Taken on their own, any one of these themes may seem off-putting but, taken together, the whole she-bang might seem like a lesson in lunacy without Irving's winning prose to frame it all. Consider the fact that Garp gets conceived when his mother rapes a dying airman or the girl who has her tongue cut out by her rapists or countless Irving-isms that get worked into the fray (wrestling, bears, gender roles). Like so many great works of American literature, Garp isn't an ideal choice for motion picture material simply because the scope of the tome goes far beyond the reach of a screen. This slipshod digest of Irving's sprawling career-defining 1978 novel somehow manages an impossible feat: condensing themes of love, sex, violence, and death into a humorous concoction that goes down despite the bizarre texture. Improbably giving audiences John Irving's World-view without throwing the baby out with the bath water, this adaptation According-ly keeps the eccentric zaniness and melancholy of the source material while providing a stage for a some young soon-to-be-film-stars to shine.
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