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Holly's review

The World According to Garp (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by John Irving

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386331.The_World_According_to_Garp?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The World According to Garp (Ballantine Reader's Circle)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1174355809m/386331.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386331.The_World_According_to_Garp?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The World According to Garp</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3075.John_Irving">John Irving</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1794427?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars 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 understanding of drugs under my belt, I loved it. It was nice to see people making more of a train wreck of their lives than me.
 
 Anyway, Garp. I don't think you can really get it until you've been through some of the life experiences outlined here. I'm freshly married and have no children, so I don't understand the complacency of a long partnership and the perpetual horror of worrying about your kids. The best example of the maturity level needed comes near the beginning of Garp's marriage, when Irving is blathering on about how much Garp loves his wife and states "In the first five years of their marriage, Garp was only unfaithful once." Now, to a person married less than a year, that sentence conjures images of hellfire, violence, and a messy divorce. However, I imagine that thirty years in, if you discover that twenty-five years ago your young and stupid spouse did something monumentally idiotic, it's more of a situation that calls for a kick in the nuts (or maybe two) than vehicular homicide.
 
 The point is, I feel this work to be far inferior to The Cider House Rules, and, of course, A Prayer for Owen Meany. However, I will revisit it after Daniel and I have gotten into some hard core screaming matches and I've stayed awake all night because Baby Buck sniffled once nine hours ago.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/36823?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Holly's review
rating:
recommended 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 understanding of drugs under my belt, I loved it. It was nice to see people making more of a train wreck of their lives than me.

Anyway, Garp. I don't think you can really get it until you've been through some of the life experiences outlined here. I'm freshly married and have no children, so I don't understand the complacency of a long partnership and the perpetual horror of worrying about your kids. The best example of the maturity level needed comes near the beginning of Gar...more

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message 1: by Daniel

06/11/2007 06:04AM

So I can cheat on you as long as I don't tell you about it for twenty-five years? Sweet.

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message 2: by Holly

06/26/2007 10:47AM

You have to not get CAUGHT for twenty-five years, too, though.

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