I'm going to see a play tonight at the Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda, MD. It's been a while since I've read John Irving's novel, but I remember where I was when I read it. I was taking the Amtrak from Denver to Newark, NJ via Chicago. Especially fond in my memory is waking in the early morning and making my way to the site-seeing car to watch snowy western PA pass by and read A Prayer for Owen Meany. I could not take my mind off the wild and gregarious pipsqueak Jesus-figure of Meany and it was like everyone I saw on the train was a version of the lonely and jaded narrator, for whom nothing else mattered after Owen Meany, just wandering. To me, Irving is one of the greatest story crafters of the modern age, one of a handful operating at the weird intersection between literature and pop fiction, and an heir to Dickens (i did not come up with that, many have said so). I am excited to see one of the more memorable characters from the latter 20th century on stage. Yee-ha. The script was actually approved by Irving so it will have to be good. And funny. I remember that book being sooo funny. I'll let you know how it is.
5 comments:
I almost read that book but put it down for an Oprah's Book Club pick "A Lesson Before Dying" which sounds like it'll be really good but is actually very slow and boring and pretty much the same as all Oprah book picks. Now I wish I'd read Owen Meany.
I have not read A Lesson Before Dying, but I am sure it is a lot less jarring than A Prayer for Owen Meany. There are quite a few shocking scenes in OM but in the end it's so beautiful. More on the play later.
actually there's a lot of sex. It's just super boring and sorta sad how the main character just is so bothered by everything and so hateful of his little town. Not very enjoyable person to be around. And the writing is slow.
but he learns something in the end, right? hence the title? yeah i guess you should have gone with OM as it is NOT boring AT ALL.
Irving is one of my favorite authors. I read owen meany in high school, and I've been meaning to pick it up again..
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