![]() The beautiful, tragic, and repulsive aspects of religion are all woven into this narrative with little jewels of wisdom scattered throughout. Some of the most insightful commentary on religion and faith that I have ever read in fiction. ![]() Foreshadowing, allusion, and symbolism so subtle and finely woven into the narrative that you will not realize until the ending that you have been told repeatedly what is going to happen and still the ending is gut-wrenching and shocking and inevitable. ![]() In lesser hands, the reader would not be able to relate to Owen Meany with all his strangeness when portrayed only from the POV of his friend, John Wheelwright, but Irving not only slowly makes you understand Owen, but truly love him. A Prayer not only provides detail characterization for a great cast of eccentrics, its primary protagonist is not the POV character. First person is challenging when you want to portray detail for many characters. Enveloping and evocative use of setting - both historical and geographic - to set the tone and pacing 2. Although APFOM has an interesting plot and a shattering ending, if you read this book just for the story, you will miss the best part APFOM is truly a modern classic with some of the best and most engaging use of literary devices and provocative thought I've ever seen. If I could choose one phrase to summarize this masterpiece, I couldn't do better than the title of Jan's review - "Not written - crafted.exquisitely" (nicely said, Jan!). ![]()
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