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A Prayer for Owen Meany

Average rating: 4/5

Based on 205 ratings

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A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

Random House Publishing Group | April 14, 1990 | Mass Market Paperbound

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God''s instrument; he is.
This is John Irving''s most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving''s most heartbreaking character.
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning and very ambitious."
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"John Irving is an abundantly and even joyfully talented storyteller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKR EVIEW
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Reviews

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      helpful to you?
    Janill Bennett

    Rating: 5/5

    Couldn't Put It Down

    Janill Bennett

    18 months ago

    John Irving is a wonderful author with a style all his own. The characters, setting and plot offer incredible detail without boring the reader. This book cannot truly be appreciated until the reader has finished and has had time to think about what they have just experienced. This book has the ability to inspire everyone regardless of age or faith. This is an amazing read, it is nearly impossible not to sympathize with each one of the characters as you follow them through their triumphs and tribulations.

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      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    What a book

    Barbara Silenieks

    2 years ago

    This book is so touching, and I love it how it all ties in nicely in the end.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    Unforgettable

    Jill Jones

    2 years ago

    I just wanted to go to a quiet and deserted island so that I could relish every word. So I could truly enjoy the end of my new favourite book. I wanted to be able to choke back the inevitable tears without causing any alarm amongst my flock. I just wanted to sit and drink in the story.

    Wait ... maybe I just wanted a drink ... because around here, a Mom is not really allowed to sit and relish anything unless it has something to do with a hamburger.

    And then after reading the whole thing, I wanted to retreat to a quiet room with a computer so that I could write an essay about what I had just read. I had all these emotions and thoughts that needed to be freed from my brain. But that won't happen either because unless you are a university professor, who would want to read it? However, maybe I'll get my chance to write that essay someday soon.

    Please do yourself a favour and go pick this book up. I promise you will not be disappointed. You cannot read it quickly, though ... you won't want to. You will want to experience the entire story ... sometimes, you will need to stop and consider what had just happened or make a couple of connections. My Mom will want to savour this book so much I predict it will take her a year to read it! Sometimes, I had to put it down because it was too noisy at my house to really enjoy it. And, I suspect, that I read slowly because I did not want to lose Owen Meany. I wanted to hang out with him for as long as I could.

    Owen Meany is a real character ... by that, I mean, he is the kind of person you will never forget and who makes an impact on your life. He changes it or shapes it in some way. He is a person of small size ... at the age of eleven years old, he is the size of a typical five-year-old. And he has a very strange voice ... But those are not the reasons you will find it difficult to forget him. He is one of the most unique people I have ever known ... but he's not for real, is he? So, I guess I don't know him, but I wish I did.

    I read this book as part of a challenge to read 100 books in one year. If you want to read all my thoughts on this book, click the link below.

    http://takenoutofcontext-jill.blogspot.com/2010/07/owen-meany.html

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    Anonymous

    Rating: 5/5

    Amazing... it will suck you right in.

    Anonymous

    6 years ago

    This is my absolute favourite novel of all time. This is the only book that managed to truly make the characters real to me. I felt so attached to these richly developed characters that I couldn't bear the thought of having to say goodbye to them at the end of the book. I stretched out the last fifty pages over three weeks and savoured each word. I wasn't ready to part with these characters. I actually cried when it came time to finish. John Irving has a way of reaching inside you and pulling you into the characters, the thougths and emotions, he makes you experience it along with them. You will not regret reading this book, it is a life-changing experience.

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From Our Editors

In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. He is Irving's most heartbreaking hero.

From the Publisher

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God''s instrument; he is.
This is John Irving''s most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving''s most heartbreaking character.
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning and very ambitious."
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"John Irving is an abundantly and even joyfully talented storyteller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKR EVIEW

From the Jacket

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God''s instrument; he is.
This is John Irving''s most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving''s most heartbreaking character.
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning and very ambitious."
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"John Irving is an abundantly and even joyfully talented storyteller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKR EVIEW

About the Author

John Irving published his first novel at the age of twenty-six. He has received awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation; he has won an O. Henry Award, a National Book Award, and an Academy Award. Mr. Irving lives with his family in Toronto and Vermont.

Bookclub Guide

1. Though he''s portrayed as an instrument of God, Owen Meany causes the death of John''s mother. What other deaths was Owen indirectly involved with? Do you find Owen''s close relationship with death to support or undermine his miraculous purpose?

2. Owen speaks and writes in capital letters, emphasizing the potency of his strange voice. At the academy, he is even referred to as the Voice. Why is Owen''s voice so important? What other occasions can you think of in which Owen''s voice played an especially mean-ingful role?

3. Reverend Merrill always speaks of faith in tandem with doubt. Do you believe that one can exist without the other or that one strengthens the other? Was your opinion about Merrill''s views on faith and doubt affected by the revelation of his relationship to John Wheelwright?

4. Merrill experiences a bogus miracle and resurgence of faith when John stages his mother''s dressmaker dummy outside the church. Later, John''s involvement in Owen''s rescue of the Vietnamese chil-dren spurs John''s own faith: "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," he says. Do you think the genuineness of Owen''s miracle makes the birth of John''s faith more valid than the faith engendered by Merrill''s bogus miracle?

5. The Meanys claim that, like Jesus, Owen was the product of a vir-gin birth. Owen dislikes the Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the Meanys leave the Christmas Pageant. Name other instances when Owen''s feelings toward his family seem conflicted. Do you think Owen ever considers himself Christlike?

6. An observer necessary to the Christmas Pageant but seldom an ac-tive participant, John plays Joseph to Owen''s baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just a Joseph." Do you see John''s role as Joseph-like throughout the story? Are there other biblical characters with whom you identify John?

7. Did Irving''s references to the armless Indian and the pawless armadillo prepare you for Owen''s sacrifice? What other clues did Irving give about Owen''s final heroic scene?

8. Throughout the novel, John gives hints to the forthcoming action, adding, "As you shall see." Did you find this to be an effective way to keep you reading and engaged in the story?

9. Owen Meany taught John that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole and back again." Do you think Irving followed his own recipe for a good book? Supply examples in support of your position.

10. Given John''s dislike of Gravesend Academy, which expelled Owen, did you find it interesting that John later taught at an academy in Toronto? In what other ways does John, as an adult, embrace issues or events that he was indifferent or hostile to as an adolescent?

11. John assists Owen in rescuing the children, but John always plays the supporting part in Owen''s adventures. Based on the scenes in Toronto in the 1980s, do you think John ever escaped his support-ing role? How do you think John''s retained virginity reflects on his sense of self?

12. Did your feelings about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam change after reading Irving''s portrayal of the peace movement, the draft dodgers, and Owen''s involvement in the army? Were you surprised by Owen''s efforts to get to Vietnam?

13. John''s reactions to and obsession with the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s reflect his position as neither a true Canadian nor a true American. Do you think that non-Americans have a clearer vision of the machinations and deceptions within American politics? What did John''s focus on American politics tell you about his adult character?

14. Irving frequently foreshadows tragedy; for example, hailstones hit John''s mother on the head during her wedding day, providing a glimpse of her later death by a baseball. What other events does Irving foreshadow?

15. Several reviews call A Prayer for Owen Meany "Dickensian," and Irving himself incorporates scenes from Dickens in the story. In what ways does Irving''s writing remind you of Dickens''s? What other writers would you compare Irving to?




From the Trade Paperback edition.

Mass Market Paperbound

640 Pages, 4.19 x 6.9 x 1.05 IN

April 14, 1990

Random House Publishing Group


0345361792
9780345361790

From the Critics

"John Irving, who writes novels in the unglamorous but effective way Babe Ruth used to hit home runs, deserves a medal not only for writing this book but for the way he has written it. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation in the somehow exhausted world of late twentieth-century fiction-it is an amazingly brave piece of work . . . so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." -Stephen King


From the Hardcover edition.

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