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Title details for The World According to Garp by John Irving - Wait list

The World According to Garp

by John Irving
John Irving
Audiobook
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Wait time: About 4 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
A special 40th anniversary edition of the bestselling coming-of-age classic novel by John Irving, with a new introduction by the author. 
"He is more than popular. He is a Populist, determined to keep alive the Dickensian tradition that revels in colorful set pieces...and teaches moral lessons."—The New York Times 
The opening sentence of John Irving's breakout novel, The World According to Garp, signals the start of sexual violence, which becomes increasingly political. "Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater." Jenny is an unmarried nurse; she becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing. Her son, Garp, is 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—of intolerance of sexual minorities and differences—runs the gamut of "lunacy and sorrow." Winner of the National Book Award, Garp is a comedy with forebodings of doom. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries—with more than ten million copies in print—Garp is the precursor of John Irving's later protest novels.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 13, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781984889027
      • File size: 602281 KB
      • Duration: 20:54:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      T.S. Garp, named for his father's dying gasps, leads an unconventional life whether he wants to or not in this seriocomic bestseller. Michael Prichard ignores the humor and, indeed, all values in the prose except perhaps for the punctuation. He declaims as if narrating a documentary on the Biography channel. However, dull as this sounds, it actually works. After five or ten minutes, one loses the sense of the narrator's presence. Only the words speak. Y.R. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Revisiting this literary classic is both bittersweet and heartwarming. The new introduction to this 40th anniversary edition, written and read by the author, brings a fresh perspective to the groundbreaking novel. This feminist story of colorful characters is a still a Dickensian depiction of sexual repression, prejudice, and bias. Narrator MacLeod Andrews delivers a mellifluous tone and empathetic representations of Jenny Fields, the enigmatic mother and feminist firebrand; T.S. Garp, her almost immaculately conceived son; and Helen, the daughter of the high school wrestling coach who is Garp's pragmatic and inscrutable wife. Hearing the decades-old voices instills the listener with a sense of nostalgia about the innocence of the times and the hope for a more inclusive future, epitomized by Garp's journey. R.O. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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