This book gets so many recommendations on this board that I finally went and read it, and am I ever glad that I did. This book has instantly become one of my favorites.
Therefore, I just wanted to give a big Thank You to everyone here who’s ever recommended reading this book. It was one of the funniest, well-written and most touching books I’ve read in a long long while.
So…which of Irving’s books would you folks suggest I pick up next?
Given that Owen Meany is far and away my favorite of Irving’s books, I’d probably just read that one again. 
Glad you liked it. It’s one of my favorites as well. It’s the only book that I will recommend to friends and offer to buy the book back from them if they don’t like it. I haven’t bought one yet.
Try The World According to Garp next.
My other favorite is Cidar House Rules.
If you loved APFOM, you’ll love…
The Hotel New Hampshire,
as long as you are just like me, that is er …
OWEN MEANY IS A GREAT READ.
I am halfway through Owen Meany right now and I totally agree. I’m already recommending it to my friends and family. But they can’t borrow mine just yet!
Hotel New Hampshire, Cider House Rules, World According to Garp…heck, I’ll just read’em all.
That solves that little predicament.
My first Irving novel was The Water Method Man. It’s not well-known these days, but it’s still my favorite.
Garp is imo his greatest novel; it’s also a good movie (for which John Lithgow should have won an Oscar). Cider House Rules is also good and has only passing relation to the movie; the movie covers about two years and the book covers several decades. (Tom “Amadeus” Hulce created a stage version that covers the entire book but it runs 7 hours.)
I liked ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ (also read after hearing about it on these boards) - but I LOVED ‘The Cider House Rules’.
A Prayer for Owen Meany always leaves me crying like a baby. I’d say Garp, then Cider House Rules then Hotel New Hampshire.
As far as the movies go, I don’t see how Garp is a more faithful adaptation than Cider House Rules. I’m sure John Irving has no problems witht the Cider House Rules adaptation.
Y’all that liked the book should track down a Jimmy Eat World song called Goodbye Sky Harbor. It’s interesting to listen to in the context of the book (as it is, quite obviously, based on the it).
A Prayer for Owen Meany is in my “top 5 best novels I’ve ever read” list. It’s simply staggering. It awes me that a writer can be that damn talented.
That’s a good plan. I loved all these books. However, I’ll warn you, Son Of The Circus is the one Irving novel I just couldn’t get into.
Some great short stories in Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (hope I remembered the title right – I can’t put my hand to it right now).
Avoid, by all means necessary, Simon Birch. The ill-fated attempt to bring Owen to the big screen. It was so far off base (read: bad) that John Irving took his name off the project other than the credit, “Inspired by the novel…”. I’ve seen about five minutes of and I agree with his decision.
I don’t think anyone would be able to make this movie the right way.
Eewwww, yeah, second that, and third and fourth. I saw the whole movie and still have a bad taste in my mouth. Horrid.
Don’t forget “A Widow for One Year.” Excellent Irving. Ditto on the recommendation to avoid “Son of the Circus.” I wouldn’t bother with “The Fourth Hand,” either. I couldn’t even get halfway through it. With those 2 exceptions, everything JI has done is fantastic. It’s also interesting to read his books in the order he wrote them, to see his writing style emerge, and to notice the reoccurrence of certain themes. What was it with JI and bears, anyway? It took quite a while before he wrote a bear-less novel. I liked them all, though.
MLS, you liked Widow? Seemed like Irving was in a rut on that one. Struggling writer, former wrestler, has a fancy for older women, New England, blah, blah, blah…
But as mentioned above, Hotel, Cider House Rules and Garp are excellent.