Have I read this before: Nopers.

Review: I dug it. There’s something about Irving’s writing style that makes his books very easy and enjoyable to read. He also has this way of making it seem like nothing is “happening” in his books until you realize that a whole ton of stuff has happened and it’s all been interesting and amusing and intriguing. I felt that way with Owen Meany and I felt that way with Garp. Garp didn’t quite have the payoff that Owen Meany did (where everything came to a brilliant, unforgettable, incredible climax), but it was still interesting.  

Favorite Part: Lotsa good quotes and imagery.

“Fowler was killed during a crash landing on an unpaved road. The landing struts were shorn off in a pothole and the whole landing gear collapsed, dropping the bomber into a hard belly slide that burst the ball turret with all the disproportionate force of a falling tree hitting a grape.”

Garp making a very relatable comment about running: “In my neighborhood there is no place to run…the sidewalks are threatened by dogs, festooned with the playthings of children, intermittently splashed with lawn sprinklers. And just when there’s some running room, there’s an elderly person taking up the whole sidewalk, precarious on crutches or armed with quaking canes.”

“In the world according to her father, Jenny Garp knew, we must have energy. Her famous grandmother, Jenny Fields, once thought of us as Externals, Vital Organs, Absentees, and Goners. But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”

Rating: 7/10