We Are All Terminal Cases
Now for a book that I honestly haven’t read in several years. And even though I haven’t read it in ages I don’t mean to imply that it isn’t any good, it’s actually one of the books that lead me out of the romance genre that I used to be neck-deep into. Not that there’s anything wrong with the romance genre, but for a few years there that was about all I read.
Anyway, the book I’m writing about this time is The World According to Garp by John Irving. Not exactly a new release considering it first came out in 1976, but the age of the book doesn’t make it any less good. I felt like doing a write-up for it because I know a lot of people who have never even heard of it, and the fact that it came out in the mid-70s certainly doesn’t help. But anyway, onto the picture and what it’s about.
“This is the life of T.S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields–a feminist leader ahead of her time. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes–even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with “lunacy and sorrow”; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries–with more than ten million copies in print–this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: “In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”"
Okay, so maybe it doesn’t sum up the basic plot in a neat little box with a bow on top, but it’s very possible that the reason for that is simply because the book can’t really be summed up as simply as so many others can.
Plus, it’s one where you can’t really just skip the book and watch the movie version. There is a movie of it starring Robin Williams that came out in 1982… and it is absolutely horrible. At least I think so, as well as everyone I know that has seen it. People that have read the book and people who haven’t alike. But hey, maybe one day I’ll run across someone who actually liked the movie!
Either way, movie or not, the book is fantastic. And I highly recommend it.
