The World According to Garp: A Novel

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 Irvings breakout novel. The precursor of Irvings later protest novels, it is the story of Jenny, an unmarried nurse who becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizingand of her son, Garp, less beloved but no less polarizing. From the tragicomic tone of its first sentence to its mordantly funny last linewe are all terminal casesThe World According to Garp maintains a breakneck pace. The subject of sexual hatred and violenceof intolerance of sexual minorities, and sexual differencesruns through the book, as relevant now as ever. Available in more than forty countrieswith more than ten million copies in printGarp is a comedy with forebodings of doom.