This book is about faith and its opposite, doubt. It’s about people who look for something outside themselves to give themselves faith, in a higher power, in others, in themselves.

Of the John Irving books I’ve read, it’s probably the most fully realized. At times, critics have called Irving’s writing Dickensian and for once that description holds water. The story and the thematic elements mesh well. The amount of quirkiness apparent in Irving’s earlier novels has been reduced. No matter what Victorian social ill Dickens was trying to skewer, he always did so with ample dollops of humor. Likewise, Irving has written a darkly humorous novel that at times (the first half or so) is laugh out loud funny. Stifling belly laughs while riding public transportation is not easy.

The only issue would be with the narrator, a second rate protagonist, who pales in interest next to the title character. But then, that’s probably the point and that approach worked for Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (see Nick Carraway).

*** 5 ***

A buddy read with the most beloved Judy!!! Owen Meany was a gift!!!

“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.” You know that you're holding something really special, when you're barely into the book and yet you're already stunned by the gravity of the book's effect on you. I've read quite a few great novels that tackled God and religion, I'd say the best of which I've read are Coelho's The Alchemist and Martel's Life Of Pi. But John Irving's tale about the faith of two young boys and the miracle that happened between them is something greater. This book will not tell you that it will make you believe in God like Life Of Pi did. It will only tell you the story, it's reason why it does so. It is told in a very earnest, very simple kind of way, and it's very beautiful. It's a novel about dealing with death and living life. It's a novel that's almost like a prayer. Aside from that, this novel also addresses the issues of Religion, the Vietnam War, American Politics, and even the change occurring in people as the years progress. This book published in the year of 1989 rings as true and clear now as it did 24 years before during it's first publication. It's a captivating masterpiece of faith and friendship, of death and life, of doubts and miracles. I can say that this book strengthened if not renewed my faith in God. “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.” Thank you Owen, thank you.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Is a well written person centered novel. It would fall into the category of Historical Christian Fiction. It had some very funny parts. Starting in 1953 New Hampshire. Based off of the information given if I were to diagnose Owen it would be with Autism. He was definitely an eccentric child growing into an even more eccentric young adult. This has long sat on my TBR. I did not have alit of interest in reading. With encouragement from others and sick of WW2 novels I decided to go for it. I am glad I did. It is long and detailed. It could have easily been cut back by 5 hours.

I read this book a long time ago and my memory of the plot is ... sketchy ... to say the least.

However I do remember how well John Irving captures not only people but the way in which the years change them, and how well he describes that endless interplay between their past and their present. He nails the way in which the random moments of our childhood - those scattered points of light that mark our joys and shames - become the constellations that guide us, imbued with all the mythological significance that astrology imposes on the meaningless patterns of the stars.

Irving knows that nostalgia cuts, and also that it's a blade we cannot keep from applying to our own flesh.



Join my Patreon
Join my 3-emails-a-year mailing list #prizes




..

"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.

If you had told me, “Johann... you’re going to read this book that focuses on topics like the Vietnam War, American/Canadian politics and religion, and is centred around a young boy who believes he is God’s instrument... AND you’re going to REALLY enjoy it” I’ve have said “get the fuck outta here”- I’m not much of a politics person, nor do I enjoy reading about history, but luckily the Vietnam war is one period of history that I know a lot about (thank you, GCSE History!) so at least I could follow along!

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of those awkward books that you had a good time with, but you wouldn’t necessarily recommend to everyone. Not everyone is gonna like those themes and not everyone enjoys a book that moves quite slowly at times. But this gal did!

Irving’s writing is beautiful. The one downside is that he reeeeally likes to hammer things home, hence this 700 page chunker. This could easily have been a couple of 100 pages shorter and still carried the same weight and resonance. One thing that surprised me though was how absolutely hilarious it was at times. Some of Owen Meany’s actions and opinions legit cracked me up! The nativity scene in particular was a highlight, it really tickled me!

Oh, and I had mentioned it in one of my stories, but every word that leaves Owen’s mouth is in capitals. Which is fine. Perfectly fine. Especially when he goes on for a few pages... *eye twitches*

Once again, I was left in tears by the end. This book is intelligent, complex and multi-layered and I was incredibly fucking impressed at how Irving stitched it all together.

Probably not for everyone, but then again, I didn’t think it would be for me and I really dug it!! 4 stars.

I read this a very, very long time ago. I only remember bits and pieces, however I remember that I loved it and that the ending was fabulous.

Being in a melancholy mood, I was trying to think of a book that made me laugh tears. And the first one that came to mind was Owen Meany. I couldn't stop laughing, except for when I cried buckets.

Rarely do I read books that shake my emotional equilibrium in the same entertaining way. Owen Meany in all his absurdities will stay with me forever, just like the other characters, which I learned to love despite (or because of) their highly constructed lives, all serving the "big purpose" in the end.

Some say this is a novel proving the inner truth of faith. I say this is a novel that shows a reader the literary basis of any myth. The creator of stories moves his characters to the grand finale with a purpose, and the reader knows it and cries and laughs anyway.

In my adolescence, I went through a John Irving phase, reading most of his tragicomedy novels in one go, loving his sad humour, his strange plots, his social message and his unique characterisation. Of all his novels, this one touched me most, and it is the one I have kept in my heart over 20 years. I can still see that baseball flying in slow motion. And I can still feel that rage against the author. How dare you put me through this emotional collapse, between laughter and tears? I can still hear the voice of Owen, and feel his incredible determination. The airport scene still breaks my heart, the sheer beauty of the practised sacrifice is just "l'art pour l'art" at its best.

When the narrator sums up his doom, I feel with him:

"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."

Owen Meany didn't make me a Christian, quite the contrary, but he certainly made me a believer in the power of fiction. I am also doomed to remember his voice.

Near the top of my list of most hated books.

With over 200,000 reviews on this modern classic I'm thinking a rating should suffice but will add my thoughts. Growing up during the same time period in which it is set, much was personally relevant about the times recounted in these pages.

A bitter-sweet, brilliant, laugh out loud, tragic tale about an epic friendship, beginning in the 1950s and into the Vietnam War era. From my viewpoint too long-winded in sections, yet so worth the ride. It requires patience from the reader as we follow them through their decades of love and loss on a miraculous journey to where the great unknown calls them. But when it was all said and done, I loved most of it. Best savored and appreciated at a slow and thoughtful reading pace. If you were here with me now, you would see the tracks of my tears. Should I live long enough, I will read it again someday.

This novel tells the complex story of what happens to a boy when a friend’s foul ball from a Little League game accidentally kills his mother. Never read it—just did. So mad I didn’t read it earlier.

"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."

How is it that some people can write so well that you're reeled in on the very first page? How is it that some books grasp you so tightly, with just a sentence or two, that there's no way you can possibly move on with your life until you've read the rest of it? And then you do and 637 pages wasn't enough?

That's how it was for me with A Prayer for Owen Meany. It's been months since I got this into a novel. Talk about a book to end your reading slump! 

I read the beginning sentences and that was it. I knew I would spend the next several days submerged in Owen Meany's world. It doesn't matter that I'm atheist and don't believe in any gods. I read those lines and I was consumed.

If I tell you what it's about, it won't sound all that interesting: A guy writes about his childhood, growing up in 1950s New Hampshire with his best friend Owen Meany who accidentally killed his mother. 

The childhood of two boys, one of whom kills the other's mother, doesn't sound particularly captivating. But captivate you it does. Owen Meany is one of the most memorable characters I've come across in my reading history. THAT VOICE!  

Owen Meany is tiny but his presence and his personality are gigantic. He is cute and sweet and lovable and at times downright exasperating. 

A Prayer for Owen Meany is witty and philosophical. It's political. It's tragic. And yet it's downright fun. This book is going to stay with me for a long time and I recommend it to all of you who love those books that make you live in them.

The only downside is that it's lengthened my TBR list by compelling me to add John Irving's other thirteen novels. Damn it, John; it was long enough already!