World According to Garp (Irving)

The World According to Garp
John Irving, 1976
Random House
624 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345366764

Summary
This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes—even of sexual assassinations.

It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow," yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. This novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." (From the publisher.)

More
The story deals with the life of T. S. Garp. His mother, Jenny Fields, a strong-willed nurse, wants a child but not a husband. She is asexual, a trait condemned by her family and disapproved of by society.

She encounters a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp who was reduced to a perpetually priapic mental vegetable by pieces of shrapnel that pierced his head. Jenny has intercourse with the bedridden, uncomprehending, dying Technical Sergeant Garp to impregnate herself, and names the resultant son after him ("T. S." standing only for "Technical Sergeant").

Jenny raises young Garp alone, taking a position at a boys' school. Garp grows up, interested in sex, wrestling, and writing fiction—three topics in which his mother has little interest. He launches his writing career, courts and marries the wrestling coach's daughter, and fathers three children. Meanwhile, his mother suddenly becomes a feminist icon after publishing a best-selling autobiography called A Sexual Suspect.

Garp, now a devoted parent, wrestles with anxiety for the safety of his children and a desire to keep them safe from the dangers of the world. He and his family inevitably experience dark and violent events through which the characters change and grow.

Garp learns (often painfully) from the women in his life, struggling to become more tolerant in the face of intolerance. The story is decidedly rich with (in the words of the fictional Garp's biographer) "lunacy and sorrow," and the sometimes ridiculous chains of events the characters experience resonate with painful truth. (From Wikipedia.)

The 1982 film version stars Robin Williams and Glenn Close.