The World According to Garp

by John Irving

“My mother,” Garp wrote, “went through her life on the lookout for purse-snatchers and snatch-snatchers.”

She imagined her son’s first sexual experience: a fantasy inspired by the sight and feel of the all-girls’ laundry room, where, as a game, the girls would bury the child in soft mountains of young women’s underwear.

“I do not care for balls. The ball stands between the athlete and his exercise. So do hockey pucks and badminton birdies—and skates, like skis, intrude between the body and the ground. And when one further removes one’s body from the contest by an extension device—such as a racket, a bat, or a stick—all purity of movement, strength, and focus is lost.”

Exactly how I have always felt about sports

From the beginning, he appeared to believe there was something strenuous to achieve. (“Writers do not read for fun,” Garp would write, later, speaking for himself.)