About a Writer, by a Writer

To laugh or not to laugh, that is not the question in "The World According to Garp" (1978). John Irving's fourth novel that brought him prestige and success. A movie adaptation starring Robin Williams in the titular role and directed by George Roy Hill, the man who helmed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), was released a few years after its publication. Some of Irving's works, like "The Cider House Rules" (1985), became bestsellers. But none came close to T.S. Garp.

Where do they come from?

Garp was an author who grew up in the most unusual circumstances. Jenny Fields, his mother, was a proud nurse who believed she doesn't need a man in her life. But during her younger years, she met a gunner in a hospital, who was severely brain damaged in combat. He was only known as Technical Sergeant Garp. She had a great desire to have a child. Some would tell Jenny that she forced herself into the soldier, who was in an infantile state. She was hardly bothered, as she felt she wasn't bound by convention. In fact, she brought up Garp all by herself. She became a feminist later on.

As for Garp, he was interested in writing fiction, wrestling, and sex. Alas, his mother didn't fancy any of those. But she sent his son to Vienna, thinking that the Austrian capital would do him good. (The young man met a hooker, who became a mother of sort.) When he returned to America, his literary career took off. He also settled down and raised a family. But the flesh was too hard to resist.

Whom he looks up to

Those who read the book were delighted to know that Garp's life was not remote from Irving's. The only difference was the shock factor, which went up as the story progressed. Some won't call it a brilliant novel, but others saw it differently. Irving penned a tragicomedy. The native of Exeter, New Hampshire used his imagination to create characters who were unbelievably naïve. (One chapter described a group of women who cut off their tongue as a sign of support to a young girl whom they thought was treated unjustly. She was unable to talk, but she had lots to tell these ladies. They would be startled if they knew.)

As for Irving, his influences didn't come as a shock.

"Well, yes, Charles Dickens, Günter Grass, and Kurt Vonnegut are all fathers of my work, in a way. The polite world calls them extremists, but I think they are very truthful, very accurate. I am not attracted to writers by style. What style do Dickens, Grass, and Vonnegut have in common? How silly! I am attracted to what makes them angry, what makes them passionate, what outrages them, what they applaud and find sympathetic in human beings and what they detest about human beings, too. They are writers of great emotional range. They are all disturbed - both comically and tragically - by who the victims of a society (or of each other) are. You can’t copy that; you can only agree with it," he said.

You'll never forget T.S. Garp - and his kin - after you read the book.