A Prayer for Owen Meany

[clarion]

I've just finished listening to this on radio 4.  It was adapted to take the place of the afternoon play for a week.  Five instalments of 45 minutes - over three and a half hours of airtime to tell the story.

Now I haven't read the book, though I have enjoyed Irving in the past (I'm not great with modern US novels - Updike put me off).  I've read Cider House Rules and Garp, and I was lucky enough to see the mad film adaptation of Hotel New Hampshire with Nastassia Kinski as a bear (well, sort of - like most of Iriving, it'd take a long time to explain).

I've listened through the plays, albeit at work, so subject to the occasional interruption, and I confess I didn't understand.

I knew I liked it.  It was well dramatised and acted.  And I knew it was a complex story.  But the last half hour left me resolved that I'm going to have to get the book if I'm to have a clue at all.

[Mrs Pingu]

What did you not understand?

[mike]

do you want to borrow the book?  I loved it.

[clarion]

It seemed that in the last episode the spiritual storylines sort of exploded across the narrative (if you'll pardon the verb).  Yes, I would like to borrow it if you don't mind, that'd be cool.

I think I enjoyed it.  I think Irving takes apart some complex issues within it, but I'd like to be sure.

Reading the Wikipedia entry about it, I think there were a few important bits that were missed out, but I'd like to know...

[mike]

PM me your address then, chap.

[little miss mac]

I love John Irving's novels, most of them. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of the best, along with the World According to Garp, Cider House Rules and Hotel New Hampshire.

I cried so much over Owen Meany that I had to stop for a few months at one point and come back to it.

[clarion]

PM me your address then, chap.

Thank you.  Received this morning.

[Charlotte]

I loved Owen Meany.  It was complex and beautiful, thoughtful and strange.

Definitely the best  Irving I've ever read.