Beyond Black Humor: John Irving and the Contemporary Novel

Abstract

As World War II ended and the Cold War began, American novelists were left with a feeling that reality was more fantastic than anything they could imagine. How could they write literature that reflected modern reality and yet still uplifted and strengthened their audience when they felt modern reality consisted of chaos, absurdity, and a total lack of meaning? Many writers of the 1960s and 1970s decided that it was an impossible task using traditional novelistic techniques, so they began to experiment. The major manifestations of these experiments were black humor, fabulism and metafiction, and a chaotic, nihilistic vision. Many of the works that sprang from this period are proving too arcane to be anything but transitory successes. Others are interesting for their manipulation of language and their clever use of parody, but eventually most are only mediocre novels. At least some contemporary novels will stand the test of time, but even the best of them seem to share a common, major flaw. Although they adequately and sometimes even brilliantly reflect the chaos and absurdities of the modern world, they fail to offer any hope or resolution, any universal truth. One emerging young novelist who is avoiding this problem is John Irving. A study of Irving's three early novels shows how he developed techniques, motifs, and a vision of life that come together quite successfully in The World According to Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire. Irving's works include bizarre characters, random violence, and a chaotic sense of struggle with both the interior and exterior forces of daily life. However, Irving manages to reconcile black humor with realism, without forgetting to offer us something supportive. Irving continually reminds us to "get obsessed and stay obsessed" with the importance of living. John Irving combines a great storytelling ability with many of the techniques of other contemporary novelists and offers us the philosophy of celebrating life in spite of the chaos by which we are surrounded.