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Title: The World According to Garp by John Irving, John Irving ISBN: 0-345-36676-X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 November, 1990 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.42 (227 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Epic Characters
Comment: It's hard to cut this story down in a few, trite summary lines. "The World According to Garp" isn't simply an epic account of a man's life; it also covers his mother's life, his wife's life, and his three kid's lives - all right up to their individual deaths. It also accounts for several peripheral character's lives as well, including a former NFL player who had a sex change.
And that's the strength of Irving's novel - the varied, interesting characters. Each of them bounces through the story, all having extreme sexual issues - each character's concept of sexual relations clashing with each other's. This material may turn some readers off, but Irving doesn't treat it salaciously. There are also large sections of stories that Garp "wrote" within the book. Though they stall the progression of the central story, they are vivid diversions that I didn't mind reading.
In his new Afterword, John Irving claims that he didn't know what the central premise of his epic Garp manuscript until his son told him it was about "fear of losing your children". I disagree. Sex and lust recur so often in "Garp", it's a theme that cannot be considered as anything but central to the premise: lust leads to misery.
Rating: 5
Summary: Just in case you forgot how crazy life is ...
Comment: ... there's The World According to Garp to remind you. This book--which is at times hilarious, absurd, heart-breaking, outrageous, and tender ... often all of them at once--is one of the most profound books I've read in a while. As Garp described one of his own books, The World According to Garp is at once funny and serious, and above all it is "true." Irving often steps out of the bounds of what would normally be called common, or at least literary, decency, but the result is to remind us that the world we are living in is really an "X-rated soap opera," just like Garp's, full of comedy and tragedy, love and loss.
"To be full of Garp is to be full of life!" writes one reviewer, and I could not agree more. The World According to Garp was one of those books I wished would never end, but at the same time I was content with how it ended. Well before the end of this book, Garp and his family felt like a part of my own. If you have not read this book, what are you waiting for? Go out and read it! If you have read this book, count yourself fortunate: The World According to Garp is one of the most imaginative and enjoyable books out there.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful book
Comment: A story of three generations in a highly atypical family. Comic to the point of inducing laughter out loud, this book exposes intense psychological issues (such as the need for safety, the position of men and women in society, rape and senseless violence, and the foibles that mark humanity) in a manner that makes the reader feel a little less ostracized from society, regardless of their eccentricity. A really wonderful book.
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Title: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving ISBN: 0345361792 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving ISBN: 034540047X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Cider House Rules by John Irving ISBN: 0345387651 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 09 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: A Widow for One Year by JOHN IRVING ISBN: 0345424719 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 23 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The 158-Pound Marriage by John Irving ISBN: 034536743X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 14 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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