Thursday, April 28, 2005
The World According To Garp - John Irving
A book about a writer writing on his being a writer, on his mother being a writer, on her writing, his writing, his reading about writing and of course all this interspersed with his writing - after an introduction (by a fellow reader) like this how could I resist reading this book?
But like more books achieving or claimed to have achieved cult status, this book falls short. Oh yes! It does entertain and keep one amused but somewhere along the way fails to make the point it sets out to make or may be makes too many of them.
Jenny Fields, her son T S Garp, their life together with his and her myriad family spans his entire life - all of thirty three years. What starts off as his entry into the world slowly evolves to make his life a reluctant feminist to his becoming a moderately successful writer interspersed with familial upheavals.
Garp was, like his beliefs, self contradictory. He was very generous with other people, but he was horribly impatient. He set his own standards for how much of his time and patience everyone deserved.
Almost summarises the book...
Progressing in a back and forth pattern, with verbs and tenses playing truant, the book surges forth. Entertaining nevertheless, this book strikes a cord many a times, especially for (self professed and otherwise) writers.
There is a faint, trapped warble from some televisions tuned in to The Late Show, and the blue gray glow from the picture tube throbs from a few of the houses. To Garp this glow looks like cancer, insidious and numbing, putting the world to sleep. May be television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer's irritation: he knows that wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn't reading.'
The language in the book is good but nothing above the ordinary. The language does not accentuate the tale, just narrates it. The book brings forth many notions that are immensely entertaining and thought provoking - single parenting (and how!), feminisim, the knack of writing as opposed the skill of it, fidelity, real life influence on writing, violence in daily life and the basic fear of losing one's loved ones.
To my quasi-feminist mind, I love Jenny and her ideals and would love to emulate her, had I even half the courage.
In this dirty minded world, Jenny thinks, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore - or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you dont fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you.
[..]
... Garp explained to his mother the Viennese system of prostitution. Jenny was not surprised to hear that prostitution was legal; she was surprised to learn that it was illegal in so nany other places. 'Why shouldn't it be legal?' she asked. 'Why can't a woman use her body the way she wants to?
Why not indeed!
* Are excerpts from the book
But like more books achieving or claimed to have achieved cult status, this book falls short. Oh yes! It does entertain and keep one amused but somewhere along the way fails to make the point it sets out to make or may be makes too many of them.
Jenny Fields, her son T S Garp, their life together with his and her myriad family spans his entire life - all of thirty three years. What starts off as his entry into the world slowly evolves to make his life a reluctant feminist to his becoming a moderately successful writer interspersed with familial upheavals.
Garp was, like his beliefs, self contradictory. He was very generous with other people, but he was horribly impatient. He set his own standards for how much of his time and patience everyone deserved.
Almost summarises the book...
Progressing in a back and forth pattern, with verbs and tenses playing truant, the book surges forth. Entertaining nevertheless, this book strikes a cord many a times, especially for (self professed and otherwise) writers.
There is a faint, trapped warble from some televisions tuned in to The Late Show, and the blue gray glow from the picture tube throbs from a few of the houses. To Garp this glow looks like cancer, insidious and numbing, putting the world to sleep. May be television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer's irritation: he knows that wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn't reading.'
The language in the book is good but nothing above the ordinary. The language does not accentuate the tale, just narrates it. The book brings forth many notions that are immensely entertaining and thought provoking - single parenting (and how!), feminisim, the knack of writing as opposed the skill of it, fidelity, real life influence on writing, violence in daily life and the basic fear of losing one's loved ones.
To my quasi-feminist mind, I love Jenny and her ideals and would love to emulate her, had I even half the courage.
In this dirty minded world, Jenny thinks, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore - or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you dont fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you.
[..]
... Garp explained to his mother the Viennese system of prostitution. Jenny was not surprised to hear that prostitution was legal; she was surprised to learn that it was illegal in so nany other places. 'Why shouldn't it be legal?' she asked. 'Why can't a woman use her body the way she wants to?
Why not indeed!
* Are excerpts from the book
# posted by Janaki @ 11:11 am 
