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Loading... A Prayer for Owen Meanyby John Irving
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is one of the very few books that I decided I was not going to finish reading. I got about 2/3 of the way through it and decided not to waste the amount of time it would take me to read the rest, just so I could say I read it all. There was very little in the book that did NOT irritate me. Owen Meany was grating and annoying. There was nothing about him that struck me as endearing or amazing. I really did not like the wonderment and awe that everyone (including the author) seemed to view him with. The fact that all of his words were typed in ALL CAPS--while it did much to ingrain his screechingly irritating voice in my brain--did nothing to make me like the kid. I'm convinced that your chances in liking this book depend on whether you like the character of Owen Meany or not. (  ) melopher | Nov 29, 2009 |  Leseerlebnis: Dieses Buch beschreibt die Geschichte der Freundschaft zwischen Owen Meany, einem kleinwüchsigen Jungen mit Fistelstimme, und John Wheelwhrigt, dem Erzähler, die bis ins Erwachsenenalter hinein andauert. Die Story beginnt in den frühen 50-er Jahren und wird durch Berichte des Ich-Erzählers aus dem Jahr 1987 immer wieder unterbrochen. "Owen Meany" ist aber auch eine kritische Auseinandersetzung des Autors mit der Politik der USA in diesem Zeitraum. So werden u. a. der Vietnamkrieg, die Rassenunruhen und der Einsatz der USA am persischen Golf unter der Reagan-Regierung thematisiert. John Irving bezieht aber darüber hinaus auch Stellung zu Fragen der Religion und des Glaubens. Owen Meany ist ein Protagonist an dem ich mich zumindest zu Beginn des Buches reiben konnte. Seine Meinung, er sein ein von Gott Auserwählter, konnte ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt weder teilen noch nachvollziehen. Es war mir unverständlich, wie ein 11jähriger auf solche Ideen kommen konnte. Das war auch der Grund, weshalb ich mich beim Lesen der ersten Kapitel etwas schwertat. Diese ersten Kapitel wiesen auch Längen auf, die mir nicht so gefallen haben. Als ich mich dann aber eingelesen hatte, erfasste mich die Handlung wie ein Sog. Die Charaktere wurden von John Irving, wie gewohnt, teilweise stark überzeichnet. Manche wirkten schon fast grotesk oder skurril. Aber alle wurden mit viel Liebe zum Detail geschaffen und die Protagonisten erlebten im Verlauf der Handlung auch erstaunliche Entwicklungen. "Owen Meany" ist ein ausgesprochen politischer Roman. Stellenweise bringt Irving bissigen Sarkasmus und Zynismus ein, er rechnet gnadenlos mit den Militäreinsätzen der USA ab. Obwohl ein breites Spektrum an Themen in diesen Roman einfließen, wirkt er nicht überladen. "Owen Meany" ist ein wunderbares Buch voller Menschlichkeit, Historie, Verworrenem und dem für John Irving charakteristischen Humor. Die Spannung wird vom ersten Kapitel an ganz langsam aufgebaut und steigert sich kontinuierlich. So, dass ich beim letzten Kapitel traurig war, dass dieses Buch nur 852 Seiten umfasst. Dass Owen Meany wohl der tragische Held dieses Buches sein würde, war wohl so ziemlich von Beginn des Buches an klar. Was für ein unerwartetes, furioses Ende John Irving zu dieser Geschichte inszeniert, hat mich dann aber doch stark beeindruckt. Wie Owen Meany im Verlauf des Romans mehrmals betont, dass es keine Zufälle gibt, wird zum Schluss von Irving eindrucksvoll bewiesen. Alle offenen Frage und Ungereimtheiten sind dann geklärt, alle Handlungsfäden wurden zusammengeführt . Mich hat, trotz meiner anfänglichen Probleme, dieses Buch nachhaltig beeindruckt. Ich werde es sicher irgendwann noch einmal lesen, denn die Vielfältigkeit dieses Romans ist beim ersten Lesen kaum auszumachen. r1hard | Nov 22, 2009 | This book is excellent in every regard. The story always moves at an interesting pace. I love the way Irving organized events for context and impact rather than a straight chronology. The characters are all intriguing, yet real enough that believe them and the extraordinary events that occur throughout. I especially appreciate how masterfully Irving achieves suspense and humor in a story that is as often deep in religious and social commentary. (  ) jpsnow | Nov 1, 2009 | This is my favorite of Irving's books. I see it as an allegory, a story of religion or at least a spiritual story of a boy whose story eerily follows that of Christ -- or perhaps another religious figure. if read without that interpretation, it is also very interesting. ( ) corrmorr | Sep 25, 2009 | Every human being on this earth should read A Prayer for Owen Meany. This isn't about being or not being a John Irving fan. (I'm a being) It's about reading a novel that reaches you at your humanly core. I'll grant you that Irving writes some truly bizarre, unique, one-of-a-kind stories, and that his writing isn't everyone's cup of tea. But this book is so special, I can't sing its praises loudly enough. If you've seen the movie, Simon Birch and then made the assumption that you've all but "read" A Prayer for Owen Meany, you're wrong, wrong, wrong. I didn't hate the movie, but I'm disturbed that it was touted as being "loosely based" on the novel. But then I feel the same about Cider House Rules. The book is SO much more than the movie on virtually every level. I don't mean like when they can't include everything from the book into the movie. I mean like when they change critical aspects of the relationships, important details, the PLOT, for cryin' out loud. Anyway, do yourself a favor and put it on your list of books to read before you die. ( ) nodressrehersal | Sep 9, 2009 | 
 "Owen Meany" is as sappy as a book can get without having a title like "Coddled By The Light" or "Sauntering Towards the Light" or "Picking Posies in the Fields of the Light," but it's never nauseating or treacly or overly wholesome. It's a nice good fun read, like a quiet vacation. Irving isn't wrangling us with extremes, here -- he gives us a break. You've been beat up enough, he says. I'll do the work for you this time. The result is merciful, healthy, warm and gladdening.  The characters capable of representing such scepticism don't look good on paper, while the book puts all its efforts into promoting a belief in belief. But a belief in belief is something this book lams into elsewhere: the Americans' propensity for decisiveness in the absence of policy. On the green award of the Gravesend Academy, it may seem innocent enough; in the jungles and deserts of international trouble spots, it looks fatally naive. Mr. Irving shows considerable skill as scene after scene mounts to its moving climax. But the thinking behind it all seems juvenile, preppy, is much too pleased with itself. There is something appropriate in the fact that so much of the book takes place in and around a New England academy. The heavily emphasized ''religious'' symbols at the center of the book - the contrast to American aggressiveness offered by the clawlessness of the armadillo, the armlessness of the Indian founder of the town, even John Wheelwright's imbecile joy at being mutilated as still another symbol of his sacrifice of sex to right thinking - all this reminds this long-tried teacher of all the ''Christ symbols'' his students find in everything and anything they have to read.  John Irving’s A Prayer For Owen Meany is yet another Irving book that absolutely held my attention, and had me racing to finish it. Irving, perhaps because of his own dyslexia, takes pains to write clearly and readably. He avoids labyrinthine construction. He earns his right to describe things by keeping the action moving.
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The book's mystic religiosity is steeped in Robertson Davies's Deptford trilogy, and the fatal baseball relates to the fatefully misdirected snowball in the first Deptford novel, Fifth Business. Tiny, symbolic Owen echoes the hero of Irving's teacher Günter Grass's The Tin Drum--the two characters share the same initials. A rollicking entertainment, Owen Meany is also a meditation on literature, history, and God. --Tim Appelo
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400)
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