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Summary: The Best Book
Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. It is so strange, yet so believable! It is a great novel and I greatly recommend reading it. You can't put it down! My brother ordered it off here and read it and made me read it. I have all my friends reading it and so does my brother. Great book! John Irving is an excellent writer and this proves that!
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Summary: Over 20 years in print and it's still fresh!
Review: If truth is stranger than fiction, than The World According to Garp holds the keys to the mysteries of life and why we are here on earth. I found this novel to be unusually refreshing and unnervingly real. At first glance Garp appears to be an elaborate work of fiction, but through closer inspection a truly fresh view of life is revealed. In my opinion, truth IS stranger than fiction, and that is precisely why Garp is so believeable. My regards to Irving and my recommendation of this book to anyone (not just "readers"). I read it in three days and I ache for more .
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Summary: Best character development I've read!!!
Review: The characters in this masterpiece, while eccentric and distinctive, were exposed with such detail and animation I felt as if I personally new each one. Irvings story is good; how he tells it is great.
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Summary: Beautifully written but often frusterating
Review: This is the second John Irving work I've read, both within the past month (I was too young for the original GARP craze!). In my opinion, OWEN MEANY is the superior novel, but that is only a matter of personal taste. Both novels are intricate and so solidly written that I never consiously THOUGHT about the writing while I was reading -- a good sign that the writing is superb. I simply had difficulty connecting with any of the characters in GARP, especially Garp himself. I found him entirely exasperating, but then I imagine many of the novel's characters found him exasperating as well. While the inequity with which Irving treated the various adulterors was unsettling (even annoying), I cannot fault Irving for his portrayal of what simply is often true in this world -- when men/fathers are adulterous, few approve, but few absolutely condemn. "Boys will be boys." On the contrary, when women/mothers cross the line, the breakdown of the family often results and the end of the universe comes into sight. Unfair, but poignantly exposed by Irving. Overall, I would recommend GARP to the reader who loves language and appreciates the rare combination of Irving's talents. He is an author with not only the ability to spin a wonderful tale, but an author with the ability to write that tale with finesse.
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Summary: 10 stars, if possible!!!
Review: Garp has it all!!! The characters are so believable and the themes are so profound that I could not put the book down. It is filled with humor and irony, drama and tragedy! The reader becomes absorbed in this, at times, surreal novel. Irving, the master of irony, effectively communicates the fears and joys and sorrows of being a writer, being married, and having children. Many people warned me that I may find some passages explicit and graphic; I found no such passages. Although it may be a mature novel, I would certainly recommend Garp to anyone!
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Summary: A CLASSIC TO SURPASS ALL CLASSICS
Review: Garp is, beyond all doubt, the best book I have ever read (and will ever re-read, and re-read, and re-read again). This novel is hilarious, but does not come up short on trajedy either. I laughed, I cried, and I laughed and cried at the same time. The characters are very obscure--making me wonder what disfunctional people surround the author--and this only makes them more loveable and funny. As the end of the book approached I was caught up in not wanting it to end, and wanting to see how it ends. "In the world according to Garp, we're all terminal cases." WARNING: I noticed while reading other customer reviews, that this book was poorly reviewed by a select few people. If you lack a sense of humor, are offended by making light of the suffering of others in the name of social commentary, or are simply low on inteligence, read something else.
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Summary: The book I have been searching for
Review: Finally, a book that I couldn't put down because I felt it was an extension of me. I was so taken with this book after 100pgs that I ordered 4 more novels before I even finished it! It was the first time in a long time that I felt so connected to a character that I was brought to tears several times. A must read for everyone!
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Summary: A damn good read.
Review: While this book falls short of being a masterpiece, it is an enjoyable and engaging story about an unusual character. What it lacks in characterisation, it makes up for in humour, emotion and surprise. It is brilliantly written, and an absolutely worthwhile read.
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Summary: this book was a delight and I still can't forget about it
Review: This is your typical John Irving book, the mega sadist. I believe this is one of his better if not best works. At times it got rather too dramatic, the car scene in which Helen "performs" on her student. Sarcasm, odd characters that make you want to scream, this book was a delight and I still can't forget about it.
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Summary: Slow at first, stellar at the end
Review: This was the second Irving book I read, the first being "The Ciderhouse Rules", which I also reccommend. Irving once again has outrageous, sometimes unbelievable characters that the reader gets to know in painstaking detail. I thought the book started off a bit slow, but really picked up in the middle and end of the book as Garp is fully developed and realizes "the true meaning of life".
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