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The World According to Garp

A Novel

Author John Irving
Look inside
Paperback
$20.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Dutton
5.41"W x 8.15"H x 1.1"D  
On sale Aug 31, 2021 | 544 Pages | 978-0-593-18687-9
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
Winner of the National Book Award

“Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it.” —The New Republic

“Wonderful . . . full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking.” —Washington Post

Powerful and political, with unforgettable characters and timeless themes, The World According to Garp is John Irving’s breakout novel. The precursor of Irving’s later protest novels, it is the story of Jenny, an unmarried nurse who becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing—and of her son, Garp, less beloved but no less polarizing.
 
From the tragicomic tone of its first sentence to its mordantly funny last line—“we are all terminal cases”—The World According to Garp maintains a breakneck pace. The subject of sexual hatred and violence—of intolerance of sexual minorities, and sexual differences—runs through the book, as relevant now as ever. Available in more than forty countries—with more than ten million copies in print—Garp is a comedy with forebodings of doom.
© Nina Cochrane
JOHN IRVING was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
 
Mr. Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for his novel The World According to Garp. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, Mr. Irving won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel In One Person. Internationally renowned, his books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. A Prayer for Owen Meany is his best-selling novel, in every language.
 
A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, John Irving lives in Toronto. View titles by John Irving
Praise for John Irving and The World According to Garp

“John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist.” —Los Angeles Times

“A brilliant panoply of current attitudes toward sex, marriage and parenthood, the feminist movement and—above all—the concept of delineated sexual roles . . . Irving's characters will stay alive for years to come.” —Chicago Tribune

“A social tragi-comedy of such velocity that it reads rather like a domestic sequel to Catch-22.” —The Observer (London)

“A large talent announces itself on practically every page.” —The Book of the Month Club News

About

Winner of the National Book Award

“Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it.” —The New Republic

“Wonderful . . . full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking.” —Washington Post

Powerful and political, with unforgettable characters and timeless themes, The World According to Garp is John Irving’s breakout novel. The precursor of Irving’s later protest novels, it is the story of Jenny, an unmarried nurse who becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing—and of her son, Garp, less beloved but no less polarizing.
 
From the tragicomic tone of its first sentence to its mordantly funny last line—“we are all terminal cases”—The World According to Garp maintains a breakneck pace. The subject of sexual hatred and violence—of intolerance of sexual minorities, and sexual differences—runs through the book, as relevant now as ever. Available in more than forty countries—with more than ten million copies in print—Garp is a comedy with forebodings of doom.

Author

© Nina Cochrane
JOHN IRVING was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
 
Mr. Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for his novel The World According to Garp. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, Mr. Irving won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel In One Person. Internationally renowned, his books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. A Prayer for Owen Meany is his best-selling novel, in every language.
 
A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, John Irving lives in Toronto. View titles by John Irving

Praise

Praise for John Irving and The World According to Garp

“John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist.” —Los Angeles Times

“A brilliant panoply of current attitudes toward sex, marriage and parenthood, the feminist movement and—above all—the concept of delineated sexual roles . . . Irving's characters will stay alive for years to come.” —Chicago Tribune

“A social tragi-comedy of such velocity that it reads rather like a domestic sequel to Catch-22.” —The Observer (London)

“A large talent announces itself on practically every page.” —The Book of the Month Club News
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