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A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving (Goodreads Author)
by John Irving (Goodreads Author)
Jacob's review
bookshelves: fiction-and-literature, i-own, irving-james-melville, 2011
Oct 04, 11
bookshelves: fiction-and-literature, i-own, irving-james-melville, 2011
Read from September 05 to 30, 2011
October 2011
The World According to Garp is one of my favorite books, and my favorite of John Irving's books as well. It was also my first Irving novel. I first read it in 2006, and it was nearly a year before I worked up the courage to read more of Irving's work. Garp was such a good novel, I was worried that anything else wouldn't measure up to it--or it would, and Garp would suddenly pale in comparison to something even better. I'm not sure which possibility scared me more.
It turned out to be the former: A Prayer for Owen Meany wasn't quite as good as Garp. At least, I didn't enjoy it as much. It didn't quite work for me, but I chalked that up to the order I had read the books: Garp was first, so naturally the next Irving novel I read wouldn't be as good.
Since that time, I've read more by Irving, and reread some of them (the epilogue to Garp is almost perfect; the first chapter of A Son of the Circus is almost perfect, too), so I thought it was time to reread Owen Meany too. Give it another chance. Draw it out of Garp's shadow and let it stand on its own.
But Garp casts a big shadow.
As I wrote in an early review, "The World According to Garp is a wonderful story, but it feels more like a life--the life of Garp--than a novel; A Prayer for Owen Meany, on the other hand, felt more like a novel than a life. Interesting, sure. Good, sure. But a tad long, and occasioanlly dull--sure. John, the narrator, is a dull boy and a duller man, and Owen tends to get annoying at times. And the magic of Garp, that of a story with a historical setting going on to create its own grand history, is reversed here, and Owen Meany ends up being shaped by history instead. Nothing wrong with that, of course--but I just didn't get the magic."
A Prayer for Owen Meany is still a good book, and still somewhat interesting--but I still don't get the magic. Meanwhile, The World According to Garp is still my favorite, and still my first. I don't need to ask what would have happened if I had read it second.
The World According to Garp is one of my favorite books, and my favorite of John Irving's books as well. It was also my first Irving novel. I first read it in 2006, and it was nearly a year before I worked up the courage to read more of Irving's work. Garp was such a good novel, I was worried that anything else wouldn't measure up to it--or it would, and Garp would suddenly pale in comparison to something even better. I'm not sure which possibility scared me more.
It turned out to be the former: A Prayer for Owen Meany wasn't quite as good as Garp. At least, I didn't enjoy it as much. It didn't quite work for me, but I chalked that up to the order I had read the books: Garp was first, so naturally the next Irving novel I read wouldn't be as good.
Since that time, I've read more by Irving, and reread some of them (the epilogue to Garp is almost perfect; the first chapter of A Son of the Circus is almost perfect, too), so I thought it was time to reread Owen Meany too. Give it another chance. Draw it out of Garp's shadow and let it stand on its own.
But Garp casts a big shadow.
As I wrote in an early review, "The World According to Garp is a wonderful story, but it feels more like a life--the life of Garp--than a novel; A Prayer for Owen Meany, on the other hand, felt more like a novel than a life. Interesting, sure. Good, sure. But a tad long, and occasioanlly dull--sure. John, the narrator, is a dull boy and a duller man, and Owen tends to get annoying at times. And the magic of Garp, that of a story with a historical setting going on to create its own grand history, is reversed here, and Owen Meany ends up being shaped by history instead. Nothing wrong with that, of course--but I just didn't get the magic."
A Prayer for Owen Meany is still a good book, and still somewhat interesting--but I still don't get the magic. Meanwhile, The World According to Garp is still my favorite, and still my first. I don't need to ask what would have happened if I had read it second.
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Kristin
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rated it 4 stars
Sep 05, 2011 04:26pm
Such a wonderful book.
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It really is! I'm rereading it--first read it about four years ago and really enjoyed it, but I don't think I appreciated it properly at the time. I was mostly afraid it wouldn't live up to The World According to Garp (the only other Irving I had read at that point, and one of my favorite books), or that it would be BETTER than Garp (which was a worse possibility). But now that I've read some of Irving's other stuff, and none of them have killed my love for Garp, I figure it's time to come back to this one.
This was my first Irving. Made me laugh, laugh, laugh. Any first Irving is a good reading experience but, like you, I wonder what I would think of it now. Thanks.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" is the first book I have read by John Irving. I started it on Nov. 1 this year and just finished it tonight (Nov. 30). The first 150 pages made me laugh A LOT, then it became a bit tiresome to read, and not so funny anymore. But I liked it, and I'm glad I followed through. I thought the ending was spectacular. John's mother, Tabby, turned out to be a modern-day Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter; I wonder if that was intentional? I believe there's a lot more to this book "A Prayer for Owen Meany" than meets the eye.
