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The World According to Garp

by John Irving (Goodreads Author)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 100,811 ratings · 3,021 reviews

20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
with a new Afterword from the author

The New York Times bestseller

This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny
Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her times.This is the life and death
of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual
extremes--even of sexual assassinations.It is a novel rich with "lunacy
a...more

Paperback, 609 pages

Published November 3rd 1990 by Ballantine Books (first published 1976)

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Feb 12, 2012 Megha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

"Mind you, it's awfully well written", Wolf had said, "but it's still, somehow, soap opera; it's too much, somehow." Garp had sighed. "Life,"Garp had said, "is too much, somehow. Life is an X-rated soap opera, John," Garp had said.

The world according to Garp is very much like a soap opera, full of situations and incidents that we don't usually see in real life. The world around Garp is full of craziness and absurdity. Many a times Irving stops just short of being unrealistic. While many of his s...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Janene rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, books-everyone-else-loved-but-me

I had heard so much positive about this book...that it was on my 'Books to Read Before I Die'...list.

Well, I will die with having read 1/2 of it. I kept reading, I guess...because of how great it was supposed to be. I mean...John Irving! I got to the half way point and thought..."Where is this going?!" I then realized I really didn't care. And put it down. Page after page, I finally came to the realization there wasn't enough of a story/plot to get me to turn another page.

'So many books...too...more

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May 12, 2009 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: middle aged people.

I think I may be too young for this book. I've done that a few times--read a book, then later realized that I just wasn't old enough for it. Take Kerouac's On the Road , for instance. I read it in 7th grade and thought it was dumb. Of course. Everything is still black and white then--drugs are bad, you shouldn't like bad people, and I'm going to be ___________ when I grow up. However, re-reading it near the end of college, with no idea what in the hell I'm going to do and a bit more of an unders...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, fiction-and-literature, irving-james-melville, read-before-goodreads

August 2008

Quite possibly my favorite book. Irving is a master here; it's a brilliant story, and it feels more like a life than a novel--the life of T.S. Garp, not just a novel about him. Garp's world seem so true, even if, like The Hotel New Hampshire (another favorite), the story departs from a historical setting (WWII and later postwar America and Europe) and goes on to forge a unique, magical--and entirely believable--history of its own. Not many novels--and not many writers--can really do t...more

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Jun 05, 2007 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is one of my favorites. Because I like it so much, I'm not going to say much, except that it's always worth reading, even if you have read it before.
There's a scene in this book it's a revealed that a high-up publisher gives all his manuscripts to his cleaning lady, and she's the one that tells him whether they're worth publishing or not. When he asks her why she read a particularly disturbing novel, she answers "To find out what happens next." Later, she adds, "A book's true when you...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-fic

Someone once told me that Irving has a tendency to "ramble on" in his books. That person lied. I have read two of his books now and there is no tendency to it; the man is a certifiable rambler. This is not to say that his ramblings aren't enjoyable-most of them are. They are side dishes of escapade, if you like. But, as much as I enjoyed the sides, I felt as if this book had a sort of matryoshka doll effect (But wait! There's more! Ta da! But wait! There's more! Ta da!...), literarily speaking....more

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Sep 03, 2011 Noce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa-americana

Il lettore prima di tutto

Non so se capita anche a voi, ma ogni tanto mi succede di leggere involontariamente una sequenza di libri, legati da qualcosa, una tematica, una situazione, un oggetto, che ricorre senza che io lo possa anticipatamente sapere, in tutte le storie. Ad esempio, negli ultimi tempi, ho letto diversi libri, e a distanza ravvicinata, dove un ruolo decisamente significativo viene ricoperto da un cane. Ne “La porta” della Szabò, c’è il cane Viola. Nel libro di Fante, “A Ovest di...more Il lettore prima di tutto

Non so se capita anche a voi, ma ogni tanto mi succede di leggere involontariamente una sequenza di libri, legati da qualcosa, una tematica, una situazione, un oggetto, che ricorre senza che io lo possa anticipatamente sapere, in tutte le storie. Ad esempio, negli ultimi tempi, ho letto diversi libri, e a distanza ravvicinata, dove un ruolo decisamente significativo viene ricoperto da un cane. Ne “La porta” della Szabò, c’è il cane Viola. Nel libro di Fante, “A Ovest di Roma” c’è il cane Stupido. Nel capolavoro di Kundera c’è il cane Karenin, e via dicendo.

Questo per dire, che “Nel mondo secondo Garp”… il cane non c’è. Ahahaha, c’eravate cascati eh?
Va bene, ok, sto seria. Ricominciamo: questo per dire, che a proposito di tematiche ricorrenti, la lettura esattamente precedente a questa, è stata “Sardinia blues” di Soriga. Se c’è una cosa che non ho detto riguardo al libro nella relativa recensione, è che a circa metà romanzo, c’è una piccola perla che riguarda la sensibilità e le aspettative del lettore nel momento in cui si immerge in una storia qualunque. Ve la riporto per comodità:

"I romanzi, [...] non ne ho letti molti, ma quelli che ho letto, a me sembra che non sia sopportabile, la loro forma, questo fatto che pretendono di raccontarti la storia di una persona, di un gruppo di persone, però in realtà non lo fanno, c'è una trama, un inizio e una fine, e in mezzo compaiono dei personaggi, alcuni buoni e alcuni cattivi, e tu ti affezioni e vorresti sapere di loro, com'erano da piccoli e come erano i loro genitori, e cosa pensano dell'amore e della vita, cosa gli succederà quando decideranno di sposarsi, tutte le cose che è normale volere sapere delle persone che ti interessano, e invece gli scrittori ti danno solo poche notizie, quelle che servono per portare avanti la storia, insomma, io mi affeziono, poi non è che mi interessa solo sapere se il tradito si vendicherà o a chi verrà assegnata l'eredità o chi è l'assassino o se il poliziotto verrà ucciso in una sparatoria, io vorrei sapere tutto di quei personaggi, altro e altro ancora, e invece poi arrivi a un punto e c'è la parola fine, e questa mi sembra una cosa così arrogante, e così triste, perdere quelle persone per sempre, insomma hai passato un paio d'ore o di giorni con loro e poi non le riincontrerai più, non è che puoi sperare che ti chiamino al telefono qualche anno dopo e ti raccontino come stanno, niente, persi per sempre, allora forse gli scrittori dovrebbero pensarci bene prima di cominciare scrivere, così, voglio dire, avere moltissime notizie messe da parte sui personaggi, raccontare davvero tutto, anche dopo che finisce la trama, altrimenti a me sembra che i lettori, almeno io sono così, poi ci restano male."

Ecco, quando io ho letto questa cosa, ho pensato che è verissimo ciò che dice Soriga, è vero che un libro dovrebbe essere come quei film che sono tratti da una storia vera, che dopo la parola Fine continui a guardare lo schermo perché passano le scritte che ti mettono a parte di ciò che succederà ai protagonisti nel futuro. Che so: “Paolina verrà trovata morta dieci anni dopo, ammazzata dal proiettile vagante di un cacciatore che abusivamente sparava agli orsetti lavatori; Carletto, conseguirà una laurea in Dietrologia dei rimpianti, e vive felicemente con la sua famiglia, dietro la discarica comunale del paese.” Et similaria.

Così, quando ho finito il libro di Soriga, non sapevo che subito dopo avrei letto un romanzo che del dettaglio ne fa uno stile. Irving, che già amavo prima di leggere le vicende di Garp, non solo è un fine cesellatore di momenti (istantanee descritte talmente bene, che ti rimangono impresse nella mente in modo indelebile), ma è uno che il lettore lo conosce bene. Almeno quanto lo scrittore sardo, con la differenza che Soriga, come molti altri, si limita a comprendere le esigenze del lettore ma non gli va mica tanto incontro!
Oppure forse, Irving è perfettamente consapevole che dei suoi personaggi ci si innamora, e così probabilmente, la prende come una responsabilità non lasciare niente al caso, e dirti, spiegarti, e raccontarti tutto, ma proprio tutto ciò che succederà ai protagonisti, alle piante, alle case, alle sensazioni. Qualunque sia il motivo per cui lo fa, è innegabile che gli riesca proprio bene. L’introspezione di Garp, le sue paure, i suoi difetti, le sue virtù, ne fanno un uomo reale, eccessivo forse in certe cose, ma proprio per questo, molto più umano del nostro vicino di casa. E mentre Owen di “Preghiera per un amico” avrei voluto conoscerlo e stargli vicino, per Garp è diverso. Garp è l’uomo che vorrei essere se fossi maschio. Peccato sia impossibile, sono sicura che fareste a gara per conoscermi.

In attesa però (non si sa mai) che il miracolo avvenga, leggete Irving. E’ la formula perfetta per un investimento sicuro. La buona lettura non va mai in crisi.
(less)

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May 14, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, talk about original. Irving packs this book with freakishly oddball characters, but every one is so... knowable. They seem, if not normal, then like people whom I have met. I am in awe of Irving's ability to make characters unbelievable and believable at the same time. Similarly, this book is full of tragedy, and is simultaneously uplifting.

I was lucky to read the book before I saw the movie, mostly because my parents loved reading so much that I could read just about anything, but movies w...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Lucrezia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Premetto che in questa recensione sarò di parte , sto parlando di uno dei miei scrittori preferiti, lo scrittore che ha scritto uno dei libri che io abbia più riletto in assoluto , un libro che ha stravolto totalmente il mio modo di vedere...Ma adesso passiamo ad "Il mondo secondo Garp" .
Il mondo secondo Garp è il terzo Irving che leggo ,dopo le regole della casa del Sidro (mio grande amore)e Hotel New Hampshire , e sapevo già più o meno cosa aspettarmi, una prosa meravigliosa , scorrevole ,eppu...more Premetto che in questa recensione sarò di parte , sto parlando di uno dei miei scrittori preferiti, lo scrittore che ha scritto uno dei libri che io abbia più riletto in assoluto , un libro che ha stravolto totalmente il mio modo di vedere...Ma adesso passiamo ad "Il mondo secondo Garp" .
Il mondo secondo Garp è il terzo Irving che leggo ,dopo le regole della casa del Sidro (mio grande amore)e Hotel New Hampshire , e sapevo già più o meno cosa aspettarmi, una prosa meravigliosa , scorrevole ,eppure accurata, c' è chi paragona Irving a Dickens , e io sono totalmente d' accordo , Dickens ha molto in comune con Irving; senza altro il potere di raccontare vicende al apparenza irreali che diventano grandi storie , più reali della vita stessa , e penso che la grande narrativa debba essere così, Dickens come Irving è fissato con i "tipi umani" che poi alla fine non si rivelano poi così eccentrici, ma solo portati a vivere diversamente, a vivere secondo le "proprie" idee e non secondo quelle degli altri, ma sopratutto hanno il potere di farti affezionare ai propri personaggi per le loro debolezze più che per i loro punti forti... E sono proprio queste cose che accadono nel mondo secondo Garp "Nel mondo secondo Garp siamo tutti casi disperati " , Jenny Fields, Suo figlio Garp , Helen , Roberta , Ellen James , Duncan , Walt e Jenny sono tutti casi disperati ognuno a suo modo , ognuno con le sue mutilazioni , ognuno con le sue diversità, e Irving ce li incastra insieme come sempre con incredibile perfezione... Come dicevo prima , sapevo già cosa aspettarmi , nel senso che ci sono molte delle ambientazioni care ad Irving , la Vienna di metà secolo scorso e il New Hampshire , c' è la guerra che come sempre riveste un ruolo importante ( Garp sarà figlio di quella guerra ), ma c' è anche la sapiente maestria di Irving di tenerti totalmente avvinto alla pagina con la mirabolante avventura ,che poi è la vita stessa, dei suo personaggi, pagina dopo pagina questa vita ti diventa sempre più familiare e per certi versi somiglia anche alla tua , impossibile non riconoscersi almeno in uno degli spaccati famigliari che Irving ci presenta (fra l' altro Irving sembra avere una predilezione per i labrador neri , c' è da chiedersi se ne abbia uno , qua c' è Bill ,in Hotel New Hampshire c' era Sorrow <3 , oke notizia Irrilevante ,solo una semplice pensiero ). Come sempre in ogni romanzo di Irving c' è una tematica cardine , ce ne sono sempre , più di una in realtà , ma qui più che altro c' è il femminismo, o meglio l' indipendenza sessuale. Bisognerebbe leggere questo libro non fosse altro che per Jenny Fields , è un personaggio unico, non ne incontrerete mai uno così , e proprio per questo sembra tanto reale che aspetti di vedertela comparire davanti per darti incoraggianti consiglia a proposito della vita , e per me sarebbe l' ideale, perché voglio una Jenny Fields personalizzata...Anzi dove posso trovarla?? Ma come sempre Irving fa ,non mette mai in evidenza qualcosa senza evidenziarne anche la parte oscura , e qui di certo non si smentisce nello svelare poi le estreme conseguenze del fenomeno trattato... Oltre ai personaggi principali c' è tutto un corollario di personaggi secondari che a mio parere sono irresistibili quanto quelli principali , come non ridere per il salvataggio del piccione del Dean Bodger , o non considerare con una certa quel sorta di ironia dolce/amara la signora Ralph, ogni cosa ha il suo posto in questo romanzo ,ogni personaggio è stato messo li apposta per dimostrarvi qualcosa , strappandovi un sorriso o una lacrima....
Maledetto Irving!! Hai creato un altro capolavoro dal quale è difficile staccarsi ,mi mancherà Garp, e mi mancherà il suo mondo , mi mancheranno Roberta, Helen ,Janny ,Ellen James (Qusta in maniera particolare , sebbene compaia poco, è capace di farti tanta tenerezza , che non te la dimentichi facilmente)Duncan ecc ( mi scusino tutti quelli non nominati , stò pensando a voi uno per uno, sorridendo sotto i baffi, e scrivendo questa recensione).Non dico altro , se volete veramente capire perché Irving e così speciale , ma sopratutto perché i suoi personaggi lo sono, leggetelo perché altrimenti non coglierete appieno ciò che intendo ...
P.S. Guardatevi le spalle dal sotto rospo mi raccomando ;)(less)

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Sep 27, 2008 Jackie rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had heard great things about this book. It deals a lot with feminism, parental paranoia, and the challenges of career ambitions. I kept assuming this book was on the brink of something totally earth-shattering, so I kept turning the pages, and it never came.

15 likes · like · see review

Oct 13, 2008 dirt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The part of the penis part! Ouch!

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Mar 20, 2013 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second novel that I've read by Irving, and he is quickly turning into one of my favorite authors. Originally I felt that it was a bit of a cop-out to have a main character who was a writer (come on, how much imagination could that possibly take?), but with time, I came to realize that the characters were so well formed that he must be pretty imaginative. Specifically, I found the main character somewhat hypocritical, but incredibly relatable.

There are several themes in the book, but...more

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Apr 19, 2010 FlibBityFLooB rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: seen-the-movie, read-in-2010, feminism, iowa-writers-workshop-author, witty-i-am-not, read-more-than-once, infidelity-cheating, male-author

The World According to Garp is one of those books that is so unique that I think everyone should read it at some point in their life. The plot revolves around a very interesting mother/son pair. Jenny, the mother, is an odd female nurse who seems asexual and has strong feminism ideas that perpetuate through the story. Most of the book is Garp, Jenny’s son, explaining how his mother came to write an auto-biography that makes her famous, all the while trying to maintain his role as an author himse...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Mike rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dull, dull, dull. Boring people doing boring things. Even the sex is boring.

I've spent some time wondering whether everyone is so boring because it's the world according to Garp, and Garp himself is boring. The novel is cleverly structured (it could be a literary theorist's wet dream); Garp himself is a novelist, and shards of his work appear throughout this novel, including the third chapter of his third novel, The World According to Bensenhaver. (Excuse me if I got the name wrong). Both start...more

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Apr 22, 2008 bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Possible mild spoiler alert? I try to keep my reviews to what a "real" book review would contain - this necessitates some detail. After all, what good is a review that provides only information available on the back cover combined with "I liked it" or "I didn't"? That said, someone apparently thinks this particular review of mine contains too much. So consider yourself warned.

The book starts by explaining how Garp came to be by introducing Garp's mother, the headstrong and self-assured nurse Jen...more Possible mild spoiler alert? I try to keep my reviews to what a "real" book review would contain - this necessitates some detail. After all, what good is a review that provides only information available on the back cover combined with "I liked it" or "I didn't"? That said, someone apparently thinks this particular review of mine contains too much. So consider yourself warned.

The book starts by explaining how Garp came to be by introducing Garp's mother, the headstrong and self-assured nurse Jenny Fields. Jenny Fields decides she wants one baby but has no desire for sex or male companionship-she is not infected by lust, the theme of lust being one this book beats you over the head with. This unlikely beginning has got to be my favorite part of the whole book. Jenny Fields is an intriguing and at least initially likeable character. The first few chapters nicely set the tone of storytelling, another of the book's dominant themes. Moments of lighthearted irony abound.

So Jenny Fields comes by her one baby in a resourceful and innovative, albeit bizarre, manner, and never tells anyone the details. The book continues from the perspective of Jenny, now a school nurse at a prestigious boys' school, as little T.S. Garp grows up. Jenny and Garp go to Vienna after he graduates from high school, to write - for Jenny, her autobiography, for Garp, a novel. Jenny publishes her wildly popular memoir, which instigates, or at least capitalizes on, a political movement. From this point forward, the book spirals downward for me.

I wasn't drawn to any of the characters after the initial connection with Jenny Fields. Most are cliche, farfetched, or actively annoy me. I never liked Garp's wife, the stuck-up, bookish and brilliant yet strikingly beautiful Helen Holm. The post-operation transgendered football player, Roberta, bored met to tears. After the narrative switched to Garp-centric, I lost my connection to Jenny, too, though I still enjoyed her presence and looked forward to her opinions on various things.

The book contains large chunks of Garp's writing, set off in a different font. This technique is necessary to illustrate the distinctions and similarities between Garp's truth and his craft, without which it's not possible to really know what Irving wants you to know about Garp. I came around to the intermittent excerpts by the end, but the first few times I was irritated by the distraction.

In the latter half, Irving exchanges the whimsical irony of the first chapters for a dark, beat you over the head version that dangerously approaches "if you do this bad thing, HORRIBLE things will happen including mutilation and DEATH."

And speaking of irony, I must mention the "Ellen Jamesians," those tortured women who cut off their tongues in solidary with a young rape victim named Ellen James, whose perpetrator did that to her. This group of women is, of course, a blatant example of the fervor for a noble cause gotten out of hand. Neither Garp nor Ellen James herself can muster any sympathy for the Ellen Jamesians, and this rather high-profile conflict is what ultimately brings the book to a resolution. The problem for me was that this was just too caricatured. First, I had trouble accepting that the rapist would cut out the girl's tongue thinking that would prevent her from identifying him (even though the book ridiculed the rapist for his stupidity in doing so). Even accepting that, it seemed beyond even the most extreme versions of reality to think that any notable number of people would cut off their tongues for this reason (even though the book alternatively ridiculed and felt sorry for them for doing so).

But maybe the book, with all its excerpted fiction-within-fiction, was intended as a caricature. I am reminded of the chapter where Helen guesses which parts of the story Garp had just told his young son were embellished. In translating reality, Garp has the control to manipulate any detail, which may improve it, intensify it, or change its goal entirely. In the latter half of the book we see Garp lose control over that truth/fiction distinction, interestingly producing a work that is shocking but feels "real." Perhaps The World According to Garp is the other kind of story - one containing carefully buried truth that isn't supposed to feel "real."

The book kept my interest in spite of my negative impression of its trajectory. This, too, occurs in the story - as one character, in reacting to Garp's third novel, says (not verbatim): "Like it? What's to like about it?! It's horrible! can I have a copy?"(less)

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Jan 29, 2008 Roy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd say that "Lolita" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are the two best written books I've ever read. But if I had to pick my all time favorite book I'd probably go with "The World According to Garp". Irving takes us on the path of T.S. Garp's life from conception to death and I was enthralled every step of the way. This book is full of humanity, full of both light and dark humor, and full of insight into the human condition. Irving took over from Charles Dickens and put his own unique spin on...more

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Dec 14, 2007 Glen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Prior to reading this book, I had only read half of one novel by John Irving. I'm not going to mention the title here because I don't think it's quite fair to speak ill of a book which I didn't even finish, but suffice to say that I had no immediate plans to read another half of any of his work. That changed though when a friend talked me into taking The World According to Garp on a trip that I was planning. I thought the book was fantastic, and since I have no life I'm going to spend Friday nig...more Prior to reading this book, I had only read half of one novel by John Irving. I'm not going to mention the title here because I don't think it's quite fair to speak ill of a book which I didn't even finish, but suffice to say that I had no immediate plans to read another half of any of his work. That changed though when a friend talked me into taking The World According to Garp on a trip that I was planning. I thought the book was fantastic, and since I have no life I'm going to spend Friday night writing an overly detailed review on the deeper themes of it for the enjoyment of the few people with the dedication to read the whole thing. I welcome any response.

Authors are often told to write about what they know because they are already de facto experts. Inevitably this leads to "autobiographical fiction". This can range from an autobiography which is published as fiction (i.e. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath) all the way to a fanciful tale that is sold as an autobiography (A Million Little Pieces by James Frey). There are some people that say that they only read non-fiction because they prefer something "true" or "genuine" as opposed to something that an author just "made up". These are the people that should read The World According to Garp.

When we read fiction, we are omniscient. A character once committed to paper cannot change; they grow only to the extent that our understanding of them grows. The essence of the character, however, does not change. Jay Gatsby is the same person today that he was in the 1920s. I would argue that because of this immutability we have the capacity to truly know a fictional character better than we will ever know either a memoirist, or one of our intimate friends. To illustrate my point consider this, a friend might tell you that they are admiring your new hardwood floors; but only an author can tell you that our protagonist couldn't make eye contact belying the guilt they felt at the way they coveted your hardwood floors upon which they gazed. Few people are self aware enough to make those observations in retrospective memoirs, and the social contract doesn't engender that kind of honesty in day to day life.

In The World According to Garp, Irving plays with the story in a way to make you assume that it's autobiographical while at the same time mocking the reader for asking whether or not it is autobiographical. It's a very sly way of critiquing one's own work. Garp tells his children a bedtime story that is clearly based on reality, but then only admits to making up the parts of the story that the listener doesn't believe. In short, anything you believe to be true is so. Anything you don't believe to be true must need improvement. The question of course being, can we improve on the truth?

While weaving readers into this maze of almost understanding, the author peppers the novel with stories from his children's childhood’s that the reader is meant to assume are in fact true. How much of this story is true? The answer of course is that it doesn't matter. When we read a novel, we read it with the hope that the author knows his characters so well and has crafted his plot so meticulously that the next event happens because it is the absolute best possible event that could carry the story forward. We cannot worry that a dramatic change in plot occurs for reasons so trite as the fact that we're reading what really happened in the event on which the story is based. That would not be fiction, and it might not even be art. To further this line of thinking, the author critiques the protagonist's writing by saying that Garp's work gets progressively weaker as his writing becomes more autobiographical.

Fiction has GOT to be better than non-fiction. If it isn't, then it would seem to imply that our dreams are no better than our reality. If that is true, then our future indeed looks grim.(less)

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Apr 24, 2008 Aili rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh John Irving. You are a twisted man, who writes about twisted sex and violence between twisted characters who are clearly very thinly veiled versions of yourself. I hate you. The only reason I finished your book is that I am obsessive about finishing things.

But maybe I did this backwards -- I read A Widow for One Year first, and THEN WAtG. I think most folks do it the other way around. So all of the issues covered in Widow seemed re-hashed to me, or re-covered, or just basically more of the sa...more

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Eric I read Garp. then I read A Prayer for Owen Meany. Then I tried to read Hotel New Hampshire and one other, and then I stopped. I have a friend who has...more
Apr 25, 2008 08:34am

Aili Fair enough -- Owen Meany is the favorite book of at least one friend of mine. And Ethan has a copy (which he's been trying to get through for months)...more
Apr 27, 2008 08:43pm

Anna i mostly second this. i do think he has some worthwhile things going on in other books, but garp and owen meany are the ones that count for me.

also, a...more
updated May 04, 2008 04:09pm

Jul 05, 2007 Eric Simpson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Irving writes in a contemporary style of reflection, his narration jumping hither and thither rather than in a strictly linear fashion. In the early pages, as we learn of Jenny and Garp, Irving uses what I thought to be an initially astonishing method of quoting from his characters in order to reveal something of them to us. This falls into place later when both Jenny Fields and her son, Garp, are revealed to be rather successful writers. Both have odd idiosyncracies, which are highlighted throu...more Irving writes in a contemporary style of reflection, his narration jumping hither and thither rather than in a strictly linear fashion. In the early pages, as we learn of Jenny and Garp, Irving uses what I thought to be an initially astonishing method of quoting from his characters in order to reveal something of them to us. This falls into place later when both Jenny Fields and her son, Garp, are revealed to be rather successful writers. Both have odd idiosyncracies, which are highlighted through a strange series of circumstances and revelations.

Gender confusion and ideological warfare surrounding men and women and their relation and/or lack of communication between each other is merely one level of thematic exploration Irving humorously but heartfully analyzes. On its most fundamental level, The World According to Garp is simply about death, without romanticizing it as would the sprawling Victorian novelist, nor pining away in its penultimate shadow. Yet, the acts and nonactions, romances and flings, fighting and lovemaking, fears, worries, and tragedies of life are all embellished sublimely by the ultimacy of death's egalitarian presence. That is not to say that this is a morbid novel; it isn't. Rather, the presence and action of death grants both meaning and irony to the stumblings and desires of Irving's outrageous characters. I discovered, with joy, that Irving does not create insipid and absurd characters in a spirit of mockery, spitting bitterly towards hades; rather, his fictions are embellished with toothful and richly textured irony, thus establishing poignancy, meaning and the possibility of expressing something that is true.

Often, the irony is expressed in situations that are truly hilarious, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once. The comic element in this novel is rooted in a true appreciation of comedy--not the trivial, shriveled one-liners and put-downs that often passes for the "comic" in our era, but rather comedy that flows from a world view that genuinely values the subject of comedy, the human person. This is comedy of Shakespearean proportions, yet tinged with what is truly absurd, the oddness, the misunderstandings, and the stupidity of modern life.
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Dec 28, 2007 Seth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: other-fiction, books-that-built-me

I went through an extended period in my life where I re-read this book every year(1). It's a very fun read.

You can read it as a character study, watching how Garp changes as he ages and his responsibilities mature. You can read it as an analysis of the writer's experience (the bits about Garp's writing--and especially the chapter of Garps' book The World According to Benzenhurt--are excellent). You can read it as being about his relationships, primarily with women (his mother, his wife Helen, hi...more

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Mar 19, 2007 mary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i have an ongoing love affair with john irving, and it all started with this book.

i read it for the first time when i was a tad too young, and it has had a freakishly large impact on me. it is not necessarily grand or epic in any sense, and the story is ridiculous and morbid and almost fantastical with its excessive insanity. now, i want to look at it with a condescending and adultlike detachment, believing life has a much higher purpose than wading through the soap opera depicted here. but wha...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this in 1979. I can remember walking into the book store on 5th Avenue, NYC, and buying a copy after marveling at the piles and piles of this bestseller in the window. I was not disappointed. A great introduction to Irving. I later gave away my copy of GARP to a friend who truly needed at the time to see that even in the most absurd and traumatizing times, life shows us a glimpse of redemption.

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Apr 15, 2010 David Gallagher rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Every single person who ever claimed that they love books

Recommended to David by: My dear Richard

Shelves: favorites, books-i-own, r-e-p-bunny-related

In the World According to Garp, we are all terminal cases.

Probably my favorite book of all time. It's just...majestic. The characters are so real, so engaging, so human. You get emerged in their lives, their stories - you suffer when they face difficulties, you hurt when they do. Irving's absolute masterpiece - an unprecedented novel. Just wonderful. If you don't love it, you don't have a heart.

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May 15, 2013 Giuseppe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1970-s, esimio-sconosciuto, genre-drama, literature-american

Rospi con scherzone

Per chi non conoscesse questo famosissimo romanzo (io non lo conoscevo fino a qualche settimana fa), eccovi una trama ultrarapida (se siete choosy c’è sempre gogòl, cit.).

IMSG è la storia di T.S.Garp, scrittore con una madre infermiera che diventa volente o nolente un'icona femminista. Il nostro si sposerà, figlierà, avrà diverse peripezie matrimoniali e familiari che spazieranno dal comico al tragico. Assicuratevi fazzoletti, serviranno. Pace. Amen.

Molti hanno detto che quest...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Adelina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Това не е книга, за която еднозначно да кажеш: "Харесвам!". Това е книга, която вълнува, отвращава, разтърсва, успокоява - всичко, което може да почувстваш в един свят, доминиран от насилие и похот. Книга, която сигурно ще ти помогне да намериш своята опорна точка, за да се опазиш от "подводната ръка".
Брутално е думата, която първа изниква, когато мисля за "Светът според Гарп". Роман за времето, в което живеем ... и оцеляваме, а е писан преди повече от тридесет години.
Към края темпото на разказа...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Kyla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"She was discovering that people weren't much more mysterious, or much more attractive, than clams" (6).

"In this dirty-minded world, she thought, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore - or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you don't fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you. But, she thought, there is nothing wrong with me" (13).

"Jenny Fields discovered that you got more respect from shocking other people than you go...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Susan KG rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“The World According to Garp” went on and on and on, and I can’t recall if I breathed a sigh of relief or jumped up and down for joy when I completed it. Much of the time I wondered why I was not placing this book on my “did not finish” shelf. It had received so many excellent reviews, and who am I to discard a book by John Irving, such a highly regarded writer?

There are plenty of plot synopsises elsewhere on goodreads, so I won’t attempt to summarize. My inability to feel much warmth for this b...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, sr, 1001-read-books

This book is really funny. But halfway through I stopped reading it. I got busy with work & Garp started to be mean. I managed to finish the book after a few months. There were just too many things that happened in Garp's life to remember. I can recall that his mother conceived him with a dying soldier who couldn't talk. She was a nurse and she gratified him on his death bed. His mother raised him alone. When she retired and Garp finished school, they traveled to Austria and lived in a pensi...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Borbality rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. An X-rated soap opera, but very well written.

It's no wonder I couldn't find any good descriptions about it without accidentally reading spoilers. And I doubt I'll be able to give much of a better review.

Seriously, on the surface it sounds pretty lame: a novelist obsessed with protecting those he loves, plus some feminism. But it's COMPELLING, funny, easy to read but beautiful and huge.

Garp (the character) is intense; a bit cynical and arrogant but usually right. It's very satisfying to read su...more An X-rated soap opera, but very well written.

It's no wonder I couldn't find any good descriptions about it without accidentally reading spoilers. And I doubt I'll be able to give much of a better review.

Seriously, on the surface it sounds pretty lame: a novelist obsessed with protecting those he loves, plus some feminism. But it's COMPELLING, funny, easy to read but beautiful and huge.

Garp (the character) is intense; a bit cynical and arrogant but usually right. It's very satisfying to read such a potentially unnerving character free of pretentious bullcrap. It's easy to relate to the simultaneous feelings of contempt for most of the world but holding desperately to what we love.

This book can easily be overshadowed in discussion the way the fictional bestsellers by Garp and his mother are: they become NEWS that is read more for the controversy and sociological issues than for the literature. There are big moral questions of feminism, fidelity, lust, art and ideological fanaticism.

However, all of this makes it easy to overlook the quality of the actual writing. This is truly gifted word-working. If anything, my complaint is that it isn't long enough, or, rather, that too much happens toward the end without enough words. The tragic stuff gets a little bunched together at the end and loses some of its impact.

This change of pace in the second half left me a little unsatisfied. The scenes where Garp discovers his wife's affair with Michael Milton and the revelation that Walt has died are the most effective emotional moments.

I also thought the end was wrapped up a little too tightly. Paragraph by paragraph says exactly what happened to all the major characters. I actually thought the moment Garp decided to take in Ellen James would have been a great spot to end it. But Garp still could have died.

Normally I might think it was a little too convenient or contrived to write so much about writing (issues are brought up including reading a book to see "what happens," that imagining is better than remembering, that it shouldn't matter if a fiction novel is autobiographical but at the same time wondering how much of this Irving actually lived through and why he is he so defensive about this), but in this case it just makes the themes and questions that much more complex. (less)

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Feb 25, 2010 Fabian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Indeed there are enough freaks and sufficient eccentricity here to make this a SUPER enjoyable read. It lacks what the only other Irving novel I've read, "A Prayer for Owen Meany," has plenty of: melancholia. It deviates to a biography of a writer from an incredible birth story involving a strictly asexual nurse and a vegetable (memento from the war) named Garp. The name is onomatopoeia. She becomes an early figure of the feminist movement. Hilarity ensues...

The son, Garp, is a writer who become...more

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About John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty...more John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty-five foreign languages, and he has had nine international bestsellers. Worldwide, the Irving novel most often called “an American classic” is A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)—the portrayal of an enduring friendship at that time when the Vietnam War had its most divisive effect on the United States.

In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, until he was thirty-four, and coached the sport until he was forty-seven.) In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a Lasse Hallström film with seven Academy Award nominations. Tod Williams wrote and directed The Door in the Floor—the 2004 film adapted from Mr. Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year.

In One Person is John Irving’s thirteenth novel, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2012. A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love — tormented, funny, and affecting — and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 — in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.

His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers — a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”

Born John Wallace Blunt, Jr., in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, Mr. Irving’s name was changed to John Winslow Irving in 1948, when his mother remarried. (His mother’s maiden name was Winslow.) Mr. Irving named his first son, Colin, after his stepfather, Colin F.N. Irving, who taught in the History Department at Phillips Exeter Academy, where John Irving graduated in 1961; he was captain of the wrestling team at Exeter, and also wrestled at the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Irving later attended the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria. He has a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and a M.F.A. from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where his mentor was Kurt Vonnegut.

Before the success of The World According to Garp enabled John Irving to become a full-time writer, he had several college teaching positions—not only at his alma mater in Iowa City, where he taught for three years, but also at Mt. Holyoke College and Brandeis University.

In the ‘80s, Mr. Irving lived in New York City and on eastern Long Island; since 1990, he has lived in Toronto and in southern Vermont. He has three sons—Colin, Brendan, and Everett—and four grandchildren. John Irving is married to Janet Turnbull Irving—formerly a Canadian publisher, who is now Mr. Irving’s literary agent in the U.S. His agent in Canada, and for the U.K., is Dean Cooke—at the Cooke Agency in Toronto. Mr. Irving is represented internationally by Nicki Kennedy at I.L.A. in London; his film agent is Robert Bookman at C.A.A. in Los Angeles.

In 2001, Mr. Irving was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Irving’s 70th birthday is March 2, 2012.(less)

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“In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me” — 179 people liked it

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