Simply because she prefers to live without men. We laugh at Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, who becomes a feminist leader Garp), who takes shrapnel in the brain during World War II and dies of regressive infantilism. We laugh at Garp'sįather, Technical Sergeant Garp (hence his son's name, T.S. In fact, we find ourselves laughing throughout "The World According to Garp," and at some of the damndest things. It is not the first time we have laughed for what seem to be inappropriate reasons, nor will it be the last. There we are, numb with shock and sick with concern, and suddenly we are laughing.Īnd not feeling all that guilty about doing so either. Yet one of our reactions to this catastrophe is to burst out laughing. Garp, the writer-protagonist of the story Helen, Garp's English professor-wife their two sons, 10-year-oldĭuncan and 5-year old Walt and a graduate student with whom Helen is having an affair. Moreover, at the point in the story when the accident occurs, we have grown extremely attached to the characters involved-who are T.S. Way down to why the knob on a Volvo's gear shift happens to be missing. It is highly realistic, too, in order to explain exactly how it happens, one would have to sum up dozens of plot details, all the
Bones are broken, flesh is torn, eyes are put out, and appendages are severed. At the climax of John Irving's fourth novel, "The World According to Garp," a truly horrifyingĪutomobile accident occurs. The World According to Garp By John Irving "A large talent announces itself on practically every page.Books of the Times By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT "A social tragi-comedy of such velocity that it reads rather like a domestic sequel to Catch-22." - The Observer (London) Irving's characters will stay alive for years to come." - Chicago Tribune "A brilliant panoply of current attitudes toward sex, marriage and parenthood, the feminist movement and - above all - the concept of delineated sexual roles. "John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist." - Los Angeles Times In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries- with more than ten million copies in print-this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow" yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son theirs is a world of sexual extremes-even of sexual assassinations. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields-a feminist leader ahead of her times. New York Times bestseller - 20th anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author - "A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking."- The Washington Post
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