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dezzz0322 's review for:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
3.0

2.75 stars.

What a slog. Evidently, [a:John Irving] is not for me. Although I truly did fall in love with the character of Owen Meany, one charming character is not enough to sustain 600+ pages of jumping around to random, tangential, and non-linear stories here there and everywhere. It was impossible to follow and felt pointless. By 25% in, I could feel that I was forcing myself to pick up the book each day.

I actually posted on Reddit about halfway through, asking if all of the jumping around ever leads anywhere, and if I should stick with it despite my frustrations. I got over 100 comments overwhelmingly telling me to keep going — that the ending is worth it.

Spoiler: the ending was pretty good, but not worth it.

I also think that because I no longer consider myself traditionally religious, and struggle a lot with organized Christianity in general, a book whose central theme is Christian faith is not going to be something that I feel invested in.

It’s too bad. I loved many of the characters. And the ending was pretty good. It just wasn’t worth the ride.