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The World According To Garp

Average rating: 5/5

Based on 15 ratings

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The World According To Garp

by John Irving

Random House Publishing Group | April 20, 1998 | Hardcover

The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving''s classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.

----"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it," said critic Terrence Des Pres. "Irving''s blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Friendship, marriage and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly--something close to joyful malice--perpetually intrude and disrupt, often fatally. Life, in Irving''s fiction, is always under siege." Time magazine commented: "Irving''s popularity is not hard to understand. His world is really the world according to nearly everyone."

----This Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the author.

The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editons of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library''s seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world''s best books, at the best prices.

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Reviews

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Really enjoyed it

    LibraryCin

    • Top Book Reviewer

    11 months ago

    3.75 stars

    Jenny Fields is independent; she's a nurse, doesn't want a husband (or any kind of relationship with anyone, really) - and this is particularly unusual for a woman in the early 1940s - but she does want a child, so she gets pregnant and has Garp. Garp grows up at an all-boys school where Jenny is the nurse. He later becomes an author, marries and has kids, but he strays a couple of times, as does his wife. In the meantime, Jenny has written an autobiography and she is revered as a feminist; women who need help come to her.

    I think this is my favourite book by Irving that I've read so far. Irving's books do have some odd characters, so of course, this one does, too, but I've seen the movie a few times years ago, so at least I knew what to expect., and this may be why I liked it better than the others I've read by him. I could have done without the extra writings in the book, written by Garp, but I also liked that there was so much more detail than the movie (as there usually is). I was surprised at how quickly I was able to read this, given how long the book is. Overall, I really enjoyed it.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    Amazing

    xxTunstallChickxx

    2 years ago

    This was my first John Irving novel and is the reason that I now have an entire shelf dedicated to him. This book is a masterpiece. Hard to get into at first, the story seems just very strange (perhaps a little too much so), but then the message starts to come through. His portrayal of our violent world through the eyes of a writer is simply incredible. This book is a jewel in literature and I can honestly say it has changed the way I look at the world.
    Five well-deserved stars. I would recommend it to everyone, it's a book that should absolutely be read in one's lifetime.

    This reviewer also recommends:
    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Funny

    Dandoon

    2 years ago

    Ok so The World According to Garp by John Irving is apparently sooooo popular that it was voted as one of the best 100 books of the century by readers.
    I also was at a baby shower and one of the ladies there said that this book was HER favorite book of ALL TIME so I grabbed it from the library.

    Anyways back to the book, it was funny and entertaining.

    The end
    .
    .
    .

    I am SURPRISED it was voted to be one of the best books or whatever. I mean, it wasn't bad or anything, it was as I said funny, entertaining and well written and the author is very imaginative but it was not THAT amazing.

    So I would not like run to go buy it or anything but it's a good read non the less.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?
    Evanna Meehan

    Rating: 5/5

    Garp's world: a rather exciting place...

    Evanna Meehan

    11 years ago

    The World According to Garp. Or is it the World According to John Irving? This rather lengthy contemporary classic is an excellent read. It follows the extraordinary life of one T.S. Garp, a plain fellow who seems to be a cosmic joke. The novel follows through Garp's existence from conception to annihilation in an intelligent and witty style that seems to keep winking an eye at the reader. Garp is a novelist who doesn't believe in biography. So, is Irving also in denial of biography? Hmm... After the book is closed, you will wish you hadn't read it quite so fast. The characters will keep popping into your head and you will wonder where they are now. Too bad there isn't an epilogue to the epilogue!

    Pick it up. You won't be disappointed.

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From Our Editors

The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields - a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.

From the Publisher

The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving''s classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.

----"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it," said critic Terrence Des Pres. "Irving''s blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Friendship, marriage and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly--something close to joyful malice--perpetually intrude and disrupt, often fatally. Life, in Irving''s fiction, is always under siege." Time magazine commented: "Irving''s popularity is not hard to understand. His world is really the world according to nearly everyone."

----This Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the author.

The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editons of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library''s seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world''s best books, at the best prices.

From the Jacket

"The most powerful and profound novel about women written by a man in our generation . . . Like all extraordinary books, Garp defies synopsis. . . . A marvelous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers."-Chicago Sun-Times

"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it. . . . Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Brilliant, funny, and consistently wise; a work of vast talent."-The New Republic

"A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking."-Washington Post



From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. A Prayer for Owen Meany was published in 1989. In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules-a film with seven Academy Award nominations.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Hardcover

720 Pages, 5.02 x 7.53 x 1.89 IN

April 20, 1998

Random House Publishing Group


0679603069
9780679603061

From the Critics

"The most powerful and profound novel about women written by a man in our generation . . . Like all extraordinary books, Garp defies synopsis. . . . A marvelous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers."-Chicago Sun-Times

"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it. . . . Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Brilliant, funny, and consistently wise; a work of vast talent."-The New Republic

"A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking."-Washington Post



From the Trade Paperback edition.

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