"A Prayer for Owen Meany" - John Irving

Finished it. Amazing experience. An assortment of thoughts:

Ayn Rand would hate it. Don't think my dad would like it.

Although Owen Meany is certainly the focus, both of the book and of John Wheelwright's life, and is such a larger-than-life character, in retrospect I found myself thinking about what an odd duck John himself is. The course of his life is fascinating - the progression from Owen Meany's shadow, poor student, etc., to English professor, virgin curmudgeon, political critic. I really enjoyed his rants about literature and his students, in the later parts of the book. But what an odd fellow. How he doesn't seem to have gumption or really a life of his own. The way he drifts, doesn't have a sex life.

I am not a religious person and I tend not to believe in predestination, but I did find the book very powerful. The draw of such things is certainly very strong; people want to find reasons for things that happen to them. Was the fateful baseball game part of Owen Meany's "conversion"? Or did he believe even before that he was "God's instrument"? Was that the purpose of his fateful baseball hit - God's way of emphasizing the point? What other purpose did it serve? Did it play a role in John's life? Of course it must have.