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A review by daceydacey
The World According to Garp by John Irving
3.0
I love when authors build overarching worlds that thread through their novels. It's a way of reimagining the entire world, not just the world within the book and it gives repeat readers a satisfying nod of recognition. This novel nods at The 158 Pound Marriage and sets roots for The Hotel New Hampshire - plus others I'm sure I didn't catch/haven't read yet. It's a neat trick and I appreciate it.
I was less appreciative of the stories within the story. For me, these examples of the character's work are more of a distraction than a bonus. The contents of the stories don't effect the actual plot of the book, so reading them can feel like a bit of a waste of time/a bit of a page filler.
I do enjoy reading about a writer and an author's writing process. And I love books that take from the main characters birth until their death - it's like living an entire life. But the end of this book was a doozy. Garp's life if reduced to a recap of his written novels in the end. And all of the character's life stories seem to go on forever, and yet they all die so young.
The book could use a bit of an update. I didn't like the clear assumption that trans people can't be beautiful and I hate that the totally unnecessary use of the R word. I get that some things like this are left in old books to serve as teaching tools or for plot purposes or even as a historical record, but in this book these references were so minor - why not give them a quick edit (esp in the e-book). :)
I was less appreciative of the stories within the story. For me, these examples of the character's work are more of a distraction than a bonus. The contents of the stories don't effect the actual plot of the book, so reading them can feel like a bit of a waste of time/a bit of a page filler.
I do enjoy reading about a writer and an author's writing process. And I love books that take from the main characters birth until their death - it's like living an entire life. But the end of this book was a doozy. Garp's life if reduced to a recap of his written novels in the end. And all of the character's life stories seem to go on forever, and yet they all die so young.
The book could use a bit of an update. I didn't like the clear assumption that trans people can't be beautiful and I hate that the totally unnecessary use of the R word. I get that some things like this are left in old books to serve as teaching tools or for plot purposes or even as a historical record, but in this book these references were so minor - why not give them a quick edit (esp in the e-book). :)