The World According to Garp

T.S. Garp, named for his father's dying gasps, leads an unconventional life whether he wants to or not in this seriocomic bestseller. Michael Prichard ignores the humor and, indeed, all values in the prose except perhaps for the punctuation. He declaims as if narrating a documentary on the Biography channel. However, dull as this sounds, it actually works. After five or ten minutes, one loses the sense of the narrator's presence. Only the words speak. Y.R. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Revisiting this literary classic is both bittersweet and heartwarming. The new introduction to this 40th anniversary edition, written and read by the author, brings a fresh perspective to the groundbreaking novel. This feminist story of colorful characters is a still a Dickensian depiction of sexual repression, prejudice, and bias. Narrator MacLeod Andrews delivers a mellifluous tone and empathetic representations of Jenny Fields, the enigmatic mother and feminist firebrand; T.S. Garp, her almost immaculately conceived son; and Helen, the daughter of the high school wrestling coach who is Garp's pragmatic and inscrutable wife. Hearing the decades-old voices instills the listener with a sense of nostalgia about the innocence of the times and the hope for a more inclusive future, epitomized by Garp's journey. R.O. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine