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The World According to Garp: Summary and book reviews of The World According to Garp by John Irving, plus links to an excerpt from The World According to Garp and a biography of John Irving.

The World According to Garp

The World According to Garp
by John Irving
Hardcover: Apr 1978,
720 pages.
Paperback: Jun 1997,
437 pages.

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BOOK SUMMARY

The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard sonThe World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.

Media Reviews

  The New Republic
Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it. . . . Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Brilliant, funny, and consistently wise; a work of vast talent.

  The Washington Post
A wonderful novel, full of energy and art.

  Library Journal
Like Garp, this is a complex, sad, and quite compelling tale.

Recent Reader Reviews

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