The World According to Garp: A Novel

· Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by John Irving and MacLeod Andrews
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Audiobook
20 hr 54 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

A special 40th anniversary edition of the bestselling coming-of-age classic novel by John Irving, with a new introduction by the author. 

"He is more than popular. He is a Populist, determined to keep alive the Dickensian tradition that revels in colorful set pieces...and teaches moral lessons."--The New York Times 


The opening sentence of John Irving's breakout novel, The World According to Garp, signals the start of sexual violence, which becomes increasingly political. "Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater." Jenny is an unmarried nurse; she becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing. Her son, Garp, is less beloved, but no less polarizing. 

From the tragicomic tone of its first sentence to its mordantly funny last line--"we are all terminal cases"--The World According to Garp maintains a breakneck pace. The subject of sexual hatred--of intolerance of sexual minorities and differences--runs the gamut of "lunacy and sorrow." Winner of the National Book Award, Garp is a comedy with forebodings of doom. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries--with more than ten million copies in print--Garp is the precursor of John Irving's later protest novels.

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5.0
3 reviews

About the author

John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a film with seven Academy Award nominations.

MacLeod Andrews is a multiple award-winning audiobook narrator. He has starred in a number of independent short and feature films and is a member of the Rising Phoenix Repertory Company in NYC. Andrews has narrated many audiobooks, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Testimony, and Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?

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