing himself the triumphant tone in his descriptions of wrestling that he denies himself in describing his writing career. (Although a certain pride sneaks through here as well, for being able to teach and write and raise children and for making a very good living as a writer.) Nonetheless, he is endearingly self-conscious about his life as a writer and clearly uncomfortable describing it (least so in the “Piggy Sneed” story because it is in fact a story).