Was wandering around the Goodwill bookshelves today, spending my "November allowance", and couldn't pass this up. It's in great shape, and I've heard a lot about it. Oh yes, and it was cheap :) What more could a bookcrosser ask?

The biggest problem in writing a journal entry for this book is that I read it about 6 months ago. *sigh* I had every intention of writing a journal entry right away, and even started one once, but had computer problems, and lost it before I ever saved. That was a good entry, too.

So.. . I did and didn't like this book. I'd love to talk to John Irving about it. Is this true? Quasi-true? Did he know someone sort of like Owen Meany? It's very curious. I also wondered if Owen Meany is anything at all like Simon Birch, from the movie of the same name. I haven't seen it, but I was picturing that kid the whole time I read this.

I marked (by dog-ear -- YIKES!) several pages in this book I was going to refer back to and/or quote in my review, but again, the time that has passed is not helping :)

There are parts of this book that are so totally believable and are written in such a way that "I was there" that made it more enjoyable. One incident reminded me of my first water skiing experience. Suffice it to say, I drank half of Rollins Lake. The passage in the book: I am living proof that the waters of Loveless Lake are potable because I swallowed half the lake every summer while waterskiing with my cousins. Once I struck the surface of the lake with such force that my right eyelid was rolled up into my head in a funny way. My cousin Simon told me I had lost my eyelid -- and my cousin Hester added that the lost eyelid would lead to blindness. But Uncle Alfred managed to locate the missing eyelid, after a few anxious minutes. This is the kind of passage that made me think it was true, or partially true, because adults don't think or talk like this. This had to have happened, or the retelling would be entirely different, right?

I questioned (a lot) the author's faith. What exactly does he believe or believe in? He's all over the map. I did, however, love his description of the Rev. Lewis Merrill. There was a man we could all respect and emulate.

What made Mr. Merrill infinitely more attractive was that he was full of doubt; he expressed our doubt in the most eloquent and sympathetic ways. In his completely lucid and convincing view, the Bible is a book with a troubling plot, but a plot that can be understood: God creates us out of love, but we don't want God, or we don't believe in Him, or we pay very poor attention to Him. Nevertheless, God continues to lovee us . . .Pator Merril made religion seem reasonable. And the trick of having faith, he said, was that it was necessary to believe in God without any great or even remotely reassuring evidence that wee don't inhabit a godless universe.

John's relationship with his cousin Hester bothered me, mostly because the author treated it like it was no big deal -- a perfectly normal thing.

John's grandmother was a fascinating woman. The kind I would have liked to have known, and a little bit (although not as imperious) like my own grandmother. Just one of the many interesting comments about this great lady that I found particularly telling (and appealing, too) was Above all things that she despised, what my grandmother loathed most was lack of effort. . . and of course I liked that she was a "passionate reader", as mentioned multiple times :)

There are so many other things I could discuss about this book (of course, that might also require re-reading it, as I've forgotten a lot), but I'll end with this prophetic section about cousin Hester:
"Why does she drink so much?" I asked Owen.
"HESTER'S AHEAD OF HER TIME," he said.
"What's that mean?" I asked him. "Do we have a generation of drunks to look forward to?"
"WE HAVE A GENERATION OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ANGRY TO LOOK FORWARD TO," Owen said. "AND MAYBE TWO GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T GIVE A SHIT," he added.

hmmmmmm. . .

FINALLY putting this in an envelope, to fulfill an offer I made a half a year ago!

I'm hoping you haven't moved, yllus :)

Read, release, trade or RABCK these books. Either way, I hope you enjoy them!

Received from Antof9 who is sooooooooo sweet! Thank you!

I had a hard time with this book. I liked it but didn't like it. The storyline was good, but it got a little bogged down for me. However, I would recommend it to others.

Sending back out into the wild, and many thanks again to Antof9 for sending it to me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Going out for dinner, I'll leave this there.