Beginnings

Welcome friends! I have started this entry in the global technosphere because I have been in love with books since the age of 2. Among the busy business of being a new teacher, this is my outlet for sharing thoughts on a love of reading a wide variety of books. My inspiration can be summed up with a yearbook quote from a teacher written when I was 8: "To the only girl at recess I see reading a book. Good for you!"
My blog title is quoted from a classmate who asked me this once. Believe it or not, I've also heard it as a teacher :D

Friday, September 10, 2010

The World According to Garp- John Irving

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Published:  1978
Length:  606 pages
ISBN:  0676973825
Genre:  Literary Fiction

Start date: July 2010
Finished date: July 2010

Where from: Chapters-Indigo
Why Read: From TBR list; the unusual title captivated me

Summary: Novelist T.S. Garp, the son of a feminist icon, struggles to step away from her shadow to bring out his own fading talents, finding material from the tragic, bizarre, and odd, incredible encounters of his life.

Review:

It is rare to find a novel so complete without being rushed and without leaving any plot strings unraveled, with every character given finality in either death or a footnote of their current circumstances. Garp’s conception is criminal, his childhood adventurous, and his future bright with early potential as a writer from the imaginative short story "The Pension Grillparzer" and his talent as an amateur wrestler.

What hinders his progress is his relationships: Garp remains at odds with his mother, nurse turned feminist icon Jenny Fields, whose cult following after the publication of her memoir gives her a destiny to protect & harbour disenfranchised women, including those that cause their own misery as “Ellen Jamisons,” who cut out their tongues in protest for the rape of a girl by that name. His marriage to the meek, bookish teacher Helen is marred by affairs that lead to unspeakable tragedy that convinces Garp lust is the bane of tragedy & misfortune retold in a pitiful novel, The World According to Bensenhaver.

But equaling its tragedies are the comic underpinnings such as Garp’s friendship with Roberta, a transvestite ex-football player, his antagonistic relationship with the neighbouring Steering family & their dog, Bonkie, and his secret pining for Alice, the lisping wife of a friend & colleague.

It takes getting used to the nutty encounters & shell-shocked existence Garp seems to lead, but I soon eased into it and became mesmerized by the supporting characters that crop up over the years of his life and either sustain a place in his heart or wither off entirely, only to be caricatured in his writing.

The novel is often overlooked when choosing a “perfect” novel, but I wouldn’t hesitate to give it the honour. It is creatively offbeat, masterfully structured, and, by its end, comes full circle in producing a multidimensional life story that is littered with delightful, if oddball, characters in a thoughtful study of “terminal cases.”

I haven't yet seen the movie version, but I heard it was decent.

Rank: (A+)- A must-read!

1 comment:

  1. The movie is very good and Robin Williams is a perfect Garp. The episodes added by the scriptwriters are in perfect sync with the novel.

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