A Prayer For Owen Meany

Title: A Prayer For Owen Meany

Author: John Irving (woot!)

Genre: Pretty difficult to classify...Fiction hehe

Brief Synopsis: Wow. A brief synopsis for Owen Meany is impossible. I think I could write a whole Novel telling you about this story! I'll give it a shot. It's a coming of age story...sort of. It jumps around a lot from the present day Johnny Wheelwright (the narrator and Owen's best friend) telling you about his current life and telling the story of Owen. Owen is an unusually small boy with a wrecked voice (I will never forget how John Irving did his voice!) and he is very intelligent. The book ties in with religion when Owen believe he is God's instrument. The plot goes through everything, war, blood, death, love, and everything in between with a liberal dose of humor. The Vietnam war is going on during the story and becomes a big part of it. Secrecy is another key factor into the story of Owen Meany. You have to wait and wait to find out what it really is all about. An excellent well crafted last scene.

Comments:This book is smartly written, but not what I was expecting. There's a fair bit of time spent talking about the war in Vietnam (none of which I understood) seeing as it comes to be one of the biggest parts of the story. I feel like if I had tried to write a story in this type of format it would have been the worst thing ever written, but John Irving pulled it off. I absolutely fell in love with the character Owen Meany. He's serious but hilarious, and no doubt heartbreaking. Johnny and Owen live in a small town and all the characters from the town are extremely colorful and are all charming in their own way. The Nativity scene is hilarious and one of my favorites. Irving pulled it off quite supremely. Owen Meany did however take me forever to read and seemed quite long.

Classify: Funny, Long, Heartbreaking

Worth Reading?: Uh...maybe, yes. I haven't read any of Irving's other books but this was enough to know he's superb. If you skip this one, try another. Owen Meany's story, while strange, is different than anything I've read, and quite charming.

Did you find this book particularly easy or difficult?: I had a hard time reading the rants about Vietnam. Since I didn't understand any of that, that was difficult. But other than that no.

Would you read this again?: Oh man, not for a while. It took me forever to read. Maybe some day, but not for years.

How long did it take you to finish?: I'd rather not put a time period on that because it took me a Longggg time. It's about 600 pages. For a long time though I just didn't crave it so I didn't pick it up.

--I hope this helps!

Kendal <3