This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. 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."
This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. 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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Find The World According to Garp John Irving in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The World According to Garp John Irving in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
3 books in catalog
Tragicomic storytelling, eccentric character portraits, and intricate narrative structures define a literary career spanning sixteen novels translated into more than thirty-five languages. The author John Irving established his international reputation with his fourth novel, The World According to Garp, which earned a National Book Award in 1980 and brought his distinct narrative style to millions of readers worldwide.
Born John Wallace Blunt Jr. in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, he was later renamed John Winslow Irving after his mother remarried in 1948. He attended the University of New Hampshire and the University of Iowa before publishing his debut novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968 at twenty-six years old. Alongside his literary pursuits, he competed as a wrestler for twenty years and coached the sport until he was forty-seven, drawing on his athletic experiences to shape the physical discipline and recurring motifs in his fiction. Over his career, he has achieved significant recognition across mediums, receiving three National Book Award nominations—winning once in 1980 for The World According to Garp—an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story "Interior Space", an Academy Award in 2000 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules, and a Lambda Literary Award in 2013 for his novel In One Person. A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, he resides in Toronto.
Irving's narrative technique relies on expansive, character-driven plotting, vivid tragicomedy, and recurring motifs such as wrestling, boarding schools, family dynamics, mortality, and personal identity. Influenced by Victorian fiction and classic literature, his novels frequently balance absurd humor with deep grief and social critique. His works are known for detailed world-building and empathetic character development, exploring complex social issues, non-traditional family structures, and human vulnerability across multi-generational timelines.
3 books in catalog
Tragicomic storytelling, eccentric character portraits, and intricate narrative structures define a literary career spanning sixteen novels translated into more than thirty-five languages. The author John Irving established his international reputation with his fourth novel, The World According to Garp, which earned a National Book Award in 1980 and brought his distinct narrative style to millions of readers worldwide.
Born John Wallace Blunt Jr. in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, he was later renamed John Winslow Irving after his mother remarried in 1948. He attended the University of New Hampshire and the University of Iowa before publishing his debut novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968 at twenty-six years old. Alongside his literary pursuits, he competed as a wrestler for twenty years and coached the sport until he was forty-seven, drawing on his athletic experiences to shape the physical discipline and recurring motifs in his fiction. Over his career, he has achieved significant recognition across mediums, receiving three National Book Award nominations—winning once in 1980 for The World According to Garp—an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story "Interior Space", an Academy Award in 2000 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules, and a Lambda Literary Award in 2013 for his novel In One Person. A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, he resides in Toronto.
Irving's narrative technique relies on expansive, character-driven plotting, vivid tragicomedy, and recurring motifs such as wrestling, boarding schools, family dynamics, mortality, and personal identity. Influenced by Victorian fiction and classic literature, his novels frequently balance absurd humor with deep grief and social critique. His works are known for detailed world-building and empathetic character development, exploring complex social issues, non-traditional family structures, and human vulnerability across multi-generational timelines.
