In the following review, Drabble focuses both on the novel's presentation of the sense of insecurity and the nearness of death and violence in everyday life and on its counter to the theory of creative writing that sees personal tragedy as material for future stories.

[The World According to Garp] is not merely a book about writing a book: in the first chapters, [Irving's] defensive, distancing techniques strike more than the reality of the subject matter; it is only gradually that the meaning is released. This is just as well, for the book contains almost intolerable pain. It is a bloody package, and if he had flung this in front of us we would have backed away in horror. As it is, we read on, at first entertained, then puzzled, then trapped, wanting to look away, but by this time unable to avert our eyes . . . or at...