SOURCE: Irving, John, and Larry McCaffery. “An Interview with John Irving.” Contemporary Literature 23, no. 1 (winter 1982): 1-18.

In the following interview, originally conducted on November 9, 1979, Irving discusses the writing of The World according to Garp and the effect that the novel has had on his work and career.

Of all the novels to appear in America during the 1970s, John Irving's The World According to Garp was probably the book which most captured the public's imagination. Perhaps just as remarkable as its commercial success is the fact that Garp is much more than a highly readable potboiler, peopled with dozens of engaging and memorable characters—though it is that, of course. Like Dickens and Günter Grass, two writers mentioned admiringly by Irving in the following interview, Irving is a natural-born story teller who transcends the categories of “academic” and “popular” fiction-writer. In all his fiction, though most effectively...