The World According to Hollywood (The World According to Garp)

Why are bad books being made into films? I mean, I know most of what is being made in Hollywood is crap, so I suppose it makes sense to make bad books into even worse movies. But all the publicity and hype over The Da Vinci Code, in particular, has been getting to me over the past couple of weeks.

As I know I've mentioned before (Dan Brown's success is a sore spot for me), I thought very little of this book simply because it could've been so good. All the theory and research were there (because they was stolen from someone else) but the quality of writing and the pathetic attempts at suspense just made it laughable.

I originally wanted to see the film because I thought the cast (Audrey Tatou in particular) could pull it off providing they had a good screenplay. But both critics and friends have agreed that the script is dire and the acting average so Hollywood is not getting my £7.50 this time around.

John Irving's The World According to Garp is an example of Hollywood picking up on a genius book and turning it into a film that may not be critically acclaimed (it has a 6.9 on IMDb) but turned out to be a good way for many of Hollywood's current respected actors to showcase their early talent (Glenn Close, John Lithgow). Too bad it happened almost 25 years ago.

Onto the book...

I had never read John Irving before but I suspect this was the place to start. The World According to Garp is his most famous book so I was expecting something very mainstream and conventional. Instead I was rewarded with a novel I could really only compare to Catch-22 in terms of its sense of adventure and recklessness.

But that is not to say the novel is not accessible. In fact, I think John Irving could be the answer to helping frustrated or reluctant readers enjoy literature.

The mock-biography chronicles the life and times of writer T.S. Garp and his mother, hesitant feminist Jenny Fields. Garp is an 'everyman' and his life is an 'X-rated soap opera' of unexpected twists that border on the unbelievable but keep their feet firmly planted just when the reader needs it most.

Although written nearly 30 years ago, this book has lost none of its original power or social comment. Like Joseph Heller, I doubt John Irving will be quickly forgotten. That is one thing that Dan Brown will never achieve.