The World According to Garp: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by John Irving
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The World According to Garp: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by

John Irving

(Author)

4.5

-

2,815 ratings


This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields, a feminist leader ahead of her time. 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–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.”

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ISBN-10

0345418018

ISBN-13

978-0345418012

Print length

437 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Ballantine Books

Publication date

June 22, 1997

Dimensions

5.12 x 1.11 x 7.98 inches

Item weight

13.3 ounces


Popular Highlights in this book

  • You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.

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Product details

ASIN :

B07J44W78R

File size :

1392 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial Reviews

“The most powerful and profound novel about women written by a man in our generation . . . Like all extraordinary books, Garp defies synopsis. . . . A marvelous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it. . . . Irving’s blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Brilliant, funny, and consistently wise; a work of vast talent.”—The New Republic

“A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking.”—Washington Post


Sample

1

Boston Mercy

GARP’S MOTHER, JENNY Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater. This was shortly after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and people were being tolerant of soldiers, because suddenly everyone was a soldier, but Jenny Fields was quite firm in her intolerance of the behavior of men in general and soldiers in particular. In the movie theater she had to move three times, but each time the soldier moved closer to her until she was sitting against the musty wall, her view of the newsreel almost blocked by some silly colonnade, and she resolved she would not get up and move again. The soldier moved once more and sat beside her.

Jenny was twenty-two. She had dropped out of college almost as soon as she’d begun, but she had finished her nursing-school program at the head of her class and she enjoyed being a nurse. She was an athletic-looking young woman who always had high color in her cheeks; she had dark, glossy hair and what her mother called a mannish way of walking (she swung her arms), and her rump and hips were so slender and hard that, from behind, she resembled a young boy. In Jenny’s opinion, her breasts were too large; she thought the ostentation of her bust made her look “cheap and easy.”

She was nothing of the kind. In fact, she had dropped out of college when she suspected that the chief purpose of her parents’ sending her to Wellesley had been to have her dated by and eventually mated to some well-bred man. The recommendation of Wellesley had come from her older brothers, who had assured her parents that Wellesley women were not thought of loosely and were considered high in marriage potential. Jenny felt that her education was merely a polite way to bide time, as if she were really a cow, being prepared only for the insertion of the device for artificial insemination.

Her declared major had been English literature, but when it seemed to her that her classmates were chiefly concerned with acquiring the sophistication and the poise to deal with men, she had no trouble leaving literature for nursing. She saw nursing as something that could be put into immediate practice, and its study had no ulterior motive that Jenny could see (later she wrote, in her famous autobiography, that too many nurses put themselves on display for too many doctors; but then her nursing days were over).

She liked the simple, no-nonsense uniform; the blouse of the dress made less of her breasts; the shoes were comfortable, and suited to her fast pace of walking. When she was at the night desk, she could still read. She did not miss the young college men, who were sulky and disappointed if you wouldn’t compromise yourself, and superior and aloof if you would. At the hospital she saw more soldiers and working boys than college men, and they were franker and less pretentious in their expectations; if you compromised yourself a little, they seemed at least grateful to see you again. Then, suddenly, everyone was a soldier—and full of the self-importance of college boys—and Jenny Fields stopped having anything to do with men.

“My mother,” Garp wrote, “was a lone wolf.”

THE FIELDS’ FAMILY fortune was in shoes, though Mrs. Fields, a former Boston Weeks, had brought some money of her own to the marriage. The Fields family had managed well enough with footwear to have removed themselves from the shoe factories years ago. They lived in a large, shingled house on the New Hampshire shore at Dog’s Head Harbor. Jenny went home for her days and nights off—mainly to please her mother, and to convince the grande dame that although Jenny was “slumming her life away as a nurse,” as her mother remarked, she was not developing slovenly habits in her speech or in her moral person.

Jenny frequently met her brothers at the North Station and rode home on the train with them. As all members of the Fields family were bidden to do, they rode on the right-hand side of the Boston and Maine when the train left Boston and sat on the left when they returned. This complied with the wishes of the senior Mr. Fields, who admitted that the ugliest scenery lay out that side of the train, but he felt that all Fieldses should be forced to face the grimy source of their independence and higher life. On the right-hand side of the train, leaving Boston, and on the left as you returned, you passed the main Fields Factory Outlet in Haverhill, and the vast billboard with the huge work shoe taking a firm step toward you. The billboard towered above the railroad yard and was reflected in countless miniatures in the windows of the shoe plant. Beneath this menacing, advancing foot were the words:

FIELDS FOR YOUR FEET

IN THE FACTORY OR IN

THE FIELDS!

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About the authors

John Irving

John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story "Interior Space." In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules-a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

2,815 global ratings

Jason Adams

Jason Adams

5

A novel about terminal cases

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020

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Though “The World According to Garp” is one of John Irving’s early works, it is one of the later ones that I have read. “I was a big fan of “A Widow for One Year” and the resonance between the novels is interesting, almost as if Irving performed a thought exercise pitching forward the story of Garp ten years into the future. How might a family with tragedy that sought solace in a new life really be healed? Beyond that perceived linkage, I found it refreshing that social issues, such as feminism and the transgender experience, had a popular forum decades ahead of the current political climate. To a certain extent, it highlights how reactionary political forces have reignited issues that at one point seemed close to resolution as a way to inflame a base. As Irving points out in his forward, at one point he was concerned that his novel would be an anachronism of an unenlightened age, only to find that it is unfortunately even more appropriate to the current climate. At its heart is the evocative language and storytelling of Irving, who has a gift for creating memorable characters and situations. At times, it gets a little “Inside Baseball” about the process of writing and the publishing industry - so much so that it is hard to credit the protests of the author that it is not autobiography. I found the characters both fantastic and relatable, which is an accomplishment. The moody foreshadowing that permeates the novel builds effectively to the bittersweet finale. My takeaway is that the World According to Garp is one obsessed with the power of death, a power that can only be mitigated by building the life that suits the person and not the mob. A great novel.

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2 people found this helpful

Betsy

Betsy

5

Still a Huge Fan!

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2019

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Well, I'm not sure if it's good or bad news that my tastes haven't changed much since middle school ;)

As a tween, I made an English teacher super, super angry by attempting to do some sort of book report on Garp--after simply attempting to retell just part of the first chapter, someone needed to get out the smelling salts for that woman! (side note: If you ever tell a kid a book is "banned," that's a surefire way to make sure they devour it...)

Way back then, I fell in love with Garp and John Irving, but it was probably mostly because of the shock value. At that point, it was hands down the most screwed up thing I had ever read. After reading a few "duds" in a row, I decided to return to Garp to see how I (hopefully!) would look at it differently much, much later.

The verdict? I still love Garp, and I still adore John Irving...but thankfully, my reasons for doing so have matured. I could write a novel about this novel, but I'll try to keep it brief!

(Before even getting to the text itself, Irving's screed against Trumpian politics in his new introduction made me want to give him a standing ovation!)

Without delving deeply into plot, I think the overall reason I love Garp and Irving is that the writing is both believable and unbelievable at the same time. I tend to like stories that are either very realistic or totally fanciful, and Irving is one of the few people whose writing manages to be both things at the same time.

On the surface, the things that happen to the characters are so ridiculous (and usually terrible) that the plot seems beyond belief. But after you sit with them, you realize that the events and the characters' actions are so messy, flawed, and imperfect that they seem incredibly real.

As one of the minor characters explains: “A book feels true when it feels true,” she said to him, impatiently. “A book’s true when you can say, ‘Yeah! That’s just how damn people behave all the time.’ Then you know it’s true,” Jillsy said.

Garp is ridiculous, but it's real. To the horror of my middle school English teacher, I still give it seventy bajillion stars :)

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71 people found this helpful

Michael P. Bobbitt

Michael P. Bobbitt

5

Life Changing

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2022

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I watched this film years ago when I was either in my teens or twenties. Something about it then resonated with me and I knew I should revisit it some day. My wife and I have a podcast where we make each other watch a movie the other has never seen before. Garp was coming up, so I wanted to challenge myself to read the novel before we recorded. I didn't quite make it because Irving's writing is so dense, but I forged on after we recorded. I couldn't stop reading. This story spoke to me in ways the movie simply fails on. I am a standup comedian. I haven't been performing as much lately because I have a family now. I wonder, like Garp does, how do I define myself then? Am I still a comedian. Just like if he isn't writing, is he still a writer? The pursuit of art and excellence at the expense of anything else just really hit me hard. I'm so glad I read this. I feel like a better person for having done so. The through-line I felt was that nothing in life is binary. There is no right or wrong. Comedy and tragedy. Everything is somewhere in between. What a beautifully moving, heart breaking, heart warming, witty, timely novel. Especially in this age of a polarized United States and women's rights being taken away, The World According to Garp is perhaps more important now than it ever has been before.

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21 people found this helpful

shultho

shultho

5

I Finally Read Garp!

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024

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Shortly after seeing the Robin Williams movie of the same name I resolved to read the book. Well…it took some more time than I’d anticipated, but, here I am, having finally finished it! I must say, it was strange, sad, happy, confusing and entertaining…all at the same time! And, you know, when it comes right down to it, isn’t that what a good book should do?

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Frank Donnelly

Frank Donnelly

4

An Interesting And Very Different Novel, Thought Provoking, But Potentially Distasteful

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2020

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"The World According to Garp" is a very different novel first copyright being 1976. I believe it was published in 1978. It is somewhat lengthy compared to some contemporary light fiction. Although highly readable, it is not a light read. The work required my full attention much of the time. Parts of the novel I enjoyed very much. Parts of the novel I merely endured. Parts of the novel I found extremely disturbing. I can tell it is very good writing, but I did not always like it. I can easily see how someone simply looking for an enjoyable reading experience might strongly dislike it.

Although well written and often thoughtful novel, there are episodes of extreme violence and depictions of mutilation and he threat of a multilation of a child that I found disgusting. This depicted violence must serve some purpose in the judgement of the author or else it would be little more than an obscenity. Well intentioned or not, a prospective reader should be aware of what awaits you.

The author himself regards this novel as a "feminist novel". I can discern that within the novel. To be honest about it, i sometimes struggle with the notion of feminist novels composed by male authors. I am a male, retired police detective. I investigated hundreds of violent felonies committed by males against women and children, including homicides. I came to consider myself a feminist although I seldom spoke of this within the male police community. Sometimes when I read a novel by a male who is, or is attempting to be, a "feminist" author, I find the writing inconsistent with my view of feminism. I don't know, maybe that is normal and maybe I am the one who does not get it. I do know that the feminist community is not monolithic.

Keeping in mind this novel was composed in the 1970s, reading it now strikes an occasional discordant note with me. One of the characters, a feminist nurse, commits an act that can only be now called a sexual assault. I was a police officer in the 1970s and "if the shoe was on the other foot" and a male had committed this act upon a disabled female under his care, and if the case was mine, the setting for rest of the story would have been in a prison. I cannot help but wonder how a female author would have constructed the fictional situation.

In any event, in the main, I am very glad to have finally read this novel. Parts of it I liked very much. Parts, I disliked as much. Parts, I simply plodded through. John Irving is clearly not a superficial writer. I absolutely intend to read more of his work. Thank You...

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88 people found this helpful

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