John Irving

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

Deluxe Modern Classic

A Prayer for Owen Meany

a novel

A prayer for Owen Meany

Colton Ray

300 pages in and the plot has gone absolutely nowhere. A school Christmas play lasted for almost 100 pages. The writing is nice, but it's not enough. I don't even understand how the author can write and write and never actually get the car out the damn driveway. Pulling the plug on this one.

'A work of genius' Independent 'Marvellously funny . . . What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh?' Spectator 'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.' Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is both extraordinary and terrifying.

A Prayer For Owen Meany

Ed Kay

Ploughed through about 40% of this before deciding to call it a day. The narration is all over the place. Paragraphs will start telling one story, then we're in the present, then back in the past at another story, and no clear connection as to why one thing led to another. We keep getting told we'll find things out, but don't. The narrator keeps insisting how consequential OWEN MEANY is, but it's asserted rather than evident in the story. OWEN MEANY IS MAINLY ANNOYING and everything is so tediously directionless. Maybe it's going somewhere (peeking at other reviews maybe something major will happen later in the book) but I just don't care enough to find out.

Having said that there were a few occasions where I laughed out loud, so there is humour in here. Plus I liked the character of Dan who just seemed like a very decent fellow.

 I hate not finishing books but time is short and there has to be something more enjoyable out there, than this.

'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.' Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is both extraordinary and terrifying.

Nicole Dykeman

I didn't have high hopes for this when I started reading it. I had to read it and do an assignment alongside for my summer AP Literature work. I ended up falling in love. 

John Irving is actually really funny. I found myself literally laughing out loud at several points in the novel, and I don't think a book has ever made me do that before. 

The best thing about this book, though, is the characterization. Irving makes you really care about the people you're reading about, especially John and Owen. Owen is adorable and irritating and scary all at once, but when he says things like "I LOVE YOU - NOTHING BAD IS EVER GOING TO HAPPEN" and "YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND" you can't help but love him. 

This may be hard to get through for some, because there are a few things that don't make sense until the very end of the story, and even if you make it through the whole thing, the end is as confusing as it is beautifully written. I would only recommend this to avid readers, and maybe religious readers.

Cams Campbell

Even better the second time around. A book that helps me find my centre and keep me there. I think it was November when I read it the first time too, and it's a good book for that time of year, when the days are getting shorter and consumerism is ramping up. 

The Audible version of this deserves high praise too; the narrator's voice of Owen Meany is very well done indeed. As are grandmother's ejaculations of 'merciful heavens'. Ha ha. 

A definite five-star novel that I'm sure I will read again. I wonder how I would enjoy it in the summer months?

Interestingly, I wrote in my review of Robertson Davies' novel, Fifth Business, that the style reminded me of John Irving. Well, it just so happens that the end of the Audible version of Owen Meany has an interview with John Irving where he talks about the infamous rock in the snowball of Fifth Business as being a motif that he used in Owen Meany with the baseball. And, of course, the narrator mentions Fifth Business in one of the chapters when he's talking about 'Can Lit' as a teacher. When I first read Owen Meany, I hadn't read Fifth Business, but I read it and the other two novels of the trilogy last year. Do I get extra points for noticing the parallel? Although, to be fair, Fifth Business should've reminded me of Owen Meany and it didn't. Okay, half a point then.

A Novel

I've enjoyed John Irving's books for years now and this one just came out on Audible. It came at a perfect time for me. I kept it until we went our holidays to Tenerife in November and I started listening to it as I lay in the sun by the pool.

The book is the tale of Owen Meany narrated by his best friend, John Wheelwright. Owen is small and has a strange voice. It's really the tale of why he is small and why he has a strange voice, but it's so much more than that. The book moved me in a way that no other book ever has. I'm at a point in my life where my faith in God is developing and this book fits right into that. Owen believes in God and has a lot to say on the subject of religion.

One of John Irving's strong points is his character development. In all the books of his that I have read, I've found his characters to be fully 3-dimensional and believable. All are flawed, just as I am, and it makes the characters easy to relate to. I'm not sure whether I'm getting that across very well, but for those who've read Garp or a Widow for a Year, you'll know what I mean.

If only Audible would do more John Irving books. I'd be on them like a shot!

Chiara Malaspina di Orezzoli

When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time -the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes - when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever - there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.

Questo è un libro fondamentale.

Melody Izard

"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany." In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen, after that 1953 foul ball, is extraordinary.

Maria-Stefania Popa

“Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!”

Amber Laha

He rambles and rambles. Are all of his books like this? He'd go from one thing to the next and there were no connections at all, that I could ever tell. I felt myself being on a ride called Yo-yo. He lets me go and then just as I think we are going one way, he jerks me back up in another direction. This book had no direction and the story line that should have been there was buried too deep to actually find. I got 100 pages in and realized that you'd most likely would only get the full picture until the end and all of this was basically fluff. Or just random stuff he thought was important, but really just took away any enjoyment of a story that there could have been. 

Really if the way he handled this story wasn't this bad, I might have actually enjoyed it. I like his writing a whole lot. The way he makes the characters jump off the pages is something else, but like I said horrible handle on the story. Not something I would recommend. I have heard Irving's other stuff is better so I will try another at some point. 

2 stars.

Jeni Enjaian

This book intrigued me. I can't say that I liked it. I can't really say that I disliked it. There were, of course, aspects of the book that I did not like, such as the swearing. I know that people use language like that in real life and I'm not opposed to its use in literature. However, there is a point when it becomes gratuitous and Irving strayed a bit over that line towards the ends. I also was thrown a bit by the forays into the "present" (John, the narrator's present). Irving did not clearly delineate a lot of these forays which made it a bit confusing. I also am unsure about his claim of a "virgin birth" for Owen and all of Owen's other gifts. This uncertainty does not detract (for me) from the quality of the writing. It does however make me wonder at Irving's overall purpose.
That being said. Irving crafted a magnificent story here, one that kept drawing me in despite the things that would have otherwise put me off to it. It's definitely a decent book and recommend it to anyone who wants to read decent literature.

window

As expected from the title, the story focused on Owen Meany, an undersized boy with a voice like a "permanent scream" and a unique view of himself and his religion. His best friend John is the narrator. John is a nondescript average Joe, with few ambitions or goals. Owen, in contrast, is certain of his fate and is very driven to make things happen that bring him in line with what he views is his destiny. The boys come from opposite ends of the social spectrum with John a member of the well-to-do and respected Wheelwrights and Owen a member of the blue-collar Meany family. The Meanys are further devalued by the fact that the family business is in the granite business, a dirty and unglamorous occupation. The Meanys' business revolves around creating gravestones, which casts them further down the social ladder.

The story chronicles the boys' lives from childhood to adulthood, culminating in the Vietnam War era which figures prominently in the story. Along the way, Owen develops a Christ complex in that he thinks that he is to be sacrificed in order to save others. Some of their childhood experiences serve as metaphors for Owen's spiritual signifigance, such as his role as the infant Jesus in a church nativity play and John's view of him as a "tiny Christ-like figure" when sunlight hits Owen just right from behind, illuminating him.

The theme of armlessness also presents itself throughout the story through the description of an early Indian religious figure, Watahantowet, to the statue of Mary Magdalene that the boys deface, to John's mother's dressmaker dummy. Armlessness is also present in the end.

Although the story got my attention and kept me engaged early on, about halfway through, it started to lag. It was very well-written but in many places, the plot just seemed to stagnate in favor of characterization and developing Owen's continued and deepening preoccupation with being a savior. For that reason, I gave it 2 stars since I struggled to finish the book.

Pia Sophia

This is a very special book and I would definitely recommend it. It’s a book about faith, the lack of it and embracing it fully without questioning. I’m mindblown by the story. 

Irving knows how to write and throughout the 600+ pages that was exactly what kept me going. I sometimes wanted to quit the book because I got a little lost in the incredibly slow parts where Irving describes every tiny detail imaginable. It was only when I came to the end of the story when I realized that every little detail had a purpose. Keep that in mind when you feel the same way I did in the slow parts: it’ll all make sense in the end. 

Sometimes I wished the story was written from Owen’s perspective, as Johnny wasn’t nearly as interesting to me as Owen was. But, now that I’ve finished it, I came to appreciatie everything as it is. This genius story... It wouldn’t be nearly as good if we knew exactly what was going on inside Owen’s head. 

I will never forget Owen Meany. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

A Prayer for Owen Meany Deluxe Modern Classic

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