Monday 2 September 2013

2012- April - Owen Meany - John Irving, and the Woodcutter -Reginald Hill

This looks like my review of the books before we discussed them. I'll edit it if I get the post meeting review.


Owen Meany.

This was a difficult book to read. It was very intense, and I could only read it a bit at a time. Each time I stopped I thought that I had had enough of it, but because it was a reading group book, I came back to it and read a few more pages. I think it is a religious book, but I can't determine whether it is for religion or against it. Owen was an utterly obnoxious little chap, makes Napoleon look like a gentle soul, the way he wheedles his way into getting his own way. The narrator was a bit of a non-entity, even when he moved to Toronto. I didn't like the way that it jumped about in time, even jumping into two- or three different times. I would rate it a 5 as sometimes when I was reading it I wanted to know what happened next, and sometimes I was fed up with the way it was going.


The Woodcutter.

Not entirely believable, as these kind of stories aren't, but a thoroughly good read. This hidden organisation that had it's feelers everywhere, and this Mr. Price who knew everybody. But the hero, even though severely maimed, and hiding his fitness under a limp, grabbed me. I have always thought that the heroes of British thrillers are much more believable than American heroes, who have super-human strength and resources. This man did it on his own, without using overbearing power. The characterisation of the upper class as given in his lordship and his overspoilt daughter, I thought was a bit caricatured. Revenge was sweet.


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