1978NBA 1980
The World According to Garp
John Irving · b. 1942 · United States
Why it matters
A novelist son of a radical feminist icon survives an unconventional childhood, marriage, fatherhood, and a series of arbitrary violent tragedies without ever losing his sense of comic absurdity. Irving's National Book Award winner (paperback, 1980) is tragicomic sprawl at its most influential.
At a glance
family sagatragedycomedy
Difficulty 4/10fast pace437 pagesLong but propulsive, digressive plotting is carried by clear, addictive prose.
Deep dive
Why 'the Under Toad' — a toddler's mishearing of 'undertow' — becomes the exact right name for a novel convinced that violence arrives as weather, not consequence.
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