The World According to Garp

Rating:
Summary: An Wonderful Story
Review: The World Accoding to Garp is a wonderful example of the very talented work of writer John Irving. The characters and situations he creates are both sad, funny and totally creative. This book is an excelent read. I also highly recomned A Prayer For Owen Meany.

Rating:
Summary: It's pointless to say too much about this book...
Review: Garp is the kind of creation that speaks for itself (actually, it speaks *about* itself within its own pages) and should be allowed to do so without too many preconceptions on the part of the reader.

I'm writing this merely to report that if you've seen the admittedly good movie of Garp, you've merely had the slightest taste of what awaits in the book. All of Irving's novels are too substantial to translate fully to a 2-hour film -- a moviemaker can only pick a few central pieces of the story and hope to capture the mood and spirit. The Cider House Rules was a success largely because Irving wrote the adaptation himself, fully aware of this challenge and inherently qualified to meet it.

There's great sustenance here -- it feeds you with every page until you're overwhelmed at the feast. This book has enriched my life and my own writing like no other I've read.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Never before or since I read this book have I read anything ("A Prayer for Owen Meany" comes close) so amazing. I found myself bawling at the end... not because it was sad, but because I didn't want it to end. I have tried to read other John Irving books but nothing has been as fantastic as this. Please, if anyone knows of a book that comes close, let me know!

Rating:
Summary: In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases
Review: I read this book only because it was on my summer reading list. I have now become a huge John Irving fan. To take the subjects depicted in 'Garp' and make them funny let's you know that you're reading a good writer. The book chronicles T.S. Garp's entire life. T.S. Garp is a writer, as is his mother Jenny Fields, who wrote an autobiography called 'The Sexual Suspect' which would give her a devout female following, not to mention controversy. Garp lives in his mother's writing shadow. Everyone knows Garp's writing couldn't possibly be as big as Jenny's. But still, Garp continues to maintain a sense of humor and carry on with his young marriage to Helen Holm. Along the way, Garp meets many people who will change his life, including Roberta, a woman who used to be a quaterback for the Eagles before getting a sex change, Ellen James, a rape victim who is constantly haunted by her followers, the 'Ellen Jamesians', and Alice, a woman with a cheating husband and a lisp. Sounds confusing? Well yeah, it kind of is. But listening to Garp tell of his adventures in life makes you wonder what you would do. Because to Garp, a writer is a doctor who sees only terminal cases. And in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases. With a main character who still holds optimism after all that has happened, makes you want his life to go on forever, even though you know the book will soon end. So if you haven't read it, read it. Then check out the movie.

Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary story of a simple(?) life.
Review: John Irving writes Garp as a simple writer caught up in the winds of fate, and manages to tell an amazing story of a short but extremely fulfilled life. The bits of the book about wife swapping are not so relevant today as the most have been when the book was first written, but I can understand why he choose to write it in that manner. If you want a funny/sad read then read this book!

Rating:
Summary: Progressively Degenerative!
Review: Nope, I do not recommend this book, in an earnest manner. It starts off fine and weaves a story of a unconventional mother Jenny Fields and her son T.S Garp, certain sexual connotations are hilarious and interestingly tittilating, But all this stops after 200 pages. Later the book takes bizzare turns into mindless non-sensical stories written by protagonist Garp, the sexual gore is harped unnecessarily and lot of warped notions are flung at readers, in garb of "actually-what-we-are" syndrome.....I don't refute Mr. Irving's notions and his views on this, but I believe he has not been successful in putting across his clarity or confusion of his characters. I did however get some insight into the authors unique way of writing, which has paradoxically has its own appeal. I would recommend this only to folks who are curious to pick up something on John Irving, but not to once-in-a-while reader, for it may be too disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Prince of New England
Review: One of the best and most flawed heroes in literature lives in this modern classic: an all-encompassing, human tale of the tragic, comedic and quirky lives centred around T S Garp, a fatherless child born to Jenny, a reluctant feminist icon.

This, in my opinion, is Irving's best novel, successfully weaving motifs rich in irony and devoid of pretension. He achieves good, strong, true characters who are so well realised that they become personal friends to the reader.

As always, the backdrop of the novel is the turn of the New England seasons, their sensual Autumn melancholy and bright Spring clearness respectively bringing resonance and familiar homeliness to this as in all Irving's work.

Raising a barage of controversial issues - infidelity, death, transsexualism, rape - "Garp" manages to remain wholesome and honest to the end. A wonderful book to be known as a friend.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best.....
Review: I really enjoyed reading about the life and times of T.S. Garp. This book held my attention from beginning to end. The words seem to magically flow from one page to the next. I found myself laughing and crying with Garp and his family. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves literature.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, odd, and rather likeable!
Review: A frank story about real characters

Jenny, Garp's mother, is a woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it. She doesn't hurt people to get it, either.

The Ellen Jamesians remind me of the men who chant (ironic!) outside the women's clinic in my home town... where ANNUAL EXAMS are performed... heart believes in a cause, time could be better spent doing something constructive. (They are so ridiculous that they MUST be real!)

Helen is a decent woman who's a little misguided.

Same goes for Garp. He's as broken as they come without having a breakdown; this makes him human.

Anyone reading the reviews I've written can see that the more realistic the characters seem to me, the more I'll like the story. "Realistic" does not mean "The Nelsons" but, rather, well-rounded, honest, unique, colorful. That describes everyone in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP.

Rating:
Summary: A Delightful and Outrageous Book
Review: 'The World According to Garp' is a very colorful book. The character Garp is a unique and passionate individual. John Irving paints a picture of a man whose life is both strewn with outrageous occurances and surrounded by an assortment of unusual characters throughout. Always a mavrick to the norm, Garp makes his world one of extraordinary excitement and heartbreak. I found myself laughing at times at the originality and absurdity, as well as being touched by the sadness of all the tragic experiences therein. Irving takes you through four generations surrounding the astonishing character T.S.Garp, and across two continents. It is a world of humor, tragedy, joy and realism. How one feels about this entire novel is quite difficult to express in words, but it essentially is a delightful story all in all.