A Prayer for Owen Meany.

I just finished this book by John Irving, which surprisingly I really enjoyed. I say surprisingly because having started this book before and put it aside out of boredom, it was more out of desperation I picked it up off my shelf again for my subway reading selection. However, this time around I found it incredibly endearing, funny and particularly true to the experience of being a young boy. Some of the things that happened to John Wheelwright as he became an adult seemed a bit far fetched, particularly his difficulty in meeting women. I do not know why it struck me as so unrealistic, but perhaps it is because I myself feel like a Joseph much of the time but was able to at least find one woman who was interested in me. Also, the character of Hester was a bit hard for me to find believable. Throughout the book, I was unable to get a clear picture of her in my head, which to me means the character was a bit ill-formed. However, some of the characters seemed all too real. I felt far more afraid of the similarities I saw between myself and Lewis Merrill, the individual whose constant feelings of doubt, fear and guilt drive him to weakness and ineffectiveness both personally and professionally.

I am making too much of the faults and dark themes of this book, since really it is one of the funniest, most hopeful books I have read in a rather long time. It actually made me laugh out loud regularly and molded some incredibly lovable characters in Owen, Tabby, Dan, the Grandmother, the cousins and even the town players. In the end, this was really a fantastic tale of friendship and loss.

Also, as an English teacher, Wheelwright also comments that the true wit of an author is lost on the young, who are all driven only by plot and action. It shames me to say, this statement applies directly to me. It has taken age and experience to find the joy in subtle observations about life, society and relationships buried in pages of detailed descriptions. In any case, I am glad I read this book as an adult, as I would not have appreciated it any earlier.