Book 1 Wrap-Up

To wrap-up my reading of The World According to Garp, my dad and I watched the 1982 movie, in addition to a discussion. While the movie was just okay, we both felt that the novel was much more interesting and descriptive than the movie was. My dad said that I read the book much more quickly than he did as a sixteen-year-old, but, other than that, our readings seem to have been fairly similar. Neither of us had really specific favorite parts of this book, but rather just enjoyed the book as a whole. He agreed with me that the book kind of has no climax, and kind of just keeps going forward, for better or worse, until the end of the characters' lives. However, while we didn't really have favorite sections of the book, one thing that did stand out to us both were the Ellen Jamesians in the novel, due to their interesting and odd description, and their somewhat critical role in the book. In fact, this led my dad to buy a CD by a band named after the Ellen Jamesians. After watching me read the book, and having watched the movie again, my dad now wants to re-read The World According to Garp. Even though this book may not have been the best I have ever read, I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a good read, because I liked the book and thought it was interesting. In fact, after reading this book, I may continue on to read more of John Irving's novels, which is, in part, why my dad suggested I read this book.