This is the life and times of T.S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields-- a feminist leader ahead of her times. 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. 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. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries, this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."
Reader from Williamstown, MA:
Wow - I was so shocked when I read this novel. John Irving is a very interesting writer. I knew nothing of the book until my teacher recommended it. I laughed and cried all at the same time. This novel made me think about life and then I related it to other mediums and forms. John Irving wrote about a person's life in great detail. We don't see that unless it is a life of some kid that lives in a huge apartment in NYC and makes no money. This was a real story. I can see why some people didn't like it; it is disturbing in a way, but life is. Those are people that ignore the bad things and live their merry life...
Reader from Lake Tahoe, NV:
I read this book all at once, in about eight hours straight-- so I figured it at least deserved something for keeping my attention that long. It didn't live up to my expectations, though. I read it based on the glowing reviews and I was disappointed. I thought that a lot of the scenes were overdone and a bit contrived-- the accident in the driveway, for example, was a bit much. And for his kid Duncan to lose multiple body parts-- enough is enough. And outlining everyone's deaths at the end seemed a bit melodramatic. There was no message to this book, either, and nothing it really made me ponder, except maybe the hazards of coasting into your driveway with the lights off. The last line about "terminal cases" sounds cool, but it just hangs there, not attached to anything. I thought Garp would be more of a philosopher, or at least more of an interesting weirdo, but he was realy just a mediocre writer who got off on adultery and chasing speeding cars.
CRITICS' REVIEW:
Editor at Amazon.com
Irving packs wild characters and weird events into his classic (novel)...while amazingly maintaining the rough feel of realism in every scene and the pulse of life in every heart. Many novelists of his time might have populated a novel with a novelist protagonist whose life and books comment on each other and the novel we're reading. Transsexual football players, ball turret gunners lobotomized in battle, multiple adultery, unicycling bears, mad feminists who amputate their tongues in sympathy with the celebrated victim of a horrifying rape--Irving made them all people. Even the bear is a fitting character.
