Goodreads Book Review - A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm definitely of two minds about this novel. On the one hand, I really like the story Irving told here. On the other hand, I don't like the way he told it; there were too many asides that seemed pointless. In his defense, some of them seemed pointless only to become important later on, but some of them were just pointless. He's also very, very repetitive, and at least for me after a certain point that jarred me out of the story. But again, I really liked the story. Likewise, for the majority of the book, I absolutely hated Owen Meany. Up until about the last hundred pages or so he struck me as an over-bearing, self-important feminine hygiene product and the package it comes in. And yet, despite my disdain for the character, Irving still managed to make me get emotional at the ending. I also appreciated the way the ending ties things together in an unexpected way, and the way both the ending and the book as a whole address questions about fate and faith. So like I said, I'm torn. I wasn't thrilled with the way the story was written, but any story that can make me upset about the fate of a character I hate deserves at least three stars, right?



View all my reviews