After realizing that so much of the material—childhood sexual abuse and a long-lost father who eventually ends up in a mental institution—was too close to his own experiences, Irving postponed publication of the novel while he rewrote it entirely in third person.

The first half of the narration follows a young Canadian actor named Jack Burns[3] through his youth as he travels with his mother in search of his father through the subculture of tattoo artists.

Like the title character in The World According to Garp and Irving himself, Jack finds a talent for wrestling and an extended family that aids and hinders him through his trials as a young man coming of age, including his sexual awakening and abuse as an adolescent.

The second half of the narrative sees Jack on the road to discovering the truth behind the misconceptions that his younger self once thought he understood.

Additionally, Jack loses the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor to Michael Caine, who also won for The Cider House Rules that year.