The World According to Garp - John Irving

How a book can be so funny and so sad at the same time, beats me. Garp can do this. It really is a fantastic book, even outdoing the Robin Williams film, which in itelf was excellent. I read the book after seeing the film, which can sometimes be a let down. Not in this case. I have on the strength of the film read several Irving books, The Water Method Man, Hotel New Hampshire, 158lb Marriage, Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany...........all totally unexpected books. If you want something out of the ordinary, yet readable and laugh out loud funny at times, then I would recommend John Irving and his books to anyone. Garp ...

Garp's world is our world. But seen through his eyes it is stripped of all pretensions. It is funny, evil, sad , outrageous, lustful :and everyone who reads this book can identify with the protagonist. That is the key to this book's success: the fact that we can all identify with TS Garp, the bastard son of feminist extraordinaire Jenny fields. It follows his life both onwards and backwards as Garp reminisces in his writings. In The World According to Garp Irving brings the coming of age novel in a form that has never before ( or since) been replicated. There are stories within stories ( TS Garp is a novelist) there are reminiscences of life, love and ...

I received the book "The World According to Garp" donkeys years ago. I don't even remember who gave it to me. It has sat on my shelf- I read the first couple of pages a few times, and wasn't too convinced. The story opens up with the tales of Jenny Fields, a nurse who stabs a young male officer in the thigh for making a move on her in a cinema. It continues to weave the tale of how her mother sends her countless packages of hot water bottles and douche bags. Hmmm, I thought. What an odd, and slightly severe story. I never saw the film so had no frame of reference. A couple of weeks ago, I did something different. After reading those ...