Rating: 
Summary: Sarcastic, yet humorous
Review: The World According to Garp is a novel that makes you think about the reality of parents' fears. Fears for their children and fears in the world around them. Garp wants nothing more than to keep his children safe and secure form harms way much like Jenny wanted for her son Garp. Both of these characters have a hard time excepting the reality that no matter how much control they exercise they can't protect their loved ones forever, they can't even protect themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: I think the characters were unrealistic
Review: THe WOrld According to Garp has an interesting plot and narration; however, the characters are so unbelievable. They do not react to certain situations the way I would (or the way other people I know probably would) and they are all incomplete. Jenny has no lust, Garp has too much lust and no motovation, Helen has no personality of her own, and almost all the relationships between all the characters are unfaithful... horrid. I only gave it three stars because it had a good idea going with the novel within a novel. I liked The Pension Grillparzer. Other than that- two thumbs down@!
Rating: 
Summary: A real treat, plus some food for thought
Review: I was interested in this book from the first sentence. Irving takes great pains to grab the reader and suck him into Jenny and Garp's world, but he is by no means manipulative. As I read the first half of the novel, I was entertained, intriguiged, curious, but I thought this was no more than a pleasant, light novel. However, as Garp and Helen settled into family and married life, I began to see the heart of the novel. By the climax, when I saw how every seemingly minor detail fell into necessary order, I was unable to put this book down. However, the real clincher for me was the way I felt at the end, so unhappy to have Garp end. I have thought about this book and the characters in it often in the 3 months since I read it. I read A Prayer for Owen Meany this week, and while it wasn't nearly as captivating as Garp, I noticed some Irving trademarks--unforgettable characters, the importance of small events, the stranger-than-fiction quality of life. I recommend the World According to Garp to almost anyone. It won't change your life, but it will show you how much fun good writing can be.
Rating:
Summary: "Original, sharp, and touching."
Review: This book is full of it all, heartache, cliches, and most importantly a dash of reality. I am a tenth grader now and when I read this in eighth grade I thought why are we {teens} reading and going ga-ga over R.L. Stine. Instead we should be reading John Irving. I loved the book from start to finish. Reading this book made me laugh, cry, and feel the characters, plus get a whole new outlook on life. Thanks Mr. Irving.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book!
Review: The only time I ever skipped school was when I was in the 8th grade. I had borrowed a copy of The World According to Garp from the library (mainly because the movie was out and was rated R so I wasn't able to see it!). I began reading it in the cafeteria, waiting for my first class, and became so engrossed I knew I could not put the book down until I was finished. Irving weaves a rich tapestry - his characters are so vital it's hard to believe they are not real people. I highly recommend this book to any and everyone!
Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: how could you not like this book. Garp is the most likable character, funny, sweet and probably leads the kind of life most of us wish we had had.
Rating: 
Summary: 1 Star rating is too much for this book.
Review: A bad book by an untalented author. GARP/s efforts to become an established writer and his eagerness to be accepted as a good author represents, in my opinion, the author/s own insecurity about his poor penmanship.
Rating:
Summary: substantial and rewarding read, short of stellar
Review: This was the first John Irving book I've ever read, and while it commanded my attention and imagination, I probably wont read another for long time. I love the main characters; as the novel progressed, however, their lives became so glossed over with the fantastic (as opposed to the mediocrity in which they had begun) that I grew disappointed. In a way, I felt as though Irving over-compensated for the brutality of the most tragic events by disallowing the reader feel full emotional weight equally with that of, say, the lighter incidents involving Mrs. Ralph or Roberta. I think that's unfortunate: ultimately the characters can not be remembered for their mediocre traits and generally average lifestyle (something I thoroughly celebrated), but for understated expressions of the tragedy they endured. Certainly an interesting book, although the moral tone it took toward the early feminist movement and the issues of marital infidelity seemed too judgmental, and I take that with a large grain of salt. For I, just as Irving's characters, dislike being told how and what to think and do.
Rating:
Summary: My fave book
Review: As soon as I finished this book I went to the beginning and began reading again. I felt like I wasn't finished with Garp, Jenny, Helen, or Roberta,(or many others). To the readers who say this book has flat female characters, they are dead wrong. Jenny and Helen were probably the most explored characters after Garp. Some of these(one star) interviews seem like they were written by Ellen Jamesians(read the book and found out what E.J.'s are). This book confronted several moral issues, and the thing many readers nee to know is that unlike other writers, John Irving lets his main characters do wrong things. What Garp, Helen, or Jenny do does not necessarily refelct Mr. Irving's morals. He makes he characters humans, not saints, they make mistakes, they are not always redeemed. That is why his characters are the best in modern literature. We can relate to them because we ourselves are often wrong instead of right, and sometimes we never right our wrongs. Garp is such an excellent book because it doesn't really have a climax. Just like ordniary people's lives(not that Garp is an ORDINARY book) it has it lows and downs, things happen when we don't expect them and don't want them. The last two lines of this book are probably the most memorable of all. "In the world according to Jenny Fields, we are all vitals, externals, absentees, and goners. But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." NOTE: J.F. is Garp's mother, and the four conditions it mentions are the ways she used to rate soldiers in the war. VITALS are men with organ damage, EXTERNALS are burn victims, ABSENTEES are catatonic, and GONERS are people that can't be saved.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I ever read!
Review: I regret that I saw the movie first because you lose a lot of the suprises that pop up; But I will never regret -and never forget- reading this book. It beautifully mixes humor with drama and tragedy, and the whole time you can't put it down! Garp is a minor writer who, midway through the book, becomes famous with his unkown mother's autobiography. After that, Garp embarks on a journey through married life and fatherhood. The ending climax is unforgettable. I was 12 when I read this, and a year later I STILL can't put it down! And even the afterword by the author is great! I applaud John Irving on his wonderful and compelling novel.
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