num_pages: 609
description: 
  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 PostPowerful 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.
language: English
title: The World According to Garp
titlecomplete: The World According to Garp
characters: Helen Garp, Roberta Muldoon, T.S. Garp, Jenny Fields
genres: Fiction, American, Drama, Humor, Literature, Classics, Novels, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 225114
places: The United States of America, New England, Boston, Massachusetts, Austria, Vienna
awards: awardedAt: 315561600000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction (Paperback), awardedAt: 252489600000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 284025600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction
publisher: Pocket