A review by onetrackmind77
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

5.0

The back cover reads "..he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.", and as an atheist, I was a bit hesitant to start this book. I put up walls when it comes to religion and god, and I want nothing to do with it. Still, I wanted to tackle some books from the Great American Reads list, and I figured that I might as well start off with something that could be a challenge. I was happy to discover that in no way was the agenda here to push religion or belief in a god...and while these things, as well as faith, are central topic within the book, I never felt that I was being preached to. *huge sigh of relief* This was an incredible story, that brought out all kinds of emotions...I laughed out loud, I got angry, I was on the edge of my seat, I was moved. This book is going to stay with me for a while. Impressive. Initially, I was thinking of giving it a four star review, but reflecting on that ending, had be bumping it up to 4.5 and rounding it up to 5.