Pun Salad

Another book down on my reading project of reading all the previously-unread entries on the New York Times 2021 list of the best books of the past 125 years. This leaves me with only two left to go! I don't know if this John Irving tome (640 pages) would be on my list of best books, but I liked it OK.

As a personal bonus, it is mostly set in my corner of New Hampshire, with references to local towns: Durham, Newmarket, Hampton Beach, … with a fictionalized version of Exeter, which Irving dubs "Gravesend". The book's narrator is John Wheelwright. The book's first sentence:

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

That's a pretty good grabber.

John relates his life, and Owen's, from a 1987 vantage point, starting with their childhood in Gravesend. Irving emphasizes Owen's "wrecked voice" putting his dialog in ALL CAPS. (Including his writing.) In 640 pages, there's a lot of room for a lot of stories about their activities, their families, their friends and enemies. And how John's mother died. But it mainly centers around Owen's certainty about his eventual destiny. And Irving doesn't get to revealing that until the very end.

Those stories are full of wry observations, humor, pathos, and (sorry) occasional death. (It kind of reminded me of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon yarns, except for more death.) One amusing bit describes a wealthy town couple devoted to the idea of (what we now call) gender fluidity. In a nice touch, the wife is on the town library board and is an ardent book-banner—of any title she thinks might be advocating sexual stereotyping. Things change.

One minor irritation was John's occasional rants about 1987-current events. He despises Ronald Reagan, bemoans the Iran-Contra scandal. For this 2024 reader, that's more than slightly distracting. (That reminded me of Isaac Asimov's speculation in Robots and Empire that the 1979 Three Mile Island accident would have a major impact on future events.) There's also quite a bit about Vietnam, but that's at least relevant to Owen's story. However, it's clear that John has been deeply affected by Owen's life, and more than slightly damaged.