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Ladataan... Ystäväni Owen Meany (1989)– tekijä: John Irving
  
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Mixed emotions. I really enoyed this, but at the same time it was just too long. I certainly did not anticipate the end so that's always a plus. Too much of the story focuses on John's ranting about the stupidity and arrogance of the American government. I loved the eccentricities of Owen but I didn't need to hear about what he had to say about so many subjects. The part about The Voice just got on my nerves. But very good over all. (  ) boldforbs | Jan 15, 2021 |  I'm still trying to figure out if I liked this book or not. I really enjoyed Irving's writing--he is fantastic at describing things so that you find yourself thinking, "I never thought of it like that." So, I loved that part of the book. The story was interesting. I hear it's the story that's in the movie "Simon Birch," but I've never seen the movie so I can't verify that. I think the problem with the book was that I would read for an hour and feel like I hadn't gotten anywhere nearer to finishing it. So, maybe the real problem is that I wasn't interested enough in the story to stop paying attention to how much closer to the end I got. All in all, I probably wouldn't tell people to read this book, although I'm not sad that I read it. (  ) pmichaud | Dec 21, 2020 | I loved this - time to read it agin. (  ) bederson | Dec 17, 2020 | This book introduced me to John Irving, and it set me on a path to read a bunch of his other books. I thoroughly enjoyed the ideas presented in this book, and have thought about them many times since first reading it about ten years ago. A number of people have criticized Prayer for its inaccurate portrayal of Christianity and faith. I disagree. When I read the book, I was amazed at how spot-on Irving was in describing many of the thoughts and feelings I had experienced in my own Christian upbringing. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the book for me is the sense of wonder that the narrator, John Wheelwright, feels toward Owen Meany's seemingly charmed--in multiple senses of the word--life. Watching someone who seems to have a purpose, a destiny, as his life unfolds while not sensing a similar purpose in one's own life provides a horde of conflicting thoughts and emotions. On the one hand, John as a child is awed and fascinated, and at times almost convinced, by Owen's seemingly unshakable belief that he is an instrument of God. At the same time, however, John feels insecure and at the mercy of uncontrollable events in his own life--which despite being intertwined with the events of Owen's life, do not seem to him to be the destined history of a benevolent. In the end, John comes to believe in God based on the events of Owen's life. But even that belief becomes something outside his own life, a faith that is less of a heart-felt truth and more a conclusion that there simply is no better way to explain the arcane and impossible-to-understand world outside. ( ) octoberdad | Dec 16, 2020 | shawjonathan | Dec 8, 2020 |
 "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. Diminutive Owen Meany, believing himself to be God's instrument, unlocks life's mysteries for his closest friend in this imaginative mix of humor and tragedy. From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.  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.
In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. He is Irving's most heartbreaking hero. No library descriptions found. |
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A Prayer for Owen Meany
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