Reviews with content warning for Grief - A Prayer for Owen Meany

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

8 reviews

sjwheeler's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favourite books of all time. I read it in university and I have been moved by it ever since. I never saw the movie adaptation, I didn't want to ruin it. It's a must read in my opinion and may just change your entire faith or philosophy.

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ninamanon's review against another edition

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While the book is absolutely well written and the story and characters are original and interesting, I personally didn’t like the pacing/structure and was confused by what the book is trying to do. I loved reading about the memories of when Owen and the protagonist were kids, but then it would suddenly be interrupted by a tangent on US history, and I would lose interest. That, paired with the way women are sexualized, led me to conclude this type of book is just not for me.

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lady_n_beautiful_reads's review

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I tried really hard to like this book—so many folks loved this book. I just cannot. It was an awful slog to try to read.

This is supposed to be an adult man looking back on his childhood. From the outset, the author minimizes the incredible bullying of Owen Meany (and if this book was written as the narrator growing, I would be more forgiving of this, but since he is an adult looking back….I struggle with his lack of reflection on how awful they were to Owen). Additionally, the narrator is tediously descriptive and rambling at times, returning back to previously covered topics (it is written almost as though the reader is sitting and talking with the narrator—it’s a stream of consciousness at times). Women are treated terribly—either they are mean, worthless, or sexualized. The narrator makes out repeated with his female cousin, talks about his mother’s breasts and how attractive she is, and discusses how worthless Owen’s mother is.

Because so many loved this book, I skipped to the last chapter and read about 20 pages. The writing style remained the same, with ZERO reflection/growth of the narrator.
SPOLER (skip down to the last paragraph to avoid): Owen carves his own tombstone and died in Vietnam. The narrator believes that Owen foresaw his own death. Yet, there was no discussion in the pages I read that reflected on maybe Owen having depression/mental health issues and taking his own life purposefully on that day.

If this book was 400 pages shorter—even 300–maybe I would find it more palatable. I am also not religious, so maybe if I had that faith, I would have overlooked the glaring sexism, bullying, and lack of reflection on mental health.

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thenecessarysalamander's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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childofmongreldogs's review

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm weirdly torn about this one.

I really enjoyed the way everything came together and I enjoyed the titular character, Owen Meany—I especially enjoyed how his story played out and all the elements of his past lead to the final scene of the novel. The main character left something to be desired. He felt very out of place and was often off-putting from a narrative perspective. Some of the weirdest aspects of the book come from his narration such as the weird incestuous thoughts he has about his cousin for the majority of the book.

All in all, while I enjoyed how everything played out, this was probably the hardest book I've ever tried to get through. It was not enjoyable to read the actual prose of this novel, despite the actually good prose and dialogue.

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