Nor, for that matter, is a former tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles named Roberta Muldoon who has given up professional football Nor are brain damage and automobile collisions. Rape and mutilation aren't the least bit funny. We even laugh at a group of Jenny's followers, the speechless Ellen Jamesians, who have mutilated themselves out of sympathy for Ellen James, a 10-year-old girl who has been raped and Simply because she prefers to live without men. We laugh at Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, who becomes a feminist leader Garp), who takes shrapnel in the brain during World War II and dies of regressive infantilism. We laugh at Garp'sįather, Technical Sergeant Garp (hence his son's name, T.S. In fact, we find ourselves laughing throughout 'The World According to Garp,' and at some of the damndest things. It is not the first time we have laughed for what seem to be inappropriate reasons, nor will it be the last. There we are, numb with shock and sick with concern, and suddenly we are laughing.Īnd not feeling all that guilty about doing so either. Yet one of our reactions to this catastrophe is to burst out laughing. Garp, the writer-protagonist of the story Helen, Garp's English professor-wife their two sons, 10-year-oldĭuncan and 5-year old Walt and a graduate student with whom Helen is having an affair. Moreover, at the point in the story when the accident occurs, we have grown extremely attached to the characters involved-who are T.S.

Way down to why the knob on a Volvo's gear shift happens to be missing. It is highly realistic, too, in order to explain exactly how it happens, one would have to sum up dozens of plot details, all the

Bones are broken, flesh is torn, eyes are put out, and appendages are severed. At the climax of John Irving's fourth novel, 'The World According to Garp,' a truly horrifyingĪutomobile accident occurs. The World According to Garp By John Irving Books of the Times By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT

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