I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book, though overall it was pretty good. First, I'd like to note that going into the book I knew nothing about it except that people had told me "it's a guy book". Honestly, after reading the book, I don't really see why. It discussed feminism in great detail, and though the protagonist was male and occasionally took issue with feminism, he was not really divisive in any way. In other words, only women looking to find fault in the book would dislike it, and they would do so for the wrong reasons.

Generally, the book was funny. If I had to describe it, I would say it was a very holistic tale of a writer's life and personal beliefs. It's told from a great perspective and is generally very readable. My only real issues with the text were the fact that Irving has a somewhat morbid fascination with maiming his characters and Irving's overwhelming use of "returning characters". The former is pretty self explanatory, and the latter was simply an issue that may have been unique to me. I find it frustrating when characters introduced in the beginning come back to kill other characters later for strange reasons. It makes the book less believable, and the world of the novel becomes too small.

Overall, it was worth the read, but I'm not sure why it's considered such a classic. Perhaps just because it was such a frank and well written depiction of a man's life? ( )

A good read, amusing, well written, difficult at times, but I liked it. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2011 about this read: "Glad I read it - recalled some of the story from the movie, but book much deeper and better. T.S. Garp was a loving, worried, and fretful soul. The Pension Grillparzer famous story within a story - Vienna and I liked it!" ( )

This one left me with a good feeling, though I can't recall anything about it, except something about a hotel. ( )

This book just charms my socks off. Much more fun than the movie. I read it in high school and loved it, then read it again a few years ago and loved it again. Twisted, straightforward, and engrossing. ( )