the book

The World According to Garp is one of John Irving's best-known novels. First published in 1976, it tells the life story of T.S. Garp, a misunderstood writer and son of a noted feminist author and activist. It contains the familiar mix of comedy and tragedy found in all of John Irving's works, as well as Irving's usual use of foreshadowing and coincidence (which he employed to their greatest extent in his 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany.)

The story begins before Garp is born. His mother, Jenny Fields, is a nurse and is determinedly individualistic: she decides that she wishes to conceive a child, but she has no desire to marry or have a relationship with a man. So she impregnates herself with the help of a brain-damaged patient who is constantly aroused. The patient is Technical Sargeant Garp, a gunner in the Air Force, and she names her child with the initials of his father's rank, although young Garp is only ever known as "Garp". The experience of being a single mother in an era when this is anything but mainstream leads Jenny to write her autobiography, which is entitled A Sexual Suspect and begins with the line: "In this dirty-minded world, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore or fast on your way to becoming one or the other." Her book becomes a feminist manifesto, and Jenny, always clad in her nurse's uniform, becomes a famous national figure.

For much of the story, his mother's achievement, although wholly bereft of literary value, overshadow's Garp's own achievements - a few modestly successful but well-regarded novels, heavily based on his own life. Garp, by now, has married a professor of English and is raising two children, whom he loves with a paranoid force. He and his wife love each other, but they each engage in infidelity, and his wife's break-up with a student leads to the most important event in the story, a family-altering tragedy.

Life is, according to Garp, an "X-rated soap opera", and this story certainly has the same alternately comical and despairing feel of a soap opera. He draws upon his experience to craft his third novel, The World According to Bensenhaver, an awful, violent melodrama that catapults him to fame and reknown, and makes him a feminist icon in his own right. This book, Garp's worst, is his most popular, and the reader can't help but wonder whether John Irving's own opinions of the literary world influenced Garp's cynicism regarding the public's taste.

The World According to Garp is conspicuous as the most impressive exhibition of its author's propensity for the bizarre. The characters are fascinating and memorable: Jenny Fields, who views so many of the world's problems as "lust", Garp's wife, who tells him she will only marry a writer, and thus leads him to become one, Garp's friend Roberta Muldoon, formerly Robert, who became associated with Jenny after leaving her position as a tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles to get a sex-change operation.

This is a memorable, wonderfully-written book, one of the author's best. It features the familiar themes of bears, Vienna, and wrestlers-turned-writers that fill so many of John Irving's novels. It is true to life, even if it is improbable and unrealistic to the extreme, because of its perfect comprehension of the tragedy and comedy underlying real life, of the importance of coincidence and the commonness of the absurd and unlikely.

the movie

Released in 1982, the movie has a remarkable cast. Robin Williams plays Garp, Mary Beth Hurt is his wife, Glenn Close is especially wonderful as his mother, and John Lithgow is funny and impressive in his depiction of Roberta. Any movie based on a book of Garp's impressive scope must abridge the story greatly, but the movie captures in a wonderful way the sensibility and truth of the book.

The movie is less important than the book, but is worth seeing - black comedy, the ridiculous, and the pain of loss are all well-captured by the excellent cast. The idiosyncracies of the characters are all represented perfectly, and Robin Williams is wonderful, in one of his greatest performances, especially in depicting Garp's neurotic, overprotective love for his children. Glenn Close is remarkable as always, portraying the unique character of Jenny Fields perfectly. John Lithgow is comfortable and hilarious, in drag, as Roberta Muldoon. The movie's only flaw is the way it occasionally seems episodic - depicting the improbable events of the book, but sometimes missing the idea of coincidence that connects the seemingly separate events into a whole.

It is, however, a wonderful adaptation of the book, and serves its purpose admirably. It's well-worth watching, and is one of the few movies based upon a book that doesn't disappoint the book's fans. Watch for John Irving in a cameo as a referee in a wrestling match.