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Prayer for Owen Meany (Export Ed.) by John…
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Prayer for Owen Meany (Export Ed.) (original 1989; edition 1989)

by John Irving (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
18,145333276 (4.24)2 / 672
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)
▾Book information
Member:TommyHousworth
Title:Prayer for Owen Meany (Export Ed.)
Authors:John Irving (Author)
Info:Transworld Publishers (1989), Edition: First Printing, 640 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, To read
Rating:****
Tags:None

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A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (1989)

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  1. 132
    The World According to Garp by John Irving (dele2451)
    dele2451: Garp and Owen would make a great literary double feature. I wish I didn't have to wait so many years between reading both of these wonderful books.
  2. 122
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  3. 51
    Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (jhedlund)
  4. 53
    A Son of the Circus by John Irving (Booksloth)
  5. 20
    The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel by Brady Udall (sanddancer)
  6. 20
    The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Ciruelo)
  7. 10
    The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (spiphany)
  8. 11
    The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (sruszala)
    sruszala: The style--many characters, complicated but compelling story, the humor--all remind me of John Irving
  9. 11
    American Gods: Author's Preferred Text by Neil Gaiman (krazy4katz)
    krazy4katz: Both works have elements of religion and belief. They are both mystical in very different ways.
  10. 00
    Simon Birch [1998 film] by Mark Steven Johnson (TheLittlePhrase)
  11. 00
    Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey (potenza)
    potenza: Similar peculiar, poignant central character
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English (324)  Dutch (3)  German (2)  French (1)  All languages (330)
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Showing 1-5 of 324 (next | show all)
I have to give this one five stars, even though it's sometimes rambling and repetitive. It's a coming of age story told in first person, and it details the narrator's friendship with Owen Meany, a bright, opinionated dwarf with a speech disorder who is convinced that God has a destiny planned for him.

John Irving is a truly masterful storyteller, with an ability for creating memorable but very human characters and for creating sweeping plots that in some ways reminds me of a modern Charles Dickens. The plot here is a bit improbable, but when it's such a powerful story you can't help but be moved.

Some readers may have some difficulty getting into it because of the sometimes repetitive and seemingly beside the point recollections, but you should trust the storyteller. There will be a reason for everything.

Truly moving and a real reading pleasure.

Beautiful start of the book, by the way:

“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.” ( )
  jcm790 | May 26, 2024 |
Aside from a hilarious description of a Christmas concert about half way through, this was very slow and eventually I skipped to the end and gave up.
  Abcdarian | May 18, 2024 |
The last time I read anything by this author was back in 1978, or thereabouts, when I read "The World According to Garp" which I didn't really care for. I wasn't all that captivated by the movie version of his "Cider House Rules", so wasn't in a hurry to read anything else by him, but a patron at the public library I was working in recommended this so I added it to my "want to read" list, where I think it sat for about a year. It's very long, especially if you listen to the audio version, but quite well-narrated, and really quite good. I was nearly finished when I played the beginning of it for my husband, and due to his interest, I ended up listening to the entire thing I'd already heard and then finally got to hear the end.
I liked the many references to classic literature, the characters of the two boys, and their friendship. Another thing I especially like is that at no time, despite its length, does it wander aimlessly leaving you wondering if the author has any idea how it will end. ( )
  TraSea | Apr 29, 2024 |
This book explores the friendship between Owen Meaney and the narrator, John Wheelwright during the years after WWII into the Vietnam era. After Own accidentally kills John's mother, he believes he is God's instrument. His fate is unavoidable and he learns to accept it. He's always been in God's hands. The book deals with themes that permeate adult life after a certain age- faith, doubt, purpose, disillusionment, loss, and grief. ( )
  Chrissylou62 | Apr 11, 2024 |
Not Irving's quirkiest novel, but his most amusing. You will never forget the Christmas pageant scene. Owen is an unforgetable character who speaks in a voice impaired by some sort of early damage to his larnyx. The reader is reminded of this each time he speaks, since his words are placed in capitals throughout the text. “LAST NITE I HAD A DREAM. NOW I KNOW FOUR THINGS. I KNOW THAT MY VOICE DOESN’T CHANGE – BUT I STILL DON’T KNOW WHY. I KNOW THAT I AM GOD’S INSTRUMENT. I KNOW WHEN I’M GOING TO DIE – AND NOW A DREAM HAS SHOWN ME HOW I’M GOING TO DIE. I’M GOING TO BE A HERO! I TRUST THAT GOD WILL HELP ME, BECAUSE WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO LOOKS VERY HARD.”
( )
  maryelisa | Jan 16, 2024 |
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Showing 1-5 of 324 (next | show all)
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▾Published reviews
"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.
added by stephmo | editSalon.com, Cintra Wilson (Sep 30, 1996)
 
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.
added by stephmo | editThe Guardian, Stephen Games (Jun 5, 1989)
 
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.
added by stephmo | editNew York Times, Alfred Kazin (Mar 12, 1989)
 
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.
added by Shortride | editBooklist (pay site) (Mar 1, 1989)
 
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.
added by stephmo | editThe Satarist, Dan Geddes
 
▾Other authors

» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Irving, John—primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Barrett, JoeNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Broek, C.A.G. van denTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Veenbaas, JabikTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vink, NettieTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
1989
People/Characters
Owen Meany
John Wheelwright
Dan Needham
Tabitha Wheelwright
Hester Eastman
Important places
Gravesend, New Hampshire, USA
80 Front Street, Gravesend, New Hampshire, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Gravesend Academy
Arizona, USA
Important events
Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963-11-22)
Vietnam War (1959 | 1975)
Iran-Contra Affair (1985 | 1990)
Christmas
Related movies
Simon Birch (1998 | IMDb)
Epigraph
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
—The Letter of Paul
to the Philippians
Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.
—Frederick Buechner
Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig.
—Leon Bloy
Dedication
This book is for
Helen Frances Winslow Irving and
Colin Franklin Newell Irving,
my mother and father
First words
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.
Quotations
One can learn much through the thin walls of summer houses.
She was just like our whole country—not quite young anymore, but not old either; a little breathless, very beautiful, maybe a little stupid, maybe a lot smarter than she seemed. And she was looking for something--I think she wanted to be good. Look at the men in her life—Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, maybe the Kennedys. Look at how good they seem! Look at how desirable she was! That's what she was: she was desirable. She was funny and sexy—and she was vulnerable, too. She was never quite happy, she was always a little overweight. She was just like our whole country... And those men... Those famous, powerful men—did they really love her? Did they take care of her? If she was ever with the Kennedys, they couldn't have loved her—they were just using her, they were just being careless and treating themselves to a thrill. That's what powerful men do to this country—it's a beautiful, sexy, breathless country, and powerful men use it to treat themselves to a thrill! They say they love it but they don't mean it. They say things to make themselves appear good—they make themselves appear moral. That's what I thought Kennedy was: a moralist. But he was just giving us a snow job, he was just being a good seducer. I thought he was a savior. I thought he wanted to use his power to do good. But people will say and do anything just to get the power; then they'll use the power just to get a thrill. Marilyn Monroe was always looking for the best man—maybe she wanted the man with the most ability to do good. And she was seduced, over and over again—she got fooled, she was tricked, she got used, she was used up. Just like the country. The country wants a savior. The country is a sucker for powerful men who look good. We think they're moralists and then they just use us.
Every day is different; you never know how busy you'll be—most people don't die on schedule, most families don't order gravestones in advance.
. . . twenty-two-year-olds are stubborn.
You can't understand anything by reading the news.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Please distinguish between (a) the complete novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany; (b) the first part only; and (b) the second part only. Thank you.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
English
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
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▾Book descriptions
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.
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Book description
A Prayer for Owen Meany is the story of a a boy names John (the narrator) and his best friend Owen. Small, and dwarf-like, with a high pitched voice stressed by capital letters, Owen becomes John's inspiriation, and the reason why he becomes a Christian. While the book entails alot of religious aspect, it is not at all overwhelming, or attempting to sway you towards converting to a Christian. It is simply the reaction of John Wheelright to the occurances that happen to him and his best friend, and how he came to interpret them all. The book is querky, sinister, and humerous.
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Melvil Decimal System (DDC)

813.54Literature › English (North America) › American fiction › 20th Century › 1945-1999

LC Classification

PS3559.R8Language and Literature › American literature › American literature › Individual authors › 1961-

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