I am working on some very smart things to say here. Really. Meanwhile, there's 
I recently read John Irving's Trying to save Piggy Sneed, a collection of essays and a few short stories. It's a good book to pick up if you haven't read Irving yet. Briefly, Irving's The World according to Garp is one of the craziest and astonishing book (my current read). You may know one of the later adaptation of it captured popular imagination as the movie Forrest Gump.
So, in the Piggy Sneed book (chapter one here), his essay In Defense of Sentimentality is printed, reading which prompted me to re-read Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
...who could fault "A Christmas Carol"? "Who can listen," Thackeray said, "to objections regarding a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness."I can't agree more.
Comments
I wasn't aware of the connection between Garp and Gump. Now that I think about it, the similarity is startling. Both names have four letters! Other than that, the connection isn't obvious. Different characters, different plots, different settings. Are you sure that's right?
Posted by: Will TS | May 29, 2008 2:18 PM
I am not certain. However, having read Garp (haven't finished yet) and recalling Gump, I'd be surprised if Zemeckis(director) says he came up with the movie without using Garp as a model. As you say, there are startling similarities.
Posted by: selva | May 29, 2008 2:45 PM
I am afraid that you are mistaken, Selva. Forrest Gump (directed by Eric Roth) is based on a novel by Winston Groom, not on Irving's work. You want 1982's The World According to Garp—starring Robin Williams and Glenn Close, directed by George Roy Hill, with screenplay by Steve Tesich.
There is very little to tie the two movies together, in the same way that one would be hard pressed to tie Kill Bill together with Sex in the City.
Posted by: Moody834 | May 30, 2008 10:58 PM