Book Club Cake of the Month...March

Also known as 'A Cake For Owen Meany!'

This months book was 'A Prayer For Owen Meany' by John Irving.  

When I first met Mr Lemon Drizzle he told me that this was his favourite book, and so being a keen girlfriend I rushed out, bought it and read it, and...ah, well, actually, I didn't. I just shrugged and thought 'whatever!', though I did later read 'The Hotel New Hampshire' by the same author on his recommendation, which I found...strange. I have also seen bits of the film of another of his books,  'The World according to Garp' and I didn't really enjoy that either. So I was expecting to be disappointed with this months book.

But I wasn't!

It is a really lovely story, and one which had me sobbing like a baby.

But there were also some incredibly funny sections, especially the part with the VW Beetle. 

The book got the highest aggregate score from my book group that we've had yet -  9 out of 10 - although two people abstained because they hadn't finished it and the end is really crucial. We had a good discussion about the character of Owen Meany, and for me he changed from a very annoying figure into a hero. I was guessing right up until the last few pages about his destiny, which is always a plus for me as I tend to second-guess the plot of book and films at the outset (e.g. with the film 'Sixth Sense' I had guessed the 'twist' ending after ten minutes!)

As for cakes...well, there is a lot of symbolism about armlessness in the book, so I did toy with the idea of making gingerbread men without arms, but Mr LD thought that was pretty crass...and if even he thinks that, then it really must be! There is only one mention of cake in the book: when the narrator's mother marries they have cupcakes. So I decided to make wedding cupcakes. After I had made them Mr LD asked if the angel wings were to symbolise the 'prayer' in the title. I said yes, but really hadn't thought that hard about it. However, with further thought I realised how appropriate they are because I wasn't sure if Owen really was an angel!