A dry witted, sarcastic masterpiece, "The World According to Garp" is the funniest novel Irving wrote. It delves into various aspects such as the creative process, free love, emancipation, and parenthood.

One cool fact about Irving's writing style is his ability to mix epic descriptions with prosaic, short passages. He especially excels at hiding shocking plot twists in a way that creates ultimate WTF moments. The reader is left staggering between laughter and catatonia as Irving repeatedly surprises them. Just when everything seems easygoing, subtle, and funny, out of nowhere, a bam! hits them in the face, like the next attack in a high-class thriller.

Another trademark of Irving's work is that the characters are often partly omniscient, extremely smart, and close to mentalists and oracles. However, they remain stoic and ultra badass cool regarding their own fate, the happenings around them, and the world in general. It's quite like the Chuck Norris style where "John Irving's characters don't get surprised by calamities; calamities are awaited by emotionless superhuman psi-powered protagonists and then ignored."

Towards the end, the novel takes a really dark turn. I guess some readers might not finish it for this reason. But the allegories and metaphors around abuse and how society and victims react to it leave room for endless discussions and interpretations. When I say dark, I mean it's worse than normal horror with jump scares that end quickly. This is a terror that stays forever in the reader's mind.

When the novel was released in 1978, the themes, especially transsexuality, sexual abuse, and feminism, were surrounded by what would be considered unbelievable conservatism, bigotry, stigmas, and hatred by today's standards. The reason why Garp was Irving's breakthrough might also lie in the unique way he dealt with these topics and brought them to a broader audience. And of course, his genius cannot be overlooked.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique. For more information on John Irving and "The World According to Garp," you can visit the following links: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... and https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...