Subreddit Rules - Message the mods - Related Subs AMA Info The FAQ The Wiki Join in the Weekly 'What Are You Reading?' Thread!.Check out the Weekly Recommendation Thread.New Release: My Seven Black Fathers by Will Jawando.As faithful as possible, this filmic World isn't as approachable as Irving's Cider House Rules but it's never less than absolutely fascinating. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and The Sting director George Roy Hill, meanwhile, makes the madness serviceable as entertainment. Trying to break away from the sitcom shtick of Mork & Mindy, Robin Williams succeeds wonderfully as the title character, giving gravitas to an odd bird and foreshadowing the more serious career to come (The Fisher King, Good Will Hunting). Garp (Williams) tries to establish himself as a 'serious' writer while living a life of adventure in the shadow of his domineering mother Jenny (Glenn Close), who writes a feminist manifesto at an opportune time and finds herself as a magnet for all manner of distressed women. Someway somehow, the sorrow and sanguine make for a somewhat enjoyable - but highly oft-kilter - filmgoing experience.įor the first time on Blu-Ray: In this R-rated dramedy based on the John Irving novel, T.S. Taken on their own, any one of these themes may seem off-putting but, taken together, the whole she-bang might seem like a lesson in lunacy without Irving's winning prose to frame it all.

Consider the fact that Garp gets conceived when his mother rapes a dying airman or the girl who has her tongue cut out by her rapists or countless Irving-isms that get worked into the fray (wrestling, bears, gender roles). Like so many great works of American literature, Garp isn't an ideal choice for motion picture material simply because the scope of the tome goes far beyond the reach of a screen. This slipshod digest of Irving's sprawling career-defining 1978 novel somehow manages an impossible feat: condensing themes of love, sex, violence, and death into a humorous concoction that goes down despite the bizarre texture. Improbably giving audiences John Irving's World-view without throwing the baby out with the bath water, this adaptation According-ly keeps the eccentric zaniness and melancholy of the source material while providing a stage for a some young soon-to-be-film-stars to shine.

The world according to garp book review