YMMV / The World According to Garp

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• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The book is notable for its entirely sympathetic portrayal of a transwoman. In 2022, John Irving publicly acknowledged having a transgender child, and that he was proud of her.
• Values Resonance: The book contains an early transgender character, Roberta Muldoon, who In-Universe makes a highly publicized transition from a professional football player to an activist for women's rights. The character is treated in a surprisingly serious manner, in that she's rarely played for laughs (or at least no more so than the rest of the cast) and is one of the few characters who comes across as consistently kind, generous, and level-headed (she experiences deep regret that she did not take the bullet that killed Jenny Fields and later serves as an affectionate substitute mother for the Garp children after their own parents die). There is a particularly touching scene after Roberta's death in which televised sportscasters make a point of honoring her life's work by not misgendering her.

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