I'll confess, this was a bit of a slog... I'm aware that I am suffering from pregnancy brain, and therefore have the attention span of a sparrow, however it took me a long time to read, and frankly there have been several days where I just couldn't be bothered to pick up the book because I didn't particularly care about what happened. This is the story of Owen Meany, a short boy with a strange voice who seems to know a lot about his future, as told by his best friend John. John is very much the narrator and yet is a bit of a non-entity in his own story. Owen takes over, he is the dominant character and very much the leader in their relationship. The story starts off with the boys as children and takes them all the way to adulthood, death and beyond. OWEN MEANY TALKS LIKE THIS ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE BOOK - HE IS INCAPABLE OF SPEAKING IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN CAPITAL LETTERS. THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH HIS VOICE WHICH IS ALWAYS SOMETHING BETWEEN A SCREAM AND A SHOUT. JOHN IRVING USES CAPITAL LETTERS TO REMIND US OF THIS AND SOMETIMES THERE ARE MORE CAPITAL LETTERS ON THE PAGE THAN THERE IS ANYTHING ELSE ON THE PAGE. This annoyed me (although I understand why the author chose to use this) and I actually found it really hard to read when I came to a page covered with capital letters.
Best novel ever (as hubby would ask me)? No. I enjoyed The Cider House Rules more. The irony is that this novel made it to the Guardian's 1000 novels list, and Cider House Rules did not... I really think that the judges/selectors made a mistake there.
Baby due in 11 days, I have a feeling that my reading pace and amount is going to decrease drastically - who knows, maybe I'll start reviewing books like Spot, Mog and the Tiger Who Came to Tea.
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