The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T.S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields — a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.