Write memorable characters. How many “How to Write” books have said that? Whatever the number, it’s a rule that John Irving must have taken to heart. Readers of this book will not soon forget the little guy in the title. Owen was exceedingly small, and had a high, almost cartoonish voice. But he also had a commanding presence. When he spoke, people listened. In large part, this was because he had a lot to say. He was opinionated, influential, and smart.

The narrator, John, was not as central to the story. But he and his family allowed us to get to know Owen through their interactions with him. Johnny was Salieri to Owen’s Mozart, and Irving deserves credit for making the device work. The member of Johnny’s family that launched the initial part of the plot was his mom. Owen, as a boy, had an almost unnatural attachment to her including an appreciation for the way she filled out a sweater. (According to reviews, breast obsession is kind of a thing with Irving. His newest book is evidently chock-full of boobaphilic references.) Anyway, the whole world within this book was turned upside down with one swing of a bat. Owen, who rarely got to play, and even more rarely got to try for anything but a walk, hit a foul ball that ended up killing Johnny’s mom. Of course, it was nobody’s fault, but Owen began considering himself some kind of instrument of fate.

Despite the initial impressions Owen made, he won over most everyone he met. This included Johnny’s extended family: cousins, father figure, and patrician grandmother with the big house where everyone often met. (As another aside, I wonder why, in the interest of gender equality, there’s no such word as “matrician”.) Though less privileged than most, Owen became a big-shot at the private school that Johnny’s family arranged for him to attend. He was known as “The Voice” for his popular and well-argued op-ed pieces in the school paper.

The plot continues into the Vietnam War era where Owen becomes a soldier and John does not. Several mysteries are explained, but mum’s the word about those. I will say that Irving did a good job sustaining momentum. The only dull parts are those focused on Salieri John in contemporary times. In flashback mode, which is most of the time, the pacing is brisk.

As for themes, there was no attempt to be sly with the Christ allusions. In fact, one scene featured Owen playing baby Jesus himself in the annual nativity play. (I’m big on parentheses today. This time I’m wondering if it’s an old joke to suggest that Christ had an Owen Meany complex.) Then the God stuff somehow morphed into visions and the supernatural. To me, this was a disappointment, because the plot was driven inexorably and gratuitously by it. The story was doing well enough before this sledgehammer blow of thaumaturgy. The surrealism nullified what had previously rung true.

I shouldn’t end this review with a complaint. So I’ll reiterate what an extraordinary character Irving gives us with Owen. I still try to imagine his voice. Whenever Owen speaks in the book, the text is all CAPS so we’re constantly aware that he’s meant to stand out. Along with his voice, we get plenty more distinctions: he’s wise beyond his years, authoritative beyond his station, and as memorable as any writing book could ever recommend.

While waiting for my next book to arrive in the mail, I was casting around for something to read and my eye settled on my much worn copy of this book. It really is the most wonderful book I have ever read, and I have read it several times.

I also like this the most of all Irving's novels, even more than The World According to Garp.

Owen Meany is a decidedly odd child in every way. He is also given to observations that cut like a hot knife through the small town world of New England in the 50's and 60's. I don't do spoilers, so that's all I will tell you about Owen.

Irving's story is told as a huge flashback from the point of view of Johnny Wheelwright, Owen's lifelong friend. There are both heavy handed and deft feather light tricks to the writing. As Johnny spins the tale of what is a truly heartbreaking case of PTSD and layers it with his experiences as teacher in 1987 Toronto as a girls' high school teacher, his contrast of past and present adds to the tensìon. What on earth has broken Johnny's heart so totally? We lean in to perhaps get a hint of how it happened.

Irving's inclusion of Canadian literature from Atwood, Davies and Finlay also endears him to me, including his obviously intimate knowledge of these works as Johnny imparts them to his Canadian Literature students. He includes passages from other tremendous authors, eg Jane Austen, and shows a detailed and thorough knowledge of the Bible, the passages of which are used throughout to emphasize the theme of faith. Not necessarily a churchgoing faith, but a much richer deeper faith.

The book abounds with wonderful humourous passages that even after miltiple readings can bring tears of laughter to my eyes. I often read in bed at night and for the last four or five days I have had to stifle my snickers, giggles and outright guffaws so as not to disturb my sleeping husband.

The richness of Irving's writing always makes me satisfied. His themes are both uplifting and sobering, wonderful and sad. If you haven't read this wonderful novel, now firmly on my classics shelf, I urge you to push it to the top of your wtr list, quickly. It's a thinker. You will want to read it more than once.

"Your memory is a monster, you forget - it doesn't."

I have mixed feelings about this book. Neither did I fully love it nor did I want to stop reading it. And I cried after the end cause OWEN MEANY.

The story is narrated by John Wheelwright and has two timelines, the present one and one from his childhood. It is about his friendship with this odd looking boy, Owen Meany, his life in this fictional town called Gravesend and about his mother. On an unfortunate day, Owen hits a foul ball and accidentally kills John's mother.

This is a well written book and has some unique characters. Irving has written a long book and at times, it seems like a drag. This is not a powerful book with a strong plot, but this book does make you laugh and care about the characters. I recommend this book only to the readers who enjoy a long and slow book.

I am not sure how to even write a review of this book, I could never do it justice for sure. It's been on my radar for quite some time, and I'd decided 2023 was the year. It is an incredible story, smatterings of vulgarity and some salacious overtones aside. Every character is marvelously drawn and integral to the story. I took my time reading this, thankfully, because it is so worthy of the slower reading; in fact, after finishing I just wanted to go back and start reading it again, which doesn't happen very often at all for me. I won't start just yet, but I will reread it at some point.

read this years ago, but i’ll never forget that ending. talk about rewarding a reader for their time. once all the threads come together for the finale, the novel soars. spectacular stuff.

I was almost afraid to start reading this as it is 22 CDs long. It's quite an undertaking, especially in these anxiety inducing Covid times that can cause us to be easily distracted and unable to settle in for a long term read. Never-the-less, I got started and became hooked almost immediately. By turns my heart was deeply moved, or I was in a fit of giggles for the first 11-discs. Then, a touch of melancholy set in about 3/4 of the way through disc-19 when I realized that I was moving ever closer to the end of the book and closer to the answers to the questions the author had kept me in suspense about. Finally, I wept at the end.

This is an epic tale and there is so much to unpack and think about. Briefly, it is the tale of a life-long friendship and includes the characters that also touch their lives. However, it is also about the meaning of life and trying to answer the question of what it's all about, the purpose of life, individually and collectively.

These are the highlights, the parts of the book that appealed to me at this current moment in time:

The story of Dan Needham's gift for John Wheelwright inspired me. I had my guess all ready as to what was inside the double paper bag. I was close, but not close enough. I would not have been able to resist peeking, especially when told not to!

Talking of Dan, I loved his character. He was a constant presence in John's life and I loved that John acknowledges him later on in the book.

Another character I loved was John's grandma, Harriet Wheelwright. I loved her acerbic wit and her love/hate relationship with television. Her response to the invention of the remote control, "It was television's final triumph that it could render you brain-dead without even allowing you to leave your chair."

My favorite passages:

"When someone you love dies, and you are 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."

John scans the audience in the theatre for "the acquiescent presence of Mr. and Mrs. Meany; they were not there. My search was rewarded, however, by the discovery of a sanguinary Mr. Morrison, the cowardly mailman, his eyes darting daggers in all directions, and wringing his hands -- as he might around a throat -- in his lap. The look of a man who has come to see What Might Have Been is full of both bloodshed and nostalgia. Should Owen succumb to his fever Mr. Morrison looked ready to play the part."

"the old footprints in the rutted slush were frozen - fossils of the many souls who had traveled to and fro from Hurd's church."

A description of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which caused me to question my own understanding of this classic tale: "It was such a heartfelt rendering of a conversion. Not just a lesson in Christian charity, but an example of man's humbleness before the spiritual world."

"Owen who had never been anywhere was a considerable romantic on the subject of travel."

Finally, I managed to scribble these quotes on the back of a receipt and found them again! "Even people reading in bed make a little noise," and "an insipid soup of a man."

A unique book about fate, destiny, and faith

Owen Meany and Johnny Wheelwright are best friends, growing up in Gravesend, New Hampshire. Owen Meany is special - he never grows taller than 5 feet tall, and he has a very high pitched voice. However, what really sets him apart is his intellect and faith. In 1953, Owen hits a foul ball during a Little League game, instantly killing Johnny's Wheelwright's mother. What will happen to Owen Meany and will Johnny Wheelwright ever find out who his father is?

When I went into my heart surgery, I selected to read A Prayer for Owen Meany. While slipping in and out of consciousness, I wanted this book to be running through my thoughts. The central theme of this book is destiny or fate. Owen knows what is his purpose, and he wholeheartedly pursues it. That is what is so endearing about this book. Slowly, the reader discovers what Owen already knows, and we discover how Owen was truly brave and faithful.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was published in 1989, well in advance of the internet and the 5-second attention spans of today. In terms of reading this book in 2021, it was far too long. The best parts of this book are the first two chapters and the last chapter. The parts of the book from 1970 and the 1980's were really boring and mainly consisted of Johnny Wheelwright complaining about Vietnam. If you are really into Vietnam, perhaps you will enjoy the middle section of the book more than I.

Overall, a book definitely worth reading at least once. This was my third time through. John Irving also has a new book, The Last Chairlift, coming out October 18. You bet I'm reading it!

100 Books To Read Before You Die (According to the BBC) (62/100):
https://www.listchallenges.com/bbcs-t...

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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Truly one of the most remarkable stories I’ve read recently. I’m kicking myself for not picking it up sooner!

Ok someone with lots more technology intelligence has to make Owen Meaney Memes like baby yoda memes because I swear they are loved just the same! OMG! I want a build-an-owen and I will hug him and squeeze him

This book is going to break my heart, isn’t it? Something is going to rip open my chest, yank out my heart and smash it with a sledgehammer. I know it! Just smash

n  “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.”n

I've opted for the 3-star approach, but you shouldn't give it much weight where this book is concerned. Some people are really hung up on ratings - does it really only deserve 1 star? you seemed to like it, why not 5 stars? - when in truth, this book is so complex, smart, multilayered and slow as fuck that it's impossible to rate.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is a strange and interesting book about faith and doubt, with Owen himself representing an embodiment of the relationship between the natural and supernatural - everything from his physical description to the events of his life seem halfway between this world and the next.

This is my first Irving book. I don't know if that's a mistake or not - I probably will check out his other work but I'll definitely save it for a time when I'm ready for a slow plot. In A Prayer for Owen Meany, the narrator is John Wheelwright but he fades into the background, offering a perspective that at times feels like third-person.

John details the lives and habits of the characters surrounding him - most notably, of course, Owen Meany - making it a book about them and not himself. In fact, it seems like the author deliberately kept the novel's focus off of its narrator (who is perhaps a stand-in for himself?).

As I said, the story moves slowly and sometimes has a rambling quality, going on and on in exhaustive detail, exploring every aspect of a scene so that we get a lot of character and thematic depth (and also, it must be said, a bit of a headache). But it's hard to deny that Irving has a way with words and storytelling, working up to an important moment gradually and effectively, even if with a painful slowness.

The story spans many years and sometimes jumps a lot of time within a single page, before coming back again. As with many non-linear narratives, it offers a different and fascinating approach, while not being without confusion. It runs alongside many important events in American history (Kennedy's assassination, for example), which allows John to express his disdain for the Reagan administration, as well as his general anger toward America.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it's strange - John's account of his and Owen's childhood is odd to begin with, but the novel becomes increasingly nuts towards the end. I can't say I fully enjoyed it, but I thought the themes were interesting and incorporated well. John's running criticisms of America and American life manifest in ways big and small - the "big" being assassinations and the Vietnam War, the "small" being such as his mother's death by a baseball, an important American symbol.

It's not the kind of book you read for enjoyment (or I personally don't think so, but then I never fully got that guy in college who refused to go to any social events because he wanted to read Marcel Proust), but it is the kind you save for when you want a clever, thoughtful read with many layers and themes to uncover. I am glad I finally read it.

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It was Owen Meany who taught me that any good book is always in motion – from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole, and back again. Good reading – and good writing about reading – moves the same way.

John Irving is a great believer in the power of opening and closing lines. The one I have chosen above comes from the middle of the novel, but it explains both my fascination with the hero of the story and my goals in reviewing – connect the universal with the individual. Implied is a judgment of value: this is a great story, one that I admire despite several shortcomings or mannerisms that turned the reading experience into a see-saw ride from the sublime to the annoying.

The ‘sublime’ is in the universal search for meaning, for a direction in life. The word prayer in the title, and the famous opening lines, point towards an exploration of faith in the modern age. Two boys grow up together in a small town in New Hampshire. We follow them from the 1950’s to the late 1980’s, with a major turning point during the Vietnam War. John Wheelwright is a scion of what is the equivalent of local aristocracy, the wealthiest and most respected family in town. He is good looking but extremely shy and unassuming. Owen Meany is coming from a blue-collar background, a dysfunctional family, yet he is assertive, determined, charismatic, despite his diminutive size and his piping loud voice.

John Wheelwright is the narrator, from the perspective of an old man remembering in extensive flashbacks the events of his childhood and youth, events dominated by the personality of his friend Owen Meany. Contemporary observations of John’s life in self-imposed exile in Canada are anchoring the story in the present. John is a bland character by design: he is a witness of the times, not an actor. That role is reserved for Owen. In a Christmas pageant John describes himself as a Joseph, a passive element in the myth. Right from the first page we learn that John is on a quest to understand and to eventually embrace religion. He moves in childhood from Catholic to Episcopalian to Presbyterian and several other popular faiths of the period, with detours into hippie and anti-war culture. As a child, he follows the traditions of his parents and family. As a student he starts to ask questions and to have doubts. His spiritual journey is also expressed by his search for his father, a secret that his unwed mother took with her to her early grave.

What made Mr. Merrill infinitely more attractive was that he was full of doubt; he expressed our doubt in the most eloquent and sympathetic way.

The first key to the novel for me lies in this Pastor Merrill and his lack of faith. Trough John and Owen, Irving proposes a rebirth of Christianity not by following the old dogma, but by telling new stories, better adapted to our modern culture.

He taught the same old stories, with the same old cast of characters; he preached the same old virtues and values; and he theologized on the same old “miracles” – yet he appeared not to believe in any of it. His mind was closed to the possibility of a new story; there was no room in his heart for a new character of God’s holy choosing, or for a new “miracle”.

If John is the passive voice, Owen Meany is very much the active one, the needed “miracle”. He always knows what he wants and he always knows how to make the others do what he wants. If anything, he is a little too obvious a plot device, with so much foreshadowing and manifest destiny expressed through him:

On the subject of predestination, Owen Meany would accuse Calvin of bad faith. There were no accidents; there was a reason for that baseball – just as there was a reason for Owen being small, and a reason for his voice.

And: I remember how he had appeared to all of us: like a descending angel – a tiny but fiery god, sent to adjudicate the errors of our ways.

... he was still and would always be The Voice. He demanded attention; and he got it.
I don’t want to go into details about the spiritual journey undertaken by the two friends. It has, like the rest of the book, its ups and downs, its rushing to the finish line moments and its slogging at a snail’s pace interludes. What I want to point out are two other keys to understanding the novel:

-tIt is an extremely detailed and lovingly drawn journey down memory lane for the writer, incorporating many autobiographical elements of a sheltered childhood and of a controversial education in a private college in Exeter, New Hampshire, followed by a growing political awareness and militancy. This moving from the universal search for truth to the particulars of life in a small town worked very well for me, despite being almost drowned in the ordinary details of day to day life for the boys. The talent of John Irving shines brightly in his character sketches and in his ironic brand of humour, one that exposes the ills of society without foaming at the mouth anger. The older version of John is though a much bitter narrator than the younger one ( THIS COUNTRY IS MORALLY EXHAUSTED. ), spending too much time criticizing the politics and the leadership of his native land. The targets of the author’s satire are many, but the most time is spent on school leaders ( HOW CAN THEY PRESUME TO TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES IF THEY DON’T REMEMBER BEING LIKE US? ) and war mongering.

-tIt includes metafictional elements, by making the older John both a reader and a teacher of literature, examining the way stories shape and define our understanding of the world. It also connects with the first thread, with the need to create new stories instead of blindly following the old ones. One of the examples chosen to illustrate the point is John’s doctorate study of “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and the importance of predestination in the work of Thomas Hardy. It also gives us John’s favourite quote as a storyteller, also borrowed from Hardy:

A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling. We storytellers are all ancient mariners, and none of us is justified in stopping wedding guests, unless he has something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experiences of every average man and woman.

Which quote bring me to the few reasons I didn’t rate this present novel among my favourites, despite the engrossing experiences recounted here and the beautiful prose of John Irving.

-tThere are a LOT of ordinary experiences. The novel feels padded, and some of the salient points are made not once or twice, but five or ten times, as if the ordinary reader is too thick-headed to get it right the first time.
-tThere is too much predestination, maybe not surprising in a novel dealing with religion and faith, but something that I find personally very difficult to accept. I am a natural doubter, and admire people like John Randi who are working to expose the usual scams of confidence artists. Most of my beef with religion comes from the injunction to believe in the absence of evidence, something our John spends his whole life trying to embrace. ( It’s a no-win argument – that business of what we’re born with and what our environment does to us. And it’s a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth. )
-tSpeaking of John, he is such a wet noodle as a person, that I had absolutely zero interest in his struggles to get a girlfriend or to make a career for himself. His only relevance is as a sounding board for the author’s faith explorations.
-tOwen is better company, and a LOT of fun to have around, but so over the top in his portrayal that I never for a minute considered him as a real person, as opposed to a theatrical role.  his virgin birth was total overkill, as his angelic nature was already abundantly revealed).

Conclusion: John Irving confirmed that he is one of the most talented storytellers on my library shelves, intellectually provocative and touchingly empathetic towards his characters. Owen Meany is a memorable hero of our modern world, but I don’t plan to re-read his story anytime soon. I plan to read instead “The Tin Drum” by Gunther Grass, which I understand served as inspiration for John Irving in writing the present novel.

I zoomed through this, whenever I was willing to pick it up at all, because I just didn’t like it and didn’t want to have to spend too much time reading it.

I should like it. I have many friends who’ve given it 5 and 4 stars, much of it takes place in “my era” and I feel as though I should like Irving’s work, all of it.

But this is just too weird for me. And I really couldn’t stand all the content about religion and faith and the way it was addressed I found incredibly irritating. Very peculiar story!

I couldn’t even care about the characters. Everything was connected and wrapped up neatly so I can admire that skillfulness but since I didn’t enjoy the story, I can’t muster that much admiration.

I’ll have to give it another chance sometime. The only reason I persisted and kept reading is that this book is the book for my next real world book club meeting. I’ll bet they’ll all love it. What’s wrong with me?! I guess this one just isn’t my cup of tea. Irving is often too strange for me actually, although I did like Garp and loved The Cider House Rules movie. I didn’t like this at all though. I will be interested in our book club discussion because I suspect I’ll be alone with that opinion.

Oh gosh. I didn’t record my reading start date and I have no idea when it was, but I know I started it over a month ago.