A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Prayer for Owen Meany is my favourite book. It’s not an intellectual nor a populist choice. In fact, it was never a choice. It’s a book that grabbed me by the throat, tortured me with unpublic laughter and uncontrollable sobs, left me sleepless and unfed for the first three days of its life on my bedside table. No choice. It just declared itself: good morrow, I’m thy favourite book, thou shalt not have life without me. I have vivid memories of reading it for the first time - the room, everything in it; the smell of approaching summer; the light; the bluebells in the woods when, during a walk with Carol the day after the sleepless night turning the last few pages, I told her I had fallen in love with the man who had given me this book.
A copy of A Prayer for Owen Meany has been put into the hands of most people I really care about, and it has touched their lives in amazing ways - with laughter, tears, prayers, armadillos, baseball, war, and dealing with death.
Today my friend M over at morgenstern told me he has just finished reading A Prayer for Owen Meany upon my recommendation and loved it. I was totally thrilled, and I thought I’d publish a mixtape of my Owen Meany playlist, the songs I listen to when I’m re-reading the book. Enjoy!
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