Rating: 
Summary: A spare, heartwrenching novel
Review: A Prayer for the Dying is an amazing tour de force. O'Nan manages to completely capture the reader by using the ambitious second person pov in this tautly written novel about making the right choices, the right decisions when surrounded by catastrophe. Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: Troubling, harrowing, and fascinating all at once.
Review: I found the troubling aspect of this novel was that these events probably did occur in many rural towns because of ignorance and lack of medecine to combat the horror of diptheria. The author writes with a laser precision and really makes you feel you are *there*. It is good, it is creepy, but don't read it if you feel clinically depressed.
Rating: 
Summary: Terribly disturbing
Review: Is it possible to remain sane in an insane world? O'Nan answers this question with no. Jacob reverts to appalling habits, both during the diptheria outbreak and during the war, in an attempt to appear in control. O'Nan gives the readers a horrifying portrayal of human nature.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but thin
Review: The author raises many interesting ideas. The story is involving and suspenseful. I do wish it had been fleshed-out into a longer book, though. The subject and incidents required much more detail and explanation. The main character's not wanting to "let go" of his dead wife and daughter was sad, touching, and gruesome.
Rating:
Summary: A heartbreaking novel from Stewart O'Nan
Review: A Prayer for the Dying is a novel told in second person, and this engaging form is odd but effective. Through the eyes of the narrator, the reader sees a small concern become a hysteria and the nature of the beast is revealed. A thoroughly disturbing novel, the language is often poetic and thoughtful. O'Nan is a pleasure to read; this is the best thing he has done since Snow Angels. One of the finest writers today.
Rating: 
Summary: another O'Nan imitation of literature
Review: This is a writer deeply convinced that he will sooner or later get it right, so he writes books of wildly disparate tone and style, hoping to find the voice to which the market will respond. With this novel, he has finally guessed right, and for that he is to be congratulated. It's a great imitation of literature. But O'Nan is ultimately not the real thing. This is a novel that contains some excellent writing, sentence to sentence, but it has no heart. Deep down, this novel is shallow, and no amount of skilled writing can make up for that. It's easier to be moved by this book if you haven't read anything else by this writer. If you loved this book, then you probably shouldn't plan on reading anything else by him or you'll be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful writing encompasses an overwhelming plot...
Review: O'Nan is an unheralded artist of the highest quality, and his lastest offering is frightfully captivating. Writing entirely in the 2nd person, O'Nan elicits, no forces, both emotional and visceral reader involvement/reaction in this historical fiction. O'Nan demonstrates his art through the heart of the town undertaker/constable/preacher in the midst of a post Civil War Diptheria epidemic. O'Nan can always get inside the head of his characters, and this time, thanks to the 2nd person, the character is YOU.A shortish novel, Prayer can't be missed. Mesmerized and totally impressed, I may rank A Prayer For the Dying as the best peice of writing I have EVER read. Don't miss Prayer, and don't miss O'Nan while he's still ours...and don't pre-read any reviews that give away the plot
Rating:
Summary: Book explores good people in horrible situations
Review: Utterly odd and intricately strange, Stewart O'Nan takes his reader on a twisted journey in A Prayer for the Dying. The themes are dark, but the writing is light and airy. The book begins in Friendship, Wis. shortly after the Civil War, where a deadly epidemic ravages the city, leaving few survivors. Jacob Hanson is the small town's undertaker, deacon and sheriff, each position tying him more closely to the town. So when the town starts to die away, he finds himself struggling to keep it together among people whose worlds are so out of control. The town must be quarantined, so Hanson the sheriff must make sure the roads are blocked - no one can enter and no one can leave. Hanson the deacon must preach to his flock and ensure they do not lose faith. Finally, Hanson the undertaker has what is possibly the most important job: it is up to him to see that the growing list of the dying get a proper burial. It is the last job that gives Hanson so much trouble. With the disease constantly spreading, the town doctor advises Hanson not to drain the bodies before he buries them. But he wants to give them a proper burial and respect the dead, so each body is drained. And with each draining, Hanson makes himself even more of a carrier of the deadly sickness. At the time of the epidemic, the religious cult called the Holy Light Colony resides in Friendship. One of their followers is the first to contract the disease; the way the group reacts to death sharply contrasts with the rest of the town. O'Nan tells a beautiful story, despite its sick themes. The story is disturbing, though. Hanson unearths his newly buried daughter and treats her as if she's still living; he also makes love to his deceased wife and converses with both these dead family members often. Whether or not a person can be wholly good in desperate times seems to be the question O'Nan is trying to answer, but his conclusion is vague. Each person gets a proper burial... but then there is the necrophelia issue. The best and most unusual part about A Prayer for the Dying is the way in which it is written. You are Hanson. The book speaks to you and tells you what is happening and how you react. A Prayer for the Dying is a book worth reading with the right mindset. Although it is disturbing, the writing makes it worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Different
Review: As an avid reader I started out slow, disconcerted by the second person voice, but I quickly caught on. I won't go over the details mentioned in other reviews but I will mention one thing that caught my attention.
Although the writer never specifically states that all of the animal deaths in the book are due to the diphtheria epidemic (cows, dogs ect.) one is easily led to that conclusion. Animals, however, are not affected by diphtheria. When two widow ladies die of "Paris Green" poison it's clear that they've died from something other than diphtheria, it's even clear WHY they ingested the poison (conflict), but we're left to assume that the animals died of diphtheria.
I found myself feeling angry that Jacob didn't or couldn't follow the doctor's orders and use precautions with the first two bodies. I felt he was responsible for carrying the disease to his wife and daughter. It makes you think about how you would react in a similar circumstance. I felt his interior hopelessness, his personal demons left over from the Civil War made it impossible for him to act decisively and take precautions....acting with hope. His actions in not taking precautions leaves one with the sense that he felt the epidemic was inevitable. He reacts, he doesn't act.
As for the doctor, I felt he alone was responsible for the spread of the disease by also failing to act courageously. He feared REaction from the towns' people if he activated a widespread quarantine, and by the time that he did, it was simply to late. Often, acting with courage means making unpopular decisions. I would have liked to see him struggle more with it, as Jacob struggled with, but accepted, the lack of quarantine.
I feel this book is more of a commentary on human action and inaction, a drama we see playing itself out nearly every day. You're left to wonder if our current policies and government would act in a similar manner, without courage and without decision. I'd have to answer yes.
Although this book is set in the post-Civil War era, this book is an effective modern day commentary on society.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant work of contemporary fiction
Review: I'm not a reader of mainstream contemporary fiction. So much of it is badly written with characters who are wooden, formulaic and uninteresting. O'Nan's book is a shining exception in sea of mediocrity. Aside from my mild annoyance with one point of his style (his use of the second person in telling the story), the book was flawless and one of the best contemporary books I've ever read.
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