The World According to Garp question

No argument, A Prayer for Owen Meany is a literary classic. There is no such thing as a bad Irving novel.

Raise your hand if you were an extra in the movie version of Garp...Met Robin Williams and John Irving as 16 yr old...great experience.

I read this book when I was 15. I guess it was little pre-mature for me to read it. I found the relationship between mother and son repulsive! But I read it till the end and remember getting headache. :) But I would like to re-visit it again just to find out how I feel about it now that I have matured. :)

Probably a bit cheeky of me to pick a favourite, as I've only read "Owen Meany" and "Garp". Of the two, I prefer Owen Meany, but really, both are excellent, thought-provoking books

My favorite is The Water-Method Man; however, I do love all of his books.

I'll keep my hand down.

I liked The World According to Garp, but it doesn't even come close to A Prayer for Owen Meany for me. "Meany" is probably my all time favorite book.

The World According to Garp was a disappointment. The story of the lonely, determined girl and her coming to motherhood was indeed great and the mother and son story in Steering and in Vienna continued to hold high hopes. The story appeared to catch a virus and got miserably, and at times a bit hilariously derailed and haywire in the second half. The writing is clever as expected from an author of Irving's reputation and height but it did not touch my heart. Sad because it started with so much possibilities. I wonder what went wrong, why did the flow stop and get replaced by contrived, melodramatic, far fetched matter. I keep hearing Irving compared and bracketed with Dickens. Really? Dickens wrings your heart with his excess and eccenticity while Irving's absurdities and trivialities were very tasteless and dull. I would rate him as a writer who poses a lot, is smart in language, but does not have a real good story to tell.

I loved The World According To Garp but my favorite was A Year As A Widow...I just loved that book. Irving is one of my favorite authors. But I've only read a few of his books.

I tried to read the book about the tattoo artist but I just couldn't get into it. I bought the hardback and gave it away after several attempts to read it.

I saw Cider House Rules movie before I discovered John Irving and I couldn't get into that book because I had seen the movie first. I want to read his book A Prayer for Owen Meany next because I've heard such good things about the book.

I enjoyed Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Owen Meany and Fourth Hand. I read Garp in the 70s when I was in law school. It occupied many bar room discussions with law school friends back then. The memory of little Walt's death still tweaks my heart. I read Hotel New Hampshire in the 80s when I was a young parent and brought that point of view to my reading. I read Fourth Hand in the late 90s or early 2000s when dealing with college aged kids. It is the funniest of the four books, I think. I read Owen Meany five or so years ago after I was an empty nester and my marriage was quietly and sadly unraveling. It is impossible to compare the four given the very different experience I had in reading each of them.

But if asked to answer an unfair question, I would offer that Owen Meany is the better book because it reaches deeper than the others.

The Cider House Rules. It was different from his other books.
The writing was trenchant and I couldn't agree more about the theme of the book.

Loved Hotel New Hampshire and Cider House Rules. Read Garp too and was big Irving fan. Then I read A Son of the Circus and that killed Irving for me. Haven't read any since…

I got tired of him very early. Garp is a silly book in which he plays the part of badboy. Irving´s insensitivity and cruel jokes at the expense of those caught in difficult times just comes off as making him look like a jerk. This is yuppie humor at the worst. I did see the movie CIDER HOUSE RULES and so maybe I will someday read that. But there are so many other better writers out there why read jerky Irving\ His humanity is suspect.

I can't decide between Hotel New Hampshire and Cider House Rules. Haven't read Owen Meany.

I am so grateful for that flirty coffeehouse encounter a decade ago when talk of books and reading arose and he recommended that I read A Son of the Circus and thus it was how I first started my foray into the dramascapes of John Irving's imaginations. Really loved A Son of the Circus, A Prayer for Owen Meany, (incidentally presented to me by another flirty coffeehouse encounter a few years later), and The World According to Garp. Dirty thirty!

I actually liked Garp the movie better than the book. My favorite John Irving? Toss up between Cider House Rules and Owen Meany. And both of those were far better than the movie versions.

The Water-Method Man is an underrated and funny book.

My favourite character is the transsexual nurse, both in book and on film. Ideal friend and flatmate.

I agree that there is no such thing as a bad Irving novel. He is always immensely readable and for my money the best living writer today. He has produced several books that I think people will be reading 100 years from now. But Cider House Rules rules for me. Dr. Larch is one of my most unforgettable literary heroes. I loved the man and all he stood for. Irving brought him to life for me so vividly that I found myself missing him in the way I miss my grandmother. I wanted to be able to talk to him for his wisdom, kindness and strength. I loved Garp and Owen Meany almost as
much for the characters, ingenuity and sometimes breathtaking prose. But they didn't have Dr. Larch. I still miss him.

Garp is my favorite. That book is amazing.
I've got all of his other books a notch below in my estimation (maybe it's because Garp was the first Irving I read) but I've really enjoyed his other stuff, as well.

Buck Tanner

Meany would get my vote over Garp - but I also love the Cider House Rules -

I like his storytelling and his characters. I couldn't get into the one set in India at all... so much so I can't even remember what it is called but it had an elephant on the cover!

Owen Meany is remarkable and its characters so vivid. It gets my vote over Garp and other Irving novels I've read. Though I do dislike how Meany hinges on something so flimsy as ESP or visions or whatever.

Garp has some quirky characters and odd events, but it stays within the margins of reality for the most part.

I enjoyed "A Prayer for Owen Meany" better than Garp.
"MADE FOR TELEVISION"

I have always thought that Garp was structured so brilliantly: a book that becomes popular for its themes of sex and violence, with a main character that writes a book that becomes popular for it's scenes of sex and violence. It takes a huge talent to pull off the high-wire writing Irving does in this novel

my favorites...tie between Garp and Hotel New Hampshire.. Also definately agree that Until I Find You was readable but that was about all (disappointing). Son of the Circus was also very good reading :D

The World According to Garp has to be my ultimate favourite, but I'm also partial to Son of a Circus, thanks to, in part, its setting. Last Night in Twisted River was absolutely mind-blowing. I couldn't believe that the author of the abysmal Until I Find You was the same as Twisted River. They're night and day in quality.

I guess Garp as it was my first, I enjoyed The Fourth Hand but some of it felt underwritten

Until I Find You was a great read and I'd recommend it, it is Irvings David Copperfield I'd say

Last Night at Twisted River I couldn't finish, it just wasn't likable