Rating: 
Summary: The Horrible Beauty...
Review: This novel is a haunting Gothic work. Both horrifying in it's description and circumstance, the second person point of view drags the reader into the mind of Jacob Hanson, even while the reader is begging to get out. Admit that at some point you identified with Jacob! But then turn away in revulsion! O'Nan's writing pulls us in while at the same time repelling us. A Prayer for the Dying is as beautiful as it is horrifying.
Rating: 
Summary: grrrrrrrr...annoying
Review: I felt this book was writtern in a detached manner. Every time you felt you wanted to be part of the narrative it sort of warped you around. There was no emotional ties with the main characters. In fact all you wanted was for everyone to die and the book to end! If you feel you must read this book, take it out of the library and do yourself a favor!
Rating: 
Summary: ashes to ashes
Review: On the dedication page of 'Prayer for the Dying' O'nan placed a quote from Albert Camus's 'The Plague'. "There is no escape in a time of plague, we must choose to either love or hate God." 'Prayer' owes a debt and provides a striking contrast to the existentialist masterpiece. Both books are set in lonely outposts at the seeming edge the world, afflicted with a deadly disease. The towns are isolated microcosms of society and the human condition at large. Diphtheria spreads in O'nan's Wisconsin settlement, as a raging brush fire closes in on it. Jacob Hansen, sheriff, pastor, undertaker is the custodian of the wretched destruction of his community. He performs the sacraments, assists the doctor, buries the dead, seals the quarantine. He is a survivor of the Civil War and its images are an indelible refrain in his memory, as carnage and death seem attached to him like a curse. The unusual second person narrative gives a slightly disassociated perspective, as if the narrator is a witness rather than a participant in the horrors around him. Jacob presides like an angel of death over a futile struggle, dispensing comfort and arbitrary expedience. 'A Prayer for the Dying' however is not an existential tome. At its core there is faith, charity, hope--a bedrock of structure and belief, which sustains the protagonist as all that is important is taken from him. That is the antithesis of Camus's proposal of meaning being solely in the immediate, intrinsic value of heroic action-- the existentialist credo of conduct ennobled by its freedom from spiritual duty or expectation of reward. Both authors explore indifference to suffering, and the measure of character in alleviating it. There is no outward necessity for Jacob to act as he does, he could save his himself and his family, yet he grimly perseveres. Camus and O'nan finally agree that the understanding of random evil rests in the response, not its justification-- be that solitary revolt or spiritual refuge.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, please
Review: After everything O'Nan's done for us, this is easily his most insincere. I never believed the ethical battles, I never bought the slight insanity and I certainly couldn't figure the point. Darkness for darkness' sake is, well, just dark. It's as if Stewart was just looking for a new setting to ply his trade, rather than flexing his literary muscles, as he has in the past. I don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Brace Yourself...
Review: I was moved and touched by O'Nan's "Snow Angels," which in no way prepared me for the maddening descent into the hell on earth that this demanding and darkly beautiful novel describes. Brace yourself, for the elegiac tone of the early pages is soon engulfed by a raging conflagration of pure horror. Highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: A good novel worth reading.
Review: I was transfixed with this book and recommended it to a friend of mine to read.
Rating:
Summary: Jakob Hansen faces evil or the hand of God in Friendly,Wis.
Review: Jakob Hansen is sheriff, preacher and undertaker to the town of Friendly, Wisconsin. His idyllic life is shattered by an outbreak of diptheria. Who to save becomes, how to save and finally when to save, as the epidemic rages like a nearby wild prairie fire. Brilliantly written in the second person, 'A Prayer for the Dying' is not for the squeamish.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR BOOK GROUPS
Review: This book is like an ethical white water rafting adventure, with so many layers of issues; morals, ethics, every word has significance to the story. This novel won a Poe award for excellence and there is a reason for it. This is a must read and something you will want for your library to read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Just an aside...
Review: If you are interested in this book (and it's hard not to be given the reviews), then you might want to know that the "cult classic," Wisconsin Death Trip, is going to be released in a new, hardcover edition (available at Amazon). This book inspired O'Nan to write "Prayer." It is a photgraphic collection of death and grief in Wisconsin in the 19th century. Many people in Wisconsin are very familiar with it, as it seems to be included in the collections of most of the state's libraries. It's quite a companion work for O'Nan's great novellete!
Rating:
Summary: Not Only "For the Dying"
Review: O'Nan accomplishes wondrous things with his novel. The other night, I gave my son extra hugs, forgave him his irritating behaviors, let him know how important he is my life. I did that, it seems, because "A Prayer for the Dying" is really meant to be a prayer for those of us alive -- a prayer to call us to action. This story is heartbreaking, depressing, and because of all this, oddly uplifting. When you share in Jacob's despair, and feel him struggling to carry on, to keep his faith, you begin to appreciate all manner of blessings, especially those that are small and easily overlooked. Life, and God, can deal us terrible travesties. This is undeniable. But we have the choice to act, to extend countless gifts of love and comfort to all those around us. "A Prayer for the Dying" powerfully explores one man's awful test of faith and then tosses the issues, very deliberately, in our own laps. (That's why it's second-person narrative!). What it does, is in the noblest tradition of literature, inspiring us to re-examine ourselves, and then make our own lives active prayers for the living. Thank you, Mr. O'Nan.
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