Background
John Irving's mother, Frances Winslow, had not been married at the time of his conception, and Irving never met his biological father. As a child, he was not told anything about his father, and he baited his mother that unless she gave him some information about his biological father, in his writing he would invent the father and the circumstances of how she got pregnant. Winslow would reply, "Go ahead, dear." When The World According to Garp was written, with the protagonist's biological father a comatose but aroused Second World War veteran, Irving was unaware that his own biological father had been in the military.
In 1981, Time magazine quoted the novelist's mother as saying, "There are parts of Garp that are too explicit for me."
The original title of the novel was Lunacy and Sorrow.
Read more about this topic: The World According To Garp
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