Ein Meisterwerk: “Like all extraordinary books, ‘Garp’ defies synopsis”, bemerkte ein Kritiker kurz nach Erscheinen von “The world according to Garp” im Jahr 1978. Dem ist nicht viel hinzuzufügen. Irvings Roman behandelt die universellen Themen des menschlichen Lebens wie es in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten selten geschehen ist. Liebe, Hass, Humor und Tragik liegen so nahe beinander, dass man nicht weiss, ob man lachen darf oder weinen soll.
Das Ergebnis ist eine melancholische aber niemals deprimierende Ode an das Leben, welches trotz aller Rückschläge, Ängste, Verluste und Katastrophen als einzigartig und wunderschön zelebriert wird.Wer wissen will, wie transsexuelle Footballspieler, radikale Feministinnen, die sich ihre Zungen abhacken, und vor allem eine Kröte mit all dem zu tun haben, muss den Roman schon selbst lessen. Es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall. “The world according to Garp” ist eines der Meisterwerke der vergangenen 30 Jahre.

I love this book, have loved it since it was first published in the late 70s, and I reread it every year or two. Like all well crafted books, the reader sees something more or something differently in each reading. Irving is actually an 18th century writer resurrected. He reminds me of the comic Laurence Sterne whose Tristram Shandy still delights. Also like earlier writers, Irving believes in plot and characterization -- no minimalism for him. And he favors semi-colons which most modern writers no longer use or use correctly. Punctuation is divine and used correctly it can add an important dimension to your work.

"I was a sexual suspect." I'll remember that proclamation all my life. Garp's mother is wholly original in her view toward life. Her retreat, which includes members of the Ellen Jamesians and a transsexual among others, was an important sanctuary in this book for many reasons.

But, for many fans, this book grabbed them in the shocking middle, the event that changed everything, totally unexpected (but foreshadowed properly, just overlooked).

Garp, the book, also spawned a trend in family making for the men. For awhile, it was popular to have a lot of kids in a strong, caring family structure. Robin Williams, who played Garp in a very decent movie version, rearranged his family life after playing this role.

Irving has a fondness for bears and the bizarre that I don't share; bears pop up in almost all his books. I can't think of any of his books that is better for including the bears.

This book and Cider House Rules are my favorite Irving novels. ( )

This is the second book by Irving that I have read, and even though I did not find it quite as good as a prayer for Owen Meany, it is still a very good novel. I like the way the unique and interesting characters (a nervous writer, his brilliant professor wife, his feminist (or is she?) nurse mother and his sex-reassigned, ex-rugby player friend, to mention a few) complement each other, and the way he makes extraordinary events seem quite believable.

I like Irving's sense of humour, and how it does not stand in the way of a serious plot; as an example, take the Under Toad, at first a cute mishearing by one of the main character's children, but later a word used to describe all the fears the parents have for their family.

There are parts of the book that are macabre, or even downright disgusting. Some are required for the plot, to get a sense of what the characters are going through, but I do feel that the book could have done without others. It maked a change of tone that comes suddenly, and in a way I felt tricked by the author - the book suddenly turns into something else, something darker than what I started, and then, a chapter later, it is back to normal. As I said, I see the point of at least some of the grim parts, but I still do not appreciate the sudden changes and the graphicness of some of them.

All in all, I am still happy that I picked this up from the library. I was captivated from start to finish. I would reccomend it to others... But warn them too. ( )

I actually didn't like the eponymous hero very much, or at least not consistently. Nevertheless, Irving creates an often humourous, occasionally even quite brilliant story and, likeable or not, has a knack for creating character that are...not quite real but at least easily imagined by the reader. As for Roberta Muldoon - well, if only she had a book to herself! ( )

This book seems very dated. I'm sure when it was first published its view on feminism as well as its over the top quirkiness seemed fresh. I found it alternately amusing and mind-numbingly boring. The over-sensualized depiction of rape was the straw that broke the camel's back though. ( )

Took me forever to finish it! Weird, traumatic, but still somehow compelling, thought-provoking story of fear and lust and loss. Some very disturbing scenes. Some frustrating but very interesting characters. Irving is an excellent writer, but overall I did not enjoy this book. I can see the draw for some people, but it's not something I'll ever read again. ( )

Hilarious and serious at the same time, "The Word According to Garp" is among my top 10 favorite books. John Irving began writing it in the wake of the radical feminism of the early 1970's. Recently, Irving concluded that the book is about "a father's fears" but also acknowledges, "it had seemed at one time, when I was beginning the novel, that the polarization of the sexes was a dominant theme; the story was about men and women growing farther and farther apart."

A central theme is the difficulty men and women have in understanding and relating to each another. The character in the book best able to see things from both a male and female perspective is the transsexual former Philadelphia Eagles tight end, Roberta Muldoon. She calls Garp in the middle of the night after having been rejected by a male lover:

"Oh, I never knew what shits men were until I became a woman," Roberta said.
"I'll bet you could have taken him, Roberta," Garp said. "Why didn't you beat the shit out of him?"
"You don't understand," Roberta said. "I don't feel like beating the shit out of anyone, anymore. I'm a woman!"

It is ironic that Garp, reviled by the radical feminist Ellen Jamesians shows his inherent "open mindedness" about traditional gender roles earlier in the book when he happily stays at home to write, take care of his son Duncan, and make meals while his wife Helen earns a living as an English professor:

"... she had agreed to have a child only if Garp would agree to take care of it. Garp loved the idea of never having to go out. He wrote and took care of Duncan; he cooked and wrote and took care of Duncan some more. When Helen came home, she came home to a reasonably happy homemaker."

In another example of gender reversal, Garp is forced to attend his own mother's funeral in drag because it is the "first feminist funeral" and men are not admitted. After he is recognized, he must run to escape the outraged feminists at the funeral. He catches a taxi to the airport and has to listen (dressed as a woman) to the cabby's sexist views about the female candidate for governor of New Hampshire who let her emotions about the assassination of Jenny Fields show in public and consequently lost the election. Garp gets into an argument with the cabby because he is annoyed at the driver’s sexist point of view:

"In my opinion," the cabby said, "it took something like that shooting to show the people that the woman couldn't handle the job, you know?"
"Shut up and drive," Garp said.
"Look, honey," the cabby said. "I don't have to put up with no abuse."
"You're an asshole and a moron," Garp told him, "and if you don't drive me to the airport with your mouth shut, I'll tell a cop you tried to paw me all over."

Next, when he gets on the plane to Boston he first finds himself seated next to a man who tries to pick him up:

"Perhaps, when we're in the air," the man said, knowingly, "I could buy you a little drink?" His small, close-together eyes were riveted on the twisted zipper of Garp's straining turquoise jump suit.
Garp felt a peculiar kind of unfairness overwhelm him. He had not asked to have such an anatomy.
"That's some suit you got," said Garp's leering seat partner.
"Go stick it in your ear," Garp said.

Ultimately, the narrow-minded vicious side of radical feminism is parodied in the Ellen Jamesians. The brutal ridiculousness of their gesture shows what Irving thinks of them. These radicals mutilate themselves by having their tongues cut out in protest over a young girl named Ellen James who has been raped at age 11 and then had her tongue cut out by her assailant so she cannot identify him. Late in the book, after the assassination of Jenny Fields, Garp's view of the Ellen Jamesians is described:

"It was madness that had killed Jenny Fields, his mother. It was extremism. It was self-righteous, fanatical, and monstrous self-pity. Kenny Truckenmiller was only a special kind of moron: a true believer who was also a thug. He was a man who pitied himself so blindly that he could make absolute enemies out of people who contributed only the ideas to his undoing. And how was an Ellen Jamesian any different? Was not her gesture as desperate, and as empty of an understanding of human complexity?"

Garp finally meets Ellen James on the plane to Boston when she ends up seated next to him, and the reader finds out what she thinks about the Ellen Jamesians, and it is no surprise:

"I hate the Ellen Jamesians," she wrote. "I would never do this to myself." She opened her mouth and pointed to the wide absence in there. Garp cringed. "I want to talk; I want to say everything," wrote Ellen James. ( )

There is no better last line in any other book I've read! ( )

Interesting story about a character named T. S. Garp and the people he encounters growing up. There are so many issues that are dealt with in this story, such as single parenting, marital affairs, feminism, etc. Rich in plot and characters, this book will make you laugh, cry and enjoy the story unfolding before you as you turn each page. A must read for any Irving fan. ( )

Trying to explain the plot of an Irving novel is like trying to platt steam but, in a nutshell, a forthright, no-nonsense, politically active nurse conceives a child with a brain-damaged patient who then dies. The resulting offspring goes on to have adventures varying from the sublime to the ridiculous- all of them enjoyable for the reader. Go out and buy yourself a copy! ( )

In my Top Ten and one of my many John Irving favorites. You can see the full review at: http://laurareviews.blogspot.com/2009... ( )

One of those rare novels that can make you want to laugh and cry at the same time. John Irving at his best. ( )

Really funny. Wonderful tale of Jenny, a single mother, who raises her only son, Garp, at a boy's school where she is the school nurse. This is a raucous coming-of-age adventure. I liked the characters so much that I cried when the book ended. ( )

Not as good as 'A Prayer for Owen Meaney', but still good. ( )

Eccentric, tragic, hillarious, and classic are a few words that describe this great Irving novel. I like Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany better, but this is a close third. ( )

This is probably my favourite fiction book of all time. I don't even know how many times I have read it, but each time I do, it makes me happy. Love it. ( )

T.S. Garp, the title character in this book, begins life in a rather unconventional way, but with the eccentric group of characters he encounters throughout his life there's no surprise there. John Irving pulls together a rich story about a writer trying to etch out a name for himself while staying true to the art of writing. Irving does an excellent job of developing his characters. It's also amazing how he can blend the believable and the truly warped into a great plot. ( )

I'm one of those for whom the book just didn't work. It tried to do too much and ended up feeling slow. I could appreciate the writing and the incredible detail of his world but had to struggle through the whole first part to maintain momentum. I definitely preferred Cider House Rules. ( )

Once again, John Irving doesn't disappoint. Quirky, hysterical, heart wrenching. ( )

John Irving’s The World According to Garp is full of quirky characters and extreme situations. It jumps back and forth from being laugh-out-loud funny to incredibly sad to just plain bizarre. The protagonist, T.S. Garp, is a writer. We are treated to the wacky stories he writes as well as the unlikely situations that form his life. The first third of the book wasn’t all that compelling, but I’m glad I stuck with it. This early novel of Irving’s is indeed my favorite. ( )

This is Irving's break-through novel, and is one of the three best he wrote as of 2008, the other two being "Prayer for Owen Meany" and "The Cider House Rules." Irving's weird blend of liberalism coupled with Yankee stoicism reminds this reader of Nathaniel Hawthorne here and Charles Dickens of the English novels. ( )

After reading this book in High School and thinking it was the best thing ever, I reread it recently--9 years later. I was amazed by how well developed each character was. On the surface, the plot seems both fanciful and typical. However, the way Irving uses and describes the characters and their surroundings makes this book the experience that it is. It is more than worth the time it takes to read. ( )

As I recall, it was funny. I liked the first part about the mother the most. The rest seemed to be a typical author's self-absorbed autobiographical view of an author's life. ( )

Garp was born by a self described asexual mother who does not want a husband. The details of his conception are only the beginning of his strange and eventful life. This book spans Garp's whole life, and is richly detailed. The story has many crazy plots, but they all have some core truth that the reader can really connect with. This novel is longer, but a reader will really see that Irving's recurring themes are used to hit home with his characters.

A favorite. Irving's characters grow so much and do so much it's impossible not to feel as if you know them. This one barely eeks out "A Prayer for Owen Meany" as my favorite work by Irving, mostly due to the fact that it was the first of the two I read, so it was my first shot at a book in Irving's fresh style. I love everything that happens, and how even the chance stuff seems to fit so well as something that could actually happen and still be convincing as coincidence. Emotions are not necessarily raw, but 100% authentic. That's why I love it. ( )