The World According to Garp

Rating:
Summary: After all, you will feel like Garp.
Review: I decided to read this book after read all the good comments about it. Im not an English native speaker, Im Spanish, and when i took this book, suddenly I become hooked on it, the language and the look up for words at the dictionary didnt care at all, I felt like hypnotized by this book.

The book talks about the life of T.S.Garp. He is a man with an extraordinary and surprising life. It starts with a brief introduction of Jenny's life (Garp's mum) before having garp and goes on with Garp's childhood and all until Garp die.
During that period you enter into a world that makes you feel like you are Garp, and talks about a lot of situations that you would feel someday sooner or later.
The book talks about serious topics as Rape, feminism, lust, faith with your couple, the difficulties of being a writer and the most important of all the fear that is around everybody of losing their dearest.

That point actually is basic, the book talks about human-relationships and shows you the importance of the people that is closest to you.

But not all in this book is dramatical, this book has some periods completely hilarious, I was laughing my head off in some of the chapters. Joh Irving gets so senseless details and so funny situations for Garp and his fellows.

John Irving knows how to find the perfect mixture between the the serious part of the book and the hilarious part, knows how to make you feel inside that character and most of all knows how to evolve you in that story deeply.

Read it, its the kinda of book that somehow impress you for good or bad.

Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving, is the story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary life. This man is T. S. Garp, illegitimate son of famous feminist Jenny Fields and Technical Sergeant Garp (hence the 'T. S.'), a severely wounded American soldier. Before Ms. Fields was famous, she was a feminist by nature, and though she wished to have a child, she did not wish to have any sort of relationship with a man. So when Technical Sergeant Garp is brought into the hospital where she works as a nurse with shrapnel in his brain, Jenny realizes that she has found the perfect father for her son. The rest of the story is as amazing as the manner in which Garp is conceived. It chronicles his life as a struggling writer living in the shadow of his mother's fame. The only true immortality is the written word in "The World According to Garp." Garp spends most of the novel attempting to write his classic, the book that will make him famous and thus immortal. I was reminded at time of the work of Jackson McCrae, especially his BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or his CHILDREN'S CORNER --the writing is just that good, deep, and well constructed. Irving helps convey the theme to the readers by constantly using foreshadowing. There is little that happens in this novel that the reader does not have at least a slight inkling about prior to its occurrence. Whereas with other authors this may have made the story boring and predictable, Irving utilizes this element in a way that keeps the reader guessing, occasionally hinting at things that do not actually happen or things unrelated to the main story. Overall, the theme is expressed clearly but not blatantly.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Masterpeice!
Review: I first became aware of John Irving and Garp when I saw the movie based on the book. The movie, as any of you who have seen it know, was amazing. And while I love it so much, it comes nowhere near the level of greatness that the book attains. Mr. Irving painted such an incredible group of characters in this novel, from Garp himself, to his mother Jenny Fields, to Ellen James, that one can't help but find several with whom to fall in love.

For me, the sign of an incredible and memorable book, one that demands to be read again and again, is a book that either makes me laugh out loud, or cry, or both. Yes, I admit it, I'm a sensitive reader, one who is not afraid to feel the emotions of the characters while following them along the way on the journey of their lives.

As a writer, I find myself, from time to time, reading something and saying, "I wish I had written that," or, "I wish I had created that character." While this is certainly true, in both instances, with The World According to Garp, I can certainly admit when something is above my abilities. And in the case of Garp, there is only one John Irving. So, knowing this, I can return to Garp time and time again as I strive to improve my craft. It is writers like John Irving who give the rest of us something to aspire to.

If you still haven't read The World According to Garp, move it to the top of your reading list. This is one of the great works of our time.

Rating:
Summary: In a World of its Own
Review: Many books have no greater message to be found within them. What you see on the page is what you get, and nothing more. Others have a bounty of insight subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, incorporated into them. John Irving's The World According to Garp is neither. There is no hidden message to be puzzled out from it, but it most certainly does not lack depth. Instead, in one of the most unique and enjoyable books I have ever had the privilege to read, John Irving presents the world as T.S. Garp experiences it.

It is a highlight reel of the life of a fantastic fictional man. We see Garp's origins, the son of an army man who dies before Garp is born, and a nurse who has drifted apart from her rich family. Then there is his growth from a troublesome toddler to curious child to adolescent (to which no adjective can be reasonably ascribed). After graduating from the Steering boarding school, he goes to live in Vienna, Austria, along with his mother. In that dying city he truly begins a writing career that will lead him to fame. So does his mother. He returns home to marry his high school sweetheart Helen Holms and they live through good times and bad throughout the rest of the story, until Garp's tragic and senseless death.

Along the way, Garp sees and reflects on the people he crosses. The Ellen Jamesians, who cut out their own tongues, are one of the groups he grows to loathe. We see his reasons, all his thoughts about them, and are left to form our own ideas about both Garp's opinions and the Ellen Jamesians themselves. This
is the case with all things in The World According to Garp. Nothing is any more a mystery than what is made so by the reader's perceptions. That is what distinguishes this tale.

Although its uniqueness is what makes The World According to Garp (or any other book) great, that alone cannot make it bearable. It is therefore fortunate that it is written in an excellent, readable prose that is never, despite the length of the book, too dense or monotonous. Events, whether humorous, tragic, or heroic, are delivered with exactly their intended emotional effect.

On the front of my edition it reads "America's most jubilant bestseller!" and I certainly agree with that. There is a subtle optimism in even the bleakest of moments. Rather than bring despair, John Irving gives his characters, and his readers, joy. Running the gamut from comedy to philosophy to tragedy, The World According to Garp shines in every way.


Rating:
Summary: COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!
Review: To make it simple - one of the best books I have read in a long time. I was hooked after reading the first page and couldn't put it down. The characters are so amazing and addictive that I found myself thinking about them at work. When I finished reading this book I was depressed that it was over. I would recommend this book to any adult that isn't offended easily.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, and it's about time!
Review: I've read just about all the other John Irving books and loved them all. Ciderhouse Rules, Widow for a Year, you know the list. For some reason, I put off reading this one. I had a feeling that I would be disappointed based on the reviews I'd seen, the snippets I heard from friends, etc. I stayed away from the movie as well.

Finally I picked it up to read over the holidays. What a fabulous read. An amazing combination of comedy, tragedy, poetry, novel, short story, and so on -- just the best. If you've been putting this one off, dive in. You won't be able to put it down, and you won't want it to end. The writing is typical Irving - awesome.



Rating:
Summary: A book that has stuck with me over time
Review: During the summer I was twelve, I carried this book around with me and pored over it. I had it with me in a computer class I took (the class used TRS-80s, to put it in chronological perspective) and I distinctly remember my twentysomething teacher asking, "Isn't that a little... mature for you?" I said, "Nah."

When I was 18, I reread it but I might as well have been reading it for the first time. The sexual references made a lot more sense and I had to laugh at the memory of my pre-teen self carting "Garp" around to summer school with me. The final section, though, was no laughing matter and I distinctly remember being utterly moved to discover the fates of all the characters.

I read it again at 25 and, once again, it seemed like a new book to me -- Garp's marriage, his fear for his children, his mother's perspectives, all struck closer to home for me.

Somebody gave me a copy of the book on tape when I was about to start a long drive at 28, and Irving's introduction is wonderful but the voice of the reader felt so abrasive I couldn't listen to more than a few minutes of it.

Now I'm 34 (roughly the same age Irving was when he published "Garp") and I feel like dipping back into it one more time. I'm looking forward to seeing what works for me, what doesn't work, and what works in different ways. And it'll be good to hang out with Garp again.

Rating:
Summary: Five Stars
Review: This is one of the greatest books out there but then again this book needs no promotion...Most people have heard of its brilliance one way or the other..
Actually...The reason I'm writing this review is because I was amused by Robert Moore's review ...He gave it "one star" and complained that the characters in the novel are "uninteresting and hollow"...John Irving's characters uninteresting and hollow?
This review is not amusing in itself (Just completly off the mark)...but when one reads his other reviews and the trash he gives five stars, it makes one laugh out loud...
One of his reviews-and I'm not making this up- "Buffy the vampire Slayer...In my opinion, the finest series in the history of TV"...
Sometimes I don't think this review section is a good idea....




Rating:
Summary: This is definately one of my favorite books
Review: I absolutely loved this book, I found it in the basement of my house (complete with a crazy cover from the 80s) and read it, and completely loved the story and the style. While it is certainly vulgar at times, I think the story is interesting and engaging, i've recommended it to most of my friends and have gotten them hooked on this book and other Irving books as well.