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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Oh my! This book has SO much in it. And it’s all pretty heavy stuff. That being said, I think it is worth the read. But now I’m off to read something short, light-hearted, and fluffy.
Really loving John Irving and his use of language lately. Irreverent, but truthful.
I really liked this book at first (feeling 4*-ish) but around the middle started to feel like it was too long (never a good thing, dropping to a 3*) but in retrospect there was a lot of teh world of Garp to cover. Towards the end I was already missing the Garp Family (5*), and could have kept right on reading about the lives of the next generation.
All in all, it was a great tale of an intriguing and odd little family.
I got into this book and expected another novel by some old white dude from the sixties/seventies writing about being a writer and sleeping around on their spouse. While this did happen the second half of the novel didn't quite subvert the trope but did show consequences which is more than usually gets said from novels of this era.
That said it is very fair for it's time.
That said it is very fair for it's time.
This is the first book I read by John Irving. It was pretty good. A few people told me about the "the driveway scene." It was pretty exciting and funny.
Maybe it's just me being oblivious, but Irving has a way of introducing little things into the plot that you don't think too much about, and then all of a sudden it becomes a major plot point in the novel.
Maybe it's just me being oblivious, but Irving has a way of introducing little things into the plot that you don't think too much about, and then all of a sudden it becomes a major plot point in the novel.
Bilo je ovo jedno duuuuuugooo putovanje! Ali na kraju, ipak, osećam sreću što sam na ovo putovanje uopšte i pošao! Pre pola godine ili nešto više na Laguninom sajtu je bio članak u kom je trebalo izabrati broj i nekada u životu pročitati knjigu koja se krije iza tog broja. Ili je, pak, bilo u pitanju u kom ste mesecu rođeni, ne sećam se baš. Elem, meni je zapao Svet po Garpu. Za rođendan sam ovu knjigu dobio od svojih roditelja i početak oktobra sam posvetio njoj.
Overall I feel quite a bit of affection for this book, but I spent a lot of its 570 pages ready for its end.
'John Wolf sat in New York, hoping that the visceral reality of Garp's language, and the intensity of Garp's characters, somehow rescued the book from sheer soap opera. But, Wolf thought, one might as well call the thing Anxiousness of Life; it would make a fantastic series for daytime television, he thought - if suitably edited for invalids, senior citizens, and preschool children.'
'John Wolf sat in New York, hoping that the visceral reality of Garp's language, and the intensity of Garp's characters, somehow rescued the book from sheer soap opera. But, Wolf thought, one might as well call the thing Anxiousness of Life; it would make a fantastic series for daytime television, he thought - if suitably edited for invalids, senior citizens, and preschool children.'
I really enjoy John Irving's voice. He is able to pull me into his books and worlds. He doesn't fail in this book.
A miserable story about miserable people who are intent on making everyone around them… miserable.
I loved the writing ...the story rambles at time and the excerpts of Garp's novels irritated me beyond belief - it's a sure-fire way to take me out of the story. But I loved Irving's writing style. Will definitely read more of his stuff now.