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Loading... A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)by John Irving
  
» 44 more Top Five Books of 2013 (137) Favourite Books (409) BBC Big Read (143) Books Read in 2016 (942) Banned Books Week 2014 (115) Favorite Long Books (134) Books Read in 2015 (720) Unread books (297) A Novel Cure (189) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (53) Best family sagas (143) 20th Century Literature (595) Books With a Twist (61) Troublesome bodies (16) 100 New Classics (75) Overdue Podcast (190) KayStJ's to-read list (658) BBC Big Read (44) I Can't Finish This Book (107) BBC Top Books (54) 1980s (133) Page Turners (96) Books That Made Me Cry (171) Still trying to figure out how I felt about the ending to this book, which I guess is a good thing. The earlier chapters made me laugh out loud, which is always a good thing. (  ) sblock | Feb 11, 2019 |  This is the story of a boy who was born different. Owen was born tiny, with a strange voice, and a funny walk. He never grew to be bigger than 5 feet tall. His best friend, John, and he spent their lives looking out for each other. Owen was a firm believer in God and stated to anyone who would listen that he was "God's instrument". He had a dream that told him when and how he was going to die, and he was at peace with it. John grew up under the watchful eye of his rich grandmother. His mom had never told John who his father was - telling him she would let him know when he was old enough to understand. Then John's mother is killed in an unusual accident, he is left to figure out who his father is on his own. The story travels through John and Owen's childhood and early adulthood. The story flips between John and Owen's early life to John's middle aged years. He tells the story as he remembers his best friend and how Owen gave him his faith in God. This was a really good book. I have seen the movie "Simon Birch" which this book is based on. I re-watched it after reading this, and it follows the book pretty closely - for awhile. Owen doesn't make it past being a young boy in the movie, where in the book he lives into adulthood. The book is quite long, but it never felt boring. It flowed well. The banter back and forth between John and Owen will make you chuckle. The characters you are supposed to like - you really do. Even the saucy old grandmother grows on you after awhile. It is interesting to see how Owen shaped John's life choices - long after Owen had died. I highly recommend it. It will take you a bit to get through it, but it will be worth it in the end. ( ) JenMat | Jan 10, 2019 | A bittersweet look at life and friendship. ( ) ffifield | Dec 20, 2018 | I'm really struggling with this one, so I'm leaving it aside for the moment. I may return to it later. I started off loving it. I enjoyed the characters and the descriptions of their young lives. I have only ever visited America once and I think that's the problem for me. The book is very well written, but I just can't get into the religion, baseball and Vietnam war aspects of the book. (  ) scot2 | Nov 7, 2018 | Like many of Irvings books this one deals with the relationship of a young boy with his family, his friends, his community and his god. It is, at times, hilarious and heartbreaking. The cast of characters are warm and peculiar. Owen Meany is a boy with unusual physical characteristics and strong beliefs. he has the unusual capacity to have everyone do his biddings. He believes that he is a messenger from God and that there are no coincidences. I thourougly enjoyed it. ( ) AstridG | Nov 6, 2018 |
 "Owen Meany" is as sappy as a book can get without having a title like "Coddled By The Light" or "Sauntering Towards the Light" or "Picking Posies in the Fields of the Light," but it's never nauseating or treacly or overly wholesome. It's a nice good fun read, like a quiet vacation. Irving isn't wrangling us with extremes, here -- he gives us a break. You've been beat up enough, he says. I'll do the work for you this time. The result is merciful, healthy, warm and gladdening.  The characters capable of representing such scepticism don't look good on paper, while the book puts all its efforts into promoting a belief in belief. But a belief in belief is something this book lams into elsewhere: the Americans' propensity for decisiveness in the absence of policy. On the green award of the Gravesend Academy, it may seem innocent enough; in the jungles and deserts of international trouble spots, it looks fatally naive. Mr. Irving shows considerable skill as scene after scene mounts to its moving climax. But the thinking behind it all seems juvenile, preppy, is much too pleased with itself. There is something appropriate in the fact that so much of the book takes place in and around a New England academy. The heavily emphasized ''religious'' symbols at the center of the book - the contrast to American aggressiveness offered by the clawlessness of the armadillo, the armlessness of the Indian founder of the town, even John Wheelwright's imbecile joy at being mutilated as still another symbol of his sacrifice of sex to right thinking - all this reminds this long-tried teacher of all the ''Christ symbols'' his students find in everything and anything they have to read. Diminutive Owen Meany, believing himself to be God's instrument, unlocks life's mysteries for his closest friend in this imaginative mix of humor and tragedy. From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.  John Irving’s A Prayer For Owen Meany is yet another Irving book that absolutely held my attention, and had me racing to finish it. Irving, perhaps because of his own dyslexia, takes pains to write clearly and readably. He avoids labyrinthine construction. He earns his right to describe things by keeping the action moving. Has the adaptationHas as a student's study guide
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The book's mystic religiosity is steeped in Robertson Davies's Deptford trilogy, and the fatal baseball relates to the fatefully misdirected snowball in the first Deptford novel, Fifth Business. Tiny, symbolic Owen echoes the hero of Irving's teacher Günter Grass's The Tin Drum--the two characters share the same initials. A rollicking entertainment, Owen Meany is also a meditation on literature, history, and God. --Tim Appelo
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:16:53 -0400)
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.… (more)
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