I finally finished Cider House Rules by John Irving.
It wasn’t "A Prayer for Owen Meany", which is one of my all time favorite books, but it was very good. John Irving is a fabulous story teller, although sometimes I wish he would release his books as trilogies, since they tend to become slow in the middle. He does have a gift for making the most improbable story line seem completely believable.
I liked the main character, an orphan named Homer, a lot. For me, Homer turns into an everyman character as he lives out the longings for connections and family. I ended up identifying with him much more than I would have ever expected to.
I had lots of favored passages but I think my favorite bit was the benediction given to the children to signify that an orphan had been adopted. "Let us be happy for Fuzzy Stone," Dr. Larch said… "Fuzzy Stone has found a family … Good night, Fuzzy."
