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The World According to Garp is a novel by John Irving and a movie based on it. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for years; Irving has subsequently become one of the most "bankable" modern American novelists.
Plot
The story deals with T. S. Garp, the son of a ball-turret gunner who was reduced to a mental vegetable by a piece of shrapnel which pierced his head; his mother, Jenny Fields, is a strong-willed nurse who wants a child but not a husband (and has no interest in sex except as a means to conceive a child), and so has intercourse with the bedridden, uncomprehending Technical Sergeant Garp to impregnate herself. Her wealthy parents are shocked when they discover how she became pregnant; Garp's mother raises Garp without their support, taking a position at a boys' school. (The school is based on the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire of which Irving is an alumnus. His stepfather was a faculty member.)
Garp's mother becomes a well-known feminist speaker after publishing an autobiography called A Sexual Suspect (referring to the general assessment of her as an unwed mother). Meanwhile Garp becomes interested in wrestling, sex, and writing: three topics in which his mother seems to have little interest.
The book contains some elements that appear in almost all John Irving novels: bears, wrestling, Vienna and a complex Dickensian plot that spans the protagonist's whole life.
Movie
The novel was adapted by Steve Tesich into a screenplay for a 1982 movie directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams as Garp. Glenn Close played Fields, and John Lithgow was featured as Roberta Muldoon, a transsexual former football player. Close and Lithgow received Academy Award nominations.
External links
1978 novels | 1982 films | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominated performance | American novels
Le Monde selon Garp | Świat według Garpa | Мир по Гарпу (фильм)
"The World According to Garp"