A Prayer for Owen Meany

[Illhaveawhitewineplease]

My first post on MN and thought I would start here rather than the scary AIBU...
So, based on rave reviews and a personal recommendation, I started reading the above. Am now on page 132 and have so far not been drawn in.

I am finding the lack of chronology quite trying i.e. his mother was alive, then she was killed, then she was alive again, then there were a load of statistics about the Vietnam War, then it was back to the aftermath of the mother's death.
Is it like this all the way through? Why should I persevere?

I cried and cried at the end. Fantastic book, onebof irving's best.

The Vietnam stats are relevant. You'll understand more as the book goes on. It is truly heartbreaking.

Also, this can't be the only book you've read where the narrator jumps around in time, surely? It's not uncommon not to have a linear plotline. It's definitely worth continuing.

Thesecondcoming - at dp and bf. It's so disappointing when your "loved ones" fail to appreciate true art isn't it . The friend who lent me this book had the same literary taste as me. She's been dead nine years and one of the many things I miss about her is having someone to talk books with who gets it.

Please keep going - please. It's a wonderful book & you will cry buckets at the end. I looked like a frog for a couple of days, what with the swollen eyes

You've prompted me to read it again actually - it has been too long. John Irving is a wonderful writer.

I found it really, really overlong and boring in a lot of parts. A few bits I liked a lot eg: the car bit. The end is okay but really not as amazing as lots of people seem to think imho. Tbh, having finished it (and I had a v similar thread to this going to make me finish it!), I wished I hadn't bothered. V v underwhelmed.

Whenever I'm asked what my favourite book is I always reply Owen Meany. I have bought it for numerous friends and partners and all said the same, "I can't get into it..." yet, behold, after a little perserverance they too adore La Meany.

Keep going.
I am going to reread it at Xmas- for the 5th time.
Love it.

This thread has convinced me to try this book again, I started it years ago and couldn't get into it.

I will get it once I have my kindle.

Get you with your kindle.......
Love Cider House rules too.

Is Christmas pressie from DP. I'm deliberately not buying books at the moment so that I can just amazon crazy on Christmas Day.

I like quite a few of his books which is why I was surprised I couldn't get into Owen Meanie.

'You'll then recommend it to all your friends, and you'll secretly go a wee bit off the ones that don't like it as much as you'

This is soooo true!
It's my favourite book ever, I cried so much when I finished it.

Reading this with interest as i started it as i was reading the BBC's top 100 books but this one I just could not get into and I ditched it half way through...and I gave my copy away!

I'm going to have to reserve it at the library now arent I?

I'm with BG didn't live up to the hype imo

One of my favourite books ever

It's the only John Irving worth reading, and it's one of the best endings of any book I've read. It actually has an ending rather than just a point at which it stops.

Love it, but not my absolute favourite Irving book, as you might guess from my name

Own Meany has my favourite ending of any book, ever. It makes me tear up just thinking about the last page! It's so brilliant.

Cider House Rules and Widow for One Year also fab.

I've just finished it. It has taken me a LONG TIME.
But at the end I got it.

I can't say it is one of my favourite books ever, BUT Owen Meany is one of my favourite characters.

It is well worth a read, but I was tempted to give up many times. But others should perserve to the end.

I'm still ploughing through the above - about half way now but still not gripped. The very fact that it has taken me about 2 weeks to read 200 pages is a little disappointing.

However, it is beginning to make more sense and I will see it through. I just hope I am rewarded at the end.

Thanks for all your replies, ladies, they have helped me to persevere.

thesecondcoming ironic that you were the first to reply. I've seen your posts on the local board and you live about a mile away from me...

Illhaveawhitewineplease - will you come back and tell me the end when you have finished??

I have been in and out of this bloomin' book for ten years and I just cannot get into it...teeny tiny little font does not help and a book which is hard to get and which will make me cry for all the effort just does not do it for me!

It's my favourite book BUT it seems that not everyone emotionally connects with it.

I found the friendship and loyalty between the two boys very poignant, and I liked the idea that there is a higher being (even though I'm emphatically not a Christian). It's also a very humorous book.

But not everybody's cup of tea.

Even though everyone raves about this, I thought this was one of John Irving's weaker ones. Maybe it depends which order you read them in, because they all become a bit samey after a while. So I loved Garp and Hotel New Hampshire, which I read first, and steadily tailed off.

I couldn't stand the way Owen's voice was written in capitals - didn't make me think high or squeaky, just shouty, so I internally bellowed every thing he said.

TSC Chorlton

Illhaveawhitewineplease - will you come back and tell me the end when you have finished??

I have been in and out of this bloomin' book for ten years and I just cannot get into it...teeny tiny little font does not help and a book which is hard to get and which will make me cry for all the effort just does not do it for me!

It's my favourite book. It's too late now as I'm going to bed but will be back tomorrow!