"He is the reason I believe in God"
Some Brief Brouhaha about Books
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Very Brief Summary: Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom. (from Amazon.com)
Whenever someone asks me to recommend a book, this is my go-to title. I have recommended Owen Meany to countless students, and just about everyone who ever reads loves it.
When I was studying abroad in Scotland, a couple of my flatmates, Claudia and Christoph from Austria, told me over and over that this book "is so special, and so funny." So when the semester ended and I headed out on my train trip across Europe, I decided that this would be my book. So I started reading it while riding on the trains in between cities, and I immediately fell in love with it. Irving's prose is wonderful, but his characterization of Owen Meany and the novel's narrator, John, are brilliant, and the little details of specific incidents, such as the Christmas pageant, make the story great. Frequently, I would find myself laughing out loud uncontrollably, while the other passengers (French, Italian, Swiss, etc.) just stared at my raucous rudeness. This is hands-down one of the funniest books I have ever read.
The story is beautiful, and the religious symbolism and mysticism add layers of depth and heartbreak. And Owen Meany is the most peculiar hero in literature. I was finishing the novel on my flight back across the Atlantic, trying to hide my sobs, but the flight attendant came over and asked me if I was ok.
A Prayer for Owen Meany is hilarious, strange, and heartbreaking, and it is a novel forever burned into my heart.
offered up to the world by CoachDub @ 12:35 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Sweet. The Coach Dub Bookclub. Hehehe. That rhymes.
I haven't yet read Owen Meany, but have also heard similar praise before. I will have to put it on my list of books to check out soon.
Dub-
Have you seen Simon Birch? What did you think about its very rough adaptation to the big screen?
i haven't read this, but i have read garp, and that was pretty decent.
i thought simon birch was based off "freak the mighty"
Simon Birch is loosely based on Owen Meany, but I could only watch it for a little bit. It was too sacrilegious, and once I heard about the ending of the movie, I knew I could never watch the whole thing.
I read that when John Irving saw the first cut, he made them take his name off of it, and in the credits they could only say "suggested by the novel by John Irving."
I LOVED this book! You must have inherited some thing from my side of the famly!
This post looked very familiar. I think you gave maya some sort of list of great books and used this same blurb on it.
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