It responds like a snail to our impatience.then it races like a gazelle when you can't catch your breath. Time is a monster that cannot be reasoned with.First from her closets and drawers, then from her dresses that she had sewed herself and finally, from her bedsheets and pillowcases. What I remember most to this day was my mother's scent and how I hated it when it began to disappear. You lose them in pieces over time, like how the mail stops coming. When someone you love dies, you don't lose them all at once.Birch was a big believer in the rock and just about everything in their house was made from granite, including Mr. Simon's father owned the Birch Granite Company.Simon Birch was the smallest delivery ever recorded in the history of Gravestown Memorial Hospital.Her name suited her perfectly as she was always leaving class. Our Sunday school teacher was an unhappy woman by the name of Miss Leavey.What faith I have, I owe it to Simon Birch, a boy I grew up with in Gravestown, Maine. 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.Stop it! I'm not going to let anything happen to any of you, understand?".Into paradise.may the angels.lead you.But if not, I'm perfectly content to just reread APfOM and get lost in its genius and meditation on life, regardless. I hope at some point John Irving would consider allowing that to be done with his book. I think it could be better done in today's world of Hulu/Netflix/AmazonPrime/etc offerings as a miniseries or a limited series, much like TNT's The Alienist has been reimagined from a book into a very enthralling limited series. Perhaps it was a bit on the sentimental side, but as a sentimental person, I don't mind that.Īs John Irving himself noted, this book would be extremely difficult to replicate it as a movie. The movie was amusing and moving, and the scenery shot was absolutely gorgeous, even if it was actually shot in Canada. The characters were well-cast (with Jim Carrey as a pleasant surprise, not credited until the end of the movie, nor shown in the trailer). I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie even if it didn't replicate the book exactly. And the way the book ties everything together at the end, as others have noted above, is incredible. The early part of the book may have a bit of a slow start, but the opening sentence is one of the most memorable and perfect lines ever. It's a book that stays with you a long time after you finish reading it and leaves you thinking much about the roles of fate and destiny in our lives, and if you believe in them. It's the latter half that's changed (not the first half, as the commenter above states).Ī Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my top all-time favorite books, and John Irving is my favorite author. The opening of the movie mirrors the opening of the book exactly, and much of the first half of the movie DOES emulate the book closely. Jim Carey played the adult version of the main boy character based on John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany's (John Wheelwright in APfOM/Joe Wenteworth in Simon Birch) to answer the original question in this thread.Ĭontrary to some comments above, however, John Irving did NOT "hate" the movie Simon Birch per the interviews cited in the link I've posted below, he actually liked the screenplay but thought enough had been changed about the original plot (with Irving's permission) that it warranted changing the title and character names so readers wouldn't feel misled. I didn't ever see the movie and maybe will one day but with the understanding that it is only modeled after the characters. He was quirky of course but you got a sense that he fully understood the BIG PICTURE. You felt like not only was Irving building on this the whole time BUT that Owen Meany just KNEW he was supposed to be this person as an adult. It wasn't just a slap-together job of combining the pieces that left you feeling a little betrayed or let down because it "could have been done better" or didn't fully delve into the material. One of the things I really enjoyed IS how it all seemed unrelated at first and then Irving not only pulled it all together but he did it in a way that wasn't sloppy or lazy, like many of today's authors. OMG! This is one of the BEST books I have ever read and the way it all came together in the end. 20 years ago a friend turned me on to this book as a "must read." I'll admit, I struggled in the beggining and wondered what she found so appealing - I thought it was quirky and slow moving but I pushed on.
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