<![CDATA[The World According to Garp]]>

false <![CDATA[The World According to Garp]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1210680957m/7069.jpg 1486151 65 "Garp was a natural storyteller," says the narrator of John Irving's incandescent novel, referring to the book's hero, the novelist Garp, who has much in common with Irving himself. "He could make things up one right after the other, and they seemed to fit." Irving packs wild characters and weird events into his classic--officially recognized as such in a Modern Library edition with a new introduction by the author--while amazingly maintaining the rough feel of realism in every scene and the pulse of life in every heart. Many novelists of his time might have populated a novel with a novelist protagonist whose life and books comment on each other and the novel we're reading. Transsexual football players, ball turret gunners lobotomized in battle, multiple adultery, unicycling bears, mad feminists who amputate their tongues in sympathy with the celebrated victim of a horrifying rape--Irving made them all people. Even the bear is a fitting character. In a crucial episode, Garp's wife's seduction of a young man coincidentally occurs at the moment when Garp is delighting their young sons with a reckless car trick (one of the few scenes beautifully, eerily, heartbreakingly captured in the film version as well). Many authors would have been content with the harsh comedy of the scene, but Irving respects its integrity, and he builds the rest of the book on the consequences of the event. How does he get away with his killer cocktail of slapstick and horror? Because it's simply what we all face daily, rearranged into soul-satisfying art. "Life is an X-rated soap opera," according to Garp, and who can contradict him? Rereading Garp 20 years later, one is struck by how elegantly Irving structures his bizarre and complex story. Take the two most celebrated bits in the book, the Under Toad and Garp's story "The Pension Grillparzer," which shimmers like an exquisite Kafkaesque insect in the amber of the novel. When Garp warns his son about the "undertow" at the beach, the boy imagines a monster out of Beowulf who lurks beneath the waves to suck you under: the "Under Toad." It's funny at first, but we soon find that the Under Toad is a metaphor with teeth--he connects with a prophetic dream of death in "The Pension Grillparzer," set in Vienna. Garp's son's last words are, "It's like a dream!" And as Irving--who studied at the University of Vienna--can certainly tell you, the German word for "death" sounds precisely like the English word "toad." All that death, and yet Garp is mainly exuberant. This story is, as Garp's stuttering writing teacher puts it, "rich with lu-lu-lunacy and sorrow." It enriches literature, and our lives. --Tim Appelo 1028204 book 1976 The World According to Garp total:27570|5:9611|4:10972|3:5387|2:1190|1:410| 27570 110894 32538 1553 5 7 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Tue Jun 05 15:44:23 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 16:07:08 -0700 2007 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...more...]]> 2 3 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 07:49:27 -0700 2007 Tue May 12 13:07:54 -0700 2009 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 b...more...]]> 2 5 true false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 27 08:15:41 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 27 08:20:34 -0700 2008 2 3 false false Mon Oct 13 19:45:09 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 13 19:48:14 -0700 2008 3 2 false false Sat Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 27 07:08:08 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 22 10:21:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jan 29 13:04:31 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 29 13:24:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 14 20:48:14 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 14 21:01:00 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Thu Jul 05 21:13:48 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 05 21:15:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Mar 19 23:17:55 -0700 2007 Mon Mar 19 23:55:20 -0700 2007
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 ...more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1979 Sat Feb 28 06:32:02 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:50:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 2 false false Sun Aug 23 18:39:33 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 14:52:47 -0700 2009
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...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Jan 30 13:10:25 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 13:49:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Oct 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 27 11:53:57 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 15:04:17 -0700 2009 1
The t...more...]]> 5 1 false true Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 12:12:54 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 13 14:04:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 03 16:37:53 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 03 16:45:05 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 20:18:57 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 24 01:48:43 -0700 2008
But maybe I did this backwar...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 10 06:42:02 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 04 08:15:53 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon May 14 18:44:55 -0700 2007 Mon May 14 19:07:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 1983 Wed Apr 18 15:44:26 -0700 2007 Fri Dec 28 17:59:07 -0800 2007
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...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 15 23:03:32 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 00:07:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=7069