I might need to come back and write a longer review after I've thought about this book for a while because there is definitely a lot to ponder. It's a 600+ page book that I never fully loved, but I never wanted to stop reading it. Objectively, I think this book is really smart and thoughtful and 'good' (whatever that means). But my heart was never fully in it. This review is not going to make a lot of sense because I don't think I've made sense of my feelings towards this one yet. Anyway, it made me want to read more John Irving novels, so that says something. I just can't blanket recommend this to people. You've got to want to read it and appreciate slow, more thoughtful stories that take a long time to develop. I do like how it ended though, and reading the afterward made me realize how meticulous Irving is with crafting his stories. 3.5 stars

I really like the opening of A Prayer for Owen Meany: ”I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice a not because of his voice, nor 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."

A good novel always has a good opening, especially for a writer like Irving, who places great emphasis on storytelling. He particularly cares about how to tell a story. In his works to date, the openings and endings demonstrate highly condensed and overarching narrative techniques. In this book, the opening sentence almost encapsulates the essence of the entire story without feeling like a spoiler, but rather gently draws us into the depths of recollection with his leisurely voice.

In 2009, when Irving published his twelfth novel, he made a small summary of his previous works, highlighting that he always starts writing from the last sentence and then writes forward to complete the story, ending where it should begin. In his works, I always find this correspondence between the beginning and the end, as if there is a mysterious connection, making the opening also the ending, and vice versa.

Thus, the opening of this book is so condensed and refined, and the ending sentence ”I keep praying for Owen Meany" not only aligns with the title but also hints at the story's conclusion. Death is not the focus of this story, but it is omnipresent - not in a sorrowful and painful form, but in a warm and loving way.

Many reviews say A Prayer for Owen Meany tells a story of faith, but to me, faith is not the only theme of this book. Faith is merely the form of Owen Meany's life. We witness his growth and loss, his struggle and death, yet we don't feel his life was so sad and short; instead, we feel warmth.

The world Owen Meany lives in is a lost world, a great irony to the turbulent, riotous, and restless larger world outside. That world has been depicted countless times in John Irving’s works. His novels have an autobiographical nature because they always feature the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, a boy dreaming of becoming a writer, and an eternal fairy tale world full of warmth and kindness. In that world, there may seem to be insurmountable class barriers, but pre-modern humanity's warmth and kindness persist, making everyone good and beautiful. Owen Meany symbolizes this lost world not just because he, like Günter Grass’s Oskar in The Tin Drum is a dwarf who never grows up, but more importantly, because his existence highlights the tolerance of this flawed world for imperfection. Little Owen's body becomes the most important metaphor for this lost town. He can only live in this town; once he crosses the boundary into the vast, chaotic world, death comes unexpectedly. Irving even uses a miracle in the novel to have Owen Meany predict his own death date, indicating that the world outside has lost miracles and faith, and Owen Meany, the "instrument of God" sent to the world, can only awaken the remaining humanity through death.

Memory is Irving’s sole writing tool, and his characters are filled with warm love. He creates a world of memory, subtly critiquing the outside world with the theme of lost faith: ”Whenever I hear someone giving a positive summary of 'the sixties,' I feel like Hester - I want to throw up." Owen Meany, who never grows up, always lives in this era. When he leaves the small town and enters the terrifying larger world, the faith he held collapses instantly. His friends cannot understand why someone who loves life and peace would voluntarily choose military service and become a soldier. But in the letters he later writes to friends, I seem to catch a glimpse of some clues. Quoting his favorite writer Hardy, he says, ”Since discovering a few years ago that nothing in life happens as originally promised, I've ceased to worry about various theories. I'm content to live each day as if it were an experiment." To him, this attitude towards life, which is not about being a great thinker but a great feeler, is most commendable. He lives with an experimental mindset, letting his faith be tested by life bit by bit, making it stronger.

Only from this perspective can we understand Owen Meany's choice. In other words, he chose war to test evil, using the extreme form of evil to test the sincere faith he held. Owen Meany ultimately dies at the hands of domestic anti-war extremists. This irony generates tremendous power that deeply moves us.

Pray for Owen Meany: God—please bring him back! I will keep praying to you." This is the last sentence John Irving wrote. Owen Meany took away not just the faith of an era but also its kindness, memories, youthful warmth and friendship, and the lost world. We can never get it back...

3.8 / 5 stars

I gave this book three stars because I figure that's the average of five stars and one star. Some of the things about this book were great; others were really terrible.

Irving's strong-point is definitely his ability to draw interesting characters in vivid--sometimes painful--detail. Owen, of course, is the central and most interesting character. He's a little runt of a boy with a bizarre voice, a sarcastic wit, an iron will, and an unwavering faith in God and in the fact that he is an instrument of God's will. In stark contrast to Owen's miraculous life stands Owen's best friend and the narrator of the story, John. We get two views of John. Most of the book consists of John narrating his childhood and telling the story of Owen Meany. The childhood John is self-conscious, indecisive, and unmotivated. The other view comes from periodic scenes of the middle-aged, mundane John who now lives in Toronto and invariably launches into long and bitter rants against the United States and its foreign policy. The reason for the rants becomes clear by the end of the book, but that doesn't make them any more enjoyable.

Many of the supporting characters are also interesting. I really liked John's grandmother, Mrs. Wheelwright, who is a sort of New England, old-money royalty. John's sexually charged and extremely rambunctious cousins are usually comical, and Reverend Louis Merrill is sort of tragically lovable.

The plot, on the other hand, is incredibly long and wandering. Though parts of the narrative are moderately gripping, often the story drags along. Irving keeps you reading not with intense plot development, but rather with an intense curiosity to find out what the big deal is about Owen Meany. While the ending is good--very good, in my opinion--Irving has built up your anticipation so much, that by the time it finally happens, it almost doesn't have a prayer (pardon the pun) of meeting your expectations.

While there are several themes in the book, the most important, in my opinion, seems to be that of faith vs. doubt. Owen's incredibly strong faith is contrasted with John's lack of faith during his childhood, and his passive, "church-rummage" faith during his adult life (which, we are told on the first page, John credits to the "miracle" of Owen Meany). The Reverend Louis Merrill also seems to be a more important character than his relatively small role would suggest, and his self-admitted personal philosophy is the paradoxical "doubt as the essence of faith." In one of the more ironic passages of the book (slight spoiler warning...), Rev. Merrill's doubt is finally dispelled not through the miraculous events surrounding Owen Meany, but through a very mundane and spiteful prank.

The problem is that none of the book's myriad of themes and symbols was particularly interesting to me. The central theme discussed above seems to hold such potential, but in the end I didn't feel any more enlightened than I started. Often with books I find myself identifying with one particular character. That didn't happen with this book, and I think that impeded my ability to glean insight from the story.

Overall, I'm glad I read it. I'd be interested to hear what other's have to say about it.

Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.

Usually I don't go for apologising for my opinions on books, but I feel I'll have to in regards to this book. It mostly concerns religion. I am not agnostic and I am not atheist. Atheism denotes that, whilst there is a god or gods to be believed in, I do not believed in him or them. This is not how I feel toward gods: there are no gods. I suppose, appropriately some of you may feel, you can call me "nothing". I don't care what you believe in: that is your business and you can believe whatever you want to. I will not try to stop you and I won't ever write anything in which I deride your decision. However, I will say that I don't want to hear about religion, I don't want to talk about it and I certainly don't want to read about it.

Which is where this book comes in. Obviously religion and god are absolutely pivotal to this book and that brought up many problems with my reading it. I had to separate it in to two books in order to get through it. Of course, if it hadn't have been on the challenge list I would have given up at the first mention of Jesus, but I want to get through every book on the challenge no matter how much I dislike it. Removing the religious aspects, I could focus on the usual: punctuation, spelling, good use of verbs and all that and I found it was relatively timely. I can't say I was swept away with the writing, but it was on point and often very humorous and, whilst I can't say my attention was always kept, I did have a spark of interest throughout. Perhaps, though, it was a little too long.

It's funny, however, given my views above, that I like Owen Meany. He was a massive whinger and I don't think capitalising his words really let his voice come across properly. In my head he sounded more gruff and shouty than what he really was. Italicised capitalisation, I feel, would have portrayed it so much the better. Of course, one can't ignore what Owen Meany thought he was, but this left no bad taste in my mouth in my liking of him. I found him to be a loyal and funny person, if, yes, a little strange. He wasn't particular heroic and there wasn't any particular about him really (it's all very well being small and having a weird voice, I know all about that), but there a kind of stubborn obviousness about him that I enjoyed.

The protagonist, however, was utterly forgettable. I never felt like we really learnt much about him: he felt rather personality-less, as if often the narrator was not Johnny but an omniscient one. The various other characters I felt were very much background and were only there to perform their function and then leave the scene. I also thought that Johnny's mother's life and death were vague and I felt it was passed over quite as if it was a bit of nothing. Everything else-Johnny's hunt for his father, his hunt for what to do after school, his hunt for sex-just felt a bit "meh" on Johnny's part. I suppose, perhaps, he just didn't care as much as Owen Meany did. That's fine, but it felt like it wasn't on purpose, just something Irving had forgotten to do.

I suppose I'm trying to justify the two stars, because I know you all love justification. I won't apologise for losing stars for the religion: I don't enjoy it so I'm not going to give it stars. It was written well enough and had enough little twists and turn and clever little phrases that made it possibly a worthwhile read, though I certainly never would have picked it up if it hadn't have been on the reading challenge list, and I would never have gotten past the first few pages.


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“my life has been determinedly unexciting : I’m not complaining; I’ve had enough excitement. Owen Meany was enough excitement for a lifetime.”

It took a long time for me to pick this book up and actually read it- I’ve started it many times- but I knew it would make me feel sad. I wasn’t wrong but it was also a wonderful expression of life and love and the deepest friendship.

Wonderful!

A must read. This book is funny, sad, philosophical , irreverent, thought provoking, very wordy in places, and on and on. The story of Owen Meany will touch your heart! One of the best books I’ve ever read.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is quite an excellent book, the story of a special boy, predestination, and a great friendship between two boys growing up together while tragedy strikes. It is well constructed, moving and full of interesting questions, both political and religious.

Owen Meany is a great character, and he is one of many interesting characters in this book. John Irving paints a beautiful picture, his writing style is really excellent, funny, eloquent and full of keen observations.

"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."

Honestly though, some of the chapters were a bit slow and long, a bit hard to get through. There is also a lot of religion in this book, a little too much for my liking. Although there are interesting thoughts about concepts like having faith and believing in predestination.

There is also a lot of political commentary, most notably about the Vietnam War. And there are discussions focused on literature and literary giants like Thomas Hardy, with that beautiful quote that so fits this story so well: "Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed. Teach me to die..."

But in the end it is about that one special boy, Owen Meany, and the future that he believes in more than anything and that goes on to shape his life. Another quote that fits well in this book is from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

Owen Meany is one of those literary characters that I will remember for a long time to come.

I cannot remember the last time I so bitterly regretted taking time out of my life to read a book. A Prayer for Owen Meany is the worst kind of soggy, sentimental claptrap. It shares the same space in my mind as cream of wheat, late-night infomercials, and crying children on airplanes.

First, let me address the fact that every single character in this book is either dull or horrendously irritating, or, in the case of the title character, both. If I met Owen Meany in real life, I would find him insufferable to the point of contemplating homicide, and in the grueling process of reading this book, there were times when I wished he would come alive by the power of my hatred just so I could carry out said homicide. Owen's arrogance and self-righteousness were acknowledged by the author/narrator on so many occasions that I began to wonder if he was trying to make me find them endearing, provided the lack of literally any other positive attribute. Spoiler alert: I didn't. And John's characterization of himself as a "Joseph" was spot on. Despite spending 630 pages looking through his eyes, I felt no more attachment to him at the end of it than I did on page one.

Still, I have read books where I didn't like a single character and still liked the book. The difference between that type of book and this one is that the characters, in addition to being unlikeable, lack complexity and dynamism. Even though numerous truths were revealed over the course of the book, they added nothing to the characters concerned. They stayed almost totally static from beginning to end in terms of emotional development, and they were so profoundly un-compelling that each page seemed to take a week.

I forced myself to read to halfway because this has been recommended to me by so many people, and honestly, I will now give all of those people major side-eye. Once I got halfway, I forced myself to the end simply because I hate abandoning books. I'm going to rethink my position on that.

I loved this book. It has so much heart and a lot of commentary about faith.

All the stars and it has a sentence that actually floored me: ‘The Baby Jesus had an erection.’

Can’t recommend it highly enough (the book that is, not the Baby Jesus erection....).

Excellent book! I read this book 20+ years ago and still have clear mental images of the characters and scenes. Highly recommend1

I have a secret to tell...I wasn't always a huge book reader. I grew up in a family of avid readers and it was always joked that my mom was born with a book in her hand. But, for me, when I was in high school, I chose to stick to shorter novels like Catcher in the Rye and The Bell Jar and anything over 500 pages seemed just way too daunting. I remember thinking that for a long time picking up A Prayer For Owen Meany, which is easily Irving's best in the four of his I've read (Hotel New Hampshire, Cider House Rules, Widow For One Year). My parents loved it and so they kept encouraging me. Finally, I started. I remember the first bit was a little rough going because it had to do with names that had no meaning to me but after that, I had a difficult time parting with it.

To be honest, there is a part of that book..the imagery, the stories, the characters, even the way it ended that has always stuck with me. Every novel I pick up over 500 pages, I realize I'm consciously wondering if it will live up to A Prayer for Owen Meany. I have no idea what I would feel if I read it today-as in, if it would hold up. But some of those things about it-the errant baseball, the dressmaker's dummy, the high pitched voice-are all etched in the stone of my imagination. It's impossible for me to forget...and so I wonder if this book possibly changed me...because it definitely turned me into more of a book addict.

I've been giving too many four star reviews lately, so thought I'd mix it up with a review of a book I have conflicted feelings about. Thus, two stars for Owen Meany. Which, by the way, is my favorite of the John Irving novels I've read. Not a fan.

I enjoyed many elements of Owen Meany as I read it. Liked the narrator's family (mother, grandmother, cousins) and the business with the stuffed armadillo. Liked his description of his school days, and thought that the section in which Owen transfixes the town with his performances as Baby Jesus and the Ghost of Christmas Future was beautifully realized. At the end, however, I came to think that, a) Owen had basically ruined his best friend's life, and b) God (or at least John Irving) had really messed up with his big plan for Owen.

The second point first. I'll try to avoid spoilers, but it is clear from the beginning of the book that Owen is a character with a predestined fate. He sees a vision in his childhood and then spends his life working to realize it. Because he is smart and driven (and, he and the narrator believe, guided by God), he becomes a substantial personality in his school. Irving does a great job reminding the readers how powerful a figure a high school leader can be.

Then you get to the climax and we find the meaning of Owen's fate. And I must say, I found it a huge let-down. I thought -- all those clues, all that dedication by this exceptional person, for THIS? Its as if God saw that some guy was going to cause a big multi-car pile-up and thought, I know, I'll have Michelangelo's David fall on top of him and that will prevent the big car accident. The David will be smashed, but hey. I mean, you figure that the tool will be matched to the job that needs to be accomplished. There must have been other ways for God to bring about the events in the climax.

Then, the relationship between Owen and the narrator (whose name, rather appropriately, I've forgotten). Owen was the leading figure and the narrator his best buddy, Ron Weasley to his Harry Potter. The narrator is consumed by thoughts of his friend and his story (he is the one offering the prayer of the title). But it seems to me that he has failed to realize his own life, and his brilliant friend has contributed to that. Owen actively obstructs his friend from participating in some life experiences -- joining the military for example or, I think, feeling comfortable and confident sexually. Early in the book, you find out that the narrator does not know the identity of his father: Owen tells him that at very least, he knew his father had slept with his mother, so when he feels lustful this is a connection and clue (actually, Owen seems more interested in this question than the narrator does). The narrator is, let's say, no Lothario, and I wondered if Owen's suggestion had made him connect desire with the abandonment of his mother. At any rate, what little life force the narrator has seems to be concentrated on thoughts of his friend -- he saw Owen's potential but not his own.

So ultimately, I found Owen Meany an interesting and engaging book until the end, when suddenly the entire outcome became a downer and based on moral premises I found highly questionable. I've been mad at Irving for making me care about Owen and his friend ever since.