Considering that the very first entry in this catalog is a book by John Irving, it's somehow sad that I've now come to consider that his only lasting work is 'A Prayer For Owen Meany'. Other books of his, like this, are too repetitive and unbelievable to take seriously. His obsession with Vienna, for example, is too obvious to ignore. In most of his books, the characters by some means always end up spending years in Vienna, which is hardly what typical americans do. About this book especially, I hated the self sacrifice rampant in the characters' behavior. You must be pretty stupid to do some of the things they do.