The World According To The Midlands

TigerBlog's two favorite authors are, obviously, John McPhee and himself (by the way, you can click HERE and HERE).

What? You were expecting someone else?

Beyond those two clear choices, he'd say that his next two would be Tom Clancy and John Irving.

In fact, it was from reading Irving's books that inspired TB to try his hand at fiction, which you can check for yourself at one of the above links. Perhaps interestingly, it was John Mack, now the Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton, who got TB to read his first Irving book, "A Prayer For Owen Meany."

Mack, who was then just starting out his postgraduate career in Gary Walters' office, told TB it was his favorite book. TB then read it in about three days, and he would say that it's pretty much as good as writing gets.

TigerBlog just finished reading "The World According To Garp," Irving's fourth novel. TB saw the movie way back when, but this was the first time he'd read the book, which is quite autobiographical, including the part of the relationship between Garp and his mother about Garp's father. That is something TB didn't realize until after he'd finished.

It's the kind of book that as you read it and get closer to the end, you're torn between wanting to find out what happens and not wanting it to end. Also, as a writer, TB read it with an eye on what he thinks really separates how Irving writes, in much the same way as he does with Mr. McPhee. 

Did you know, by the way, that John Irving is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame? He was a wrestler at Philips Exeter, and wrestling is a huge part of so many of his books, including "Garp." 

In "Garp," much of the story takes place in a wrestling room. If you've spent time in a wrestling room (or in an office next to one), you can pretty much picture what it looks like and what the mats smell like as you read the book.

Here is a quote from Irving about the sport and why it has appealed to him:

When you love something, you have the capacity to bore everyone about why—it doesn’t matter why. Wrestling, like boxing, is a weight-class sport; you get to bump into people your own size. You can bump into them very hard, but the place where you land is reasonably soft. And there are civilized aspects to the sport’s combativeness: I’ve always admired the rule that holds you responsible, if you lift your opponent off the mat, for your opponent’s “safe return.” But the best answer to why I love wrestling is that it was the first thing I was any good at.

Speaking of the sport of wrestling, Princeton will be sending 17 wrestlers to the prestigious Midlands Tournament, which will be held Thursday through Saturday in the NOW Arena, about 25 miles outside of Chicago. You can read all about it HERE.

If you don't want to click, here are some basics: 1) this is the first Midlands since 2019, 2) there will be 35 teams represented and 3) Princeton will be one of nine EIWA schools at the event. This will be the 58th edition of the prestigious event.

Even after the two years it's been cancelled, Princeton senior Patrick Glory is still  the defending champion at 125. Also, pretty amazingly, Princeton still has seven wrestlers who will be at this year's event who wrestled at the Midlands in 2019. 

There are also four Princeton wrestlers who were NCAA qualifiers a year ago: Glory, fellow NCAA runner-up Quincy Monday, Travis Stefanik and Marshall Keller.

The Tigers will have more traveling to do in the New Year. After already wrestling at Indiana as one of four Big Ten teams Princeton has gone against so far this season, the team will be at the Franklin & Marshall Open on Jan. 6 and then take a trip to Texas to face Oregon State and continue on to Arizona State. 

The Ivy opener is Jan. 20 at Columbia. Within 22 days, the entire Ivy season will be finished.