Vacation week this week so I got to tackle a favorite book that I don't read often. I don't like to read it unless I can really take the time to savor every last bit.
I find that no one reads this book and walks away thinking, "Meh. It's ok." You either love this book and carry it with you forever after you read it or you cannot stand this book and wish to torch it so that no one ever reads it again. There appears to be little middle ground.
Me? This is probably my all-time favorite book. I sometimes forget why I love this book so much and just throw the title out there out of habit when someone asks me my favorite. This year I saved Owen Meany for camping when I knew that I could sit around the fire and get reacquainted with Owen, Johnny, Dan, Hester the Molester, Sagamore, Mr. Fish, Grandmother and all the other residents of Gravesend. It's a book that I want to immediately start over when I turn the last page but I try and space my readings out enough so that I can be surprised all over again.
I guess this isn't much of a review at this point. Yes, you get that I adore this book, but will you fall into the "love it" or "hate it" camp? How can you define what makes a book a favorite?
At it's heart, Owen Meany is a book about reading--about reading not only books but everything around you. Owen teaches Johnny to read, to take the time, to focus even when it's difficult and really read not just skim the pages.
While the narrator of this book grows up during the decade where all his friends were drafted to serve in Vietnam, this is not by any means a book about Vietnam. It was eerie how well the book continues to speak of the stupidity of government and the distortion of politics that are "made for TV."
I own about six different versions of this novel including my treasured leather-bound, signed copy! But I enjoyed the afterward in this edition.
I may one day write a better first sentence to a novel than that of A Prayer for Owen Meany, but I doubt it. I have a feeling for first sentences, and I've written some pretty good ones..."I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany."
The semi-colon helps, but the clause that follows it was a risk' doubtless there were some readers who'd had it up to here with Christians and stopped right there. I don't blame them. In the United States today, there is an excess of Christian bragging--too many holier-than-thou zealots in politics, too much righteous indignation in God's name--but that's another story. What makes the first sentence of A Prayer for Owen Meany such a good one is that the whole novel is contained in it.
If you've read this book than you will know that it is true. That first sentence will bring it all back--the murder weapon, the nativity pageant (how could anyone forget that??), the shot, Watahantowet, OWEN'S VOICE. If you know me you may be scratching your head a bit about my favorite novel being one where the narrator claims to "be a Christian because of Owen Meany." Owen Meany did not believe blindly in religion. He never tried to convert anyone or force his beliefs on anyone. He sneered at those who only believed in "beliefs" without questioning, doubting or learning more. He never veered from what he believed to be his destiny, but he never followed along without question. We could all use a little Owen Meany in our lives.
I know I still haven't done justice to a description of this book. Just read it. And hopefully you will be one of those who always carries a bit of this story with them.
This was most definitely a reading for pleasure book. I can't resist one more quote by Owen. He is frustrated with Johnny's complaining about reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
"YOUR BOREDOM IS YOUR PROBLEM," he said. "IT'S YOUR LACK OF IMAGINATION THAT BORES YOU. HARDY HAS THE WORLD FIGURED OUT. TESS IS DOOMED. FATE HAS IT IN FOR HER. SHE'S A VICTIM; IF YOU'RE A VICTIM, THE WORLD WILL USE YOU. WHY SHOULD SOMEONE WHO'S GOT SUCH A WORKED-OUT WAY OF SEEING THE WORLD BORE YOU? WHY SHOULDN'T YOU BE INTERESTED IN SOMEONE WHO'S WORKED OUT A WAY TO SEE THE WORLD? THAT'S WHAT MAKES WRITERS INTERESTING! MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR. AT LEAST, YOU CAN GET TO READ STUFF THAT'S WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WHO CAN WRITE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO BE AN ENGLISH MAJOF, YOU DON'T NEED ANY SPECIAL TALENT. YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SOMEONE WANTS YOU TO SEE--TO WHAT MAKES SOMEONE AGRIEST, OR THE MOST EXCITED IN SOME OTHER WAY. IT'S SO EASY; I THINK THAT'S WHY THERE ARE SO MANY ENGLISH MAJORS."
Maybe I remembered that at some point. Explains a lot, yes? And the caps? No, I wasn't shouting. I was just immitating the voice of the granite mouse--a voice that just can't be immitated.
« hide more
