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| 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!
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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