THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP

  "Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. .. Brilliant, funny, and consistently wise; a work of vast talent." --The New Republic

  "The most powerful and profound novel about women written by a man in our generation... Like all extraordinary books, Garp defies synopsis A marvelous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers." --Chicago Sun-Times

  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."