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{{Short description|1978 novel by John Irving}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
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{{Infobox book
| name                        = The World According to Garp
| image                       = TheWorldAccordingtoGarp.jpg
| caption                     = First edition
| author                      = [[John Irving]]
| country                     = United States
| publisher                   = [[E. P. Dutton]]
| pub_date                    = 1978
| pages                       = 609
| isbn                        = 0-525-23770-4
| dewey                       = 813/.5/4
| congress                    = PZ4.I714 Wo 1978 PS3559.R8
| oclc                        = 3345460
| preceded_by                 = [[The 158-Pound Marriage]]
| followed_by                 = [[The Hotel New Hampshire]]
}}
'''''The World According to Garp''''' is [[John Irving]]'s fourth novel, about a man who is born out of wedlock to a feminist leader, then grows up to be a writer. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years. It was a finalist for the [[National Book Award for Fiction]] in 1979,<ref name=nba1979>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1979 "National Book Awards – 1979"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 14 March 2012.</ref> and its first paperback edition won the award the following year.<!-- National Book Awards were called "American" for several years from 1980, but must not be confused with [[American Book Awards]] --><ref name=nba1980>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1980 "National Book Awards – 1980"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-14. <br />(With essays by Deb Caletti and Craig Nova from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref><ref group=lower-alpha>''Garp'' won the 1980 [[National Book Award for Fiction#1980 to 1989|award for paperback general Fiction]]. From 1980 to 1983 in [[National Book Awards#History|National Book Awards history]] there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories, and [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Miscellaneous 1980 to 1985|multiple fiction categories, especially in 1980]]. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one.</ref>
==Synopsis==
Jenny Fields is a strong-willed nurse who wants a child but not a husband. A dying [[ball turret]] gunner known only as [[Technical Sergeant]] Garp, who was severely [[brain damage]]d in combat, is admitted to the ICU where Jenny works. She nurses Garp, observing his infantile state and frequent erections. Unconstrained by convention and driven by her desire for a child, Jenny [[Sperm theft|impregnates herself]] by [[Rape of males|raping]] the brain-damaged soldier, and names the bastard son "T. S." (derived from "Technical Sergeant"). Jenny raises young Garp alone, taking a position as the live-in nurse at an all-boys preparatory school in New England.

Garp grows up, becoming interested in sex, wrestling, and writing fiction—three topics in which his mother has little interest. After his graduation in 1961, his mother takes him to [[Vienna]], where he writes his first novella. At the same time, his mother begins writing her autobiography, ''A Sexual Suspect''. After Jenny and Garp return to Steering, Garp marries Helen, the wrestling coach's daughter, and begins his family—he a struggling writer, she a teacher of English. The publication of ''A Sexual Suspect'' makes his mother famous. She becomes a [[Feminism|feminist]] icon, because feminists view her book as a manifesto of a woman who does not care to bind herself to a man, and who chooses to raise a child on her own. She nurtures and supports women traumatized by men, among them the Ellen Jamesians, a group of women named after an eleven-year-old girl whose tongue was cut out by her rapists to silence her. The members of the group cut out their own tongues in solidarity with Ellen, even though James herself opposes the practice.

Garp becomes a devoted parent, wrestling with anxiety for the safety of his children. 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 (including [[transgender]] ex-football player Roberta Muldoon), who are struggling to become more tolerant in the face of intolerance. The story contains a great deal of (in the words of Garp's fictional teacher) "lunacy and sorrow".

The novel contains several narratives: Garp's first piece of fiction, a short story entitled "The Pension Grillparzer"; "Vigilance", an essay; and the first chapter of his third novel, ''The World According to Bensenhaver''. The book also contains some motifs that appear in other Irving novels: bears, New England, [[Vienna]], hotels, wrestling, a person who prefers abstinence over sex, and adultery.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

== Background ==
John Irving's mother, Frances Winslow, had not been married at the time of his conception,<ref>{{cite web
| url        = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/aug/13/fiction.johnirving
| quote      = His parents had married six months before his birth
| title      = Grappling with life
| author     = Nicholas Wroe
| work       = The Observer
| date       = 13 August 2005
| access-date = 5 November 2009
}}</ref> and Irving never met his biological father. As a child, he was not told anything about his father, and he told his mother that unless she gave him some information about his biological father, in his writing he would invent the father and the circumstances of how she got pregnant. Winslow would reply "Go ahead, dear."<ref>{{cite web
| url        = https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-world-according-to-john-irving-zkshs0xthxs?region=global
| title      = The world according to John Irving
| access-date = 4 November 2009
| date       = 18 October 2009
| work       = The Times
| author     = Ariel Leve
}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In 1981, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine quoted the novelist's mother as saying "There are parts of ''Garp'' that are too explicit for me."<ref>{{cite magazine
| url        = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C954955-9%2C00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121105201947/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954955-9,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 5 November 2012
| title      = Life into Art: Novelist John Irving
| date       = 31 August 1981
| access-date = 4 November 2009
| author     = R.Z. Sheppard
| magazine       = Time
}}</ref>

== Adaptations ==
A [[The World According to Garp (film)|movie adaptation of the novel]] starring [[Robin Williams]] was released in 1982, with a screenplay written by [[Steve Tesich]].

[[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''Classic Serial'' broadcast a three-part adaptation of the novel by Linda Marshall Griffiths in January 2014. The production was directed by Nadia Molinari and featured [[Miranda Richardson]] as Jenny, [[Lee Ingleby]] as Garp, Jonathan Keeble as Roberta and [[Lyndsey Marshal]] as Helen.<ref>{{cite web
| title     = Episode 1: The World According to Garp
| url       = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03nrqfr
| date      = 5 January 2014
| publisher = [[BBC Radio 4]]
}}</ref>

On 3 November 2015, Irving revealed that he'd been approached by [[HBO]] and [[Warner Bros.|Warner Brothers]] to reconstruct ''The World According to Garp'' as a [[miniseries]]. He described the project as being in the early stages.<ref name="Kevin Haynes">{{cite news
 |url          = http://www.purpleclover.com/blog/5572-garp/
 |title        = John Irving novel to become an HBO miniseries
 |work         = Purple Clover
 |author       = Kevin Haynes
 |date         = 4 November 2015
 |access-date  = 5 November 2015
 |archive-date = 7 November 2015
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20151107021212/http://www.purpleclover.com/blog/5572-garp/
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref>
According to the byline of a self-penned, 20 February 2017 essay for ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'', Irving completed his teleplay for the five-part series based on ''The World According to Garp''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Irving |first1=John |title=Oscar Winner John Irving Urges Hollywood to Get Political With "Outright Bias" in Acceptance Speeches |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-winner-john-irving-urges-hollywood-get-political-outright-bias-acceptance-speeches-guest- |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=20 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318121612/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-winner-john-irving-urges-hollywood-get-political-outright-bias-acceptance-speeches-guest- |access-date=18 February 2023|archive-date=18 March 2018 }}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_new/page3.shtml John Irving discusses ''The World According to Garp''] on the BBC - link is dead ''[[World Book Club]]''
* [http://www.mansionbooks.com/BookDetail.php?bk=214 Photos of the first edition of ''The World According to Garp'']
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/13/archives/books-of-the-times-a-study-in-laughter-a-writer-writing.html ''New York Times'' book review, by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, April 13, 1978]

{{John Irving}}
{{National Book Award for Fiction}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:World According to Garp, The}}
[[Category:1978 American novels]]
[[Category:1970s LGBTQ novels]]
[[Category:Novels about infidelity]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:E. P. Dutton books]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:National Book Award for Fiction–winning works]]
[[Category:Novels about writers]]
[[Category:Novels by John Irving]]
[[Category:Novels about transgender topics]]