A Prayer for Owen Meany

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Summary: A Prayer for Owen Meany
Review: A Prayer for Owen Meany had a little bit of everything. There is friendship, love, hope, faith, loss of faith, death, and even miracles. My favorite aspect of the book was the development and relationships of the characters. This book makes you think as you're reading and even ponder your religious beliefs. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in A Prayer for Owen Meany. I feel that they were developed in a way to allow the reader to really get to know them, good qualities and bad. The character relationship that I enjoyed the most was between Harriet Wheelwright and Owen Meany. Harriet didn't particularly like Owen in the beginning of the book; she though he was weird. Over the years, she became his benefactor and grew to love and treat Owen as part of her family. There was mutual love and respect between the two. A Prayer for Owen Meany was filled with humorous incidents that in places actually made me laugh out loud. The funniest incident was the sharing of the armadillo. I thought it was so funny how John and Owen would position the armadillo exactly between their beds in profile when Owen would spend the night. When John would wake up in the morning, the armadillo would be tilted more toward Owen. That's hilarious! It was also funny how Harriet would hide her wigs throughout the house, then blame the maid for losing them. I enjoy a book that makes me laugh. I wish things had been able to turn out differently for Owen. That must have been terrible living with what he knew. I enjoyed thinking about the possibility of miracles and how I would have handled the situation. I don't know if I would have had as much faith and courage as Owen Meany.

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Summary: Heaven on Earth in a Book
Review: Owen Meany is a small odd person, as the other reviews have probably told you already, but he is a truly great person. I won't tell you much you haven't already read, I'll just keep giving you the high praise. This book is moving on many levels, a story of a great friendship and of great loss. The book's characters are all unique and still beliveable, the narrative moves at a perfect pace , and I can think of nothing wrong with the book at all. In my opinion, the best stories are those that are serious as anything can be, but still make you laugh out loud. A Prayer for Owen Meany is just this, and is as close as you can get to heaven(while reading a book) without being there. This is one of the best books I have ever read....

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Summary: The Voice
Review: When I first started reading this book I thought it was quite dull, however when I realized how clever of an author John Irving was and the wittiness of the book and the earthly characters, I started to enjoy the book. In this world being noticed is quite hard for people who are more different than society and Owen Meany was defintely different. He was The Voice." Of the many people who understood Owen was Johnny his best friend. He says in the very first sentence of the book Johnny says, "I am doomed to remember a boy wuth 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." Right in the first sentence we see the effect this dimmunative character has played in shaping Johnny. When Owen was introduced it made us seem he had to power of his life but as the book progressed we saw that not only did he have power on his own life but the lives of those he knew. He also had a surprising sense of closeness to Johnny's family members and he somewhat knew them better then they knew themselves. Also Owen knew what would happen to everyone. He had a sixth sense which told him about how a presendent would shape his country to how Gravesend High School, Johnny and Owen's school,would change after the hiring of the decision making headmaster. The essence of knowledge that the author gave Owen shows us how he was God's messanger and how he was showing everyone around him the evils of catholicism and the truth of God. Whenever he saw people making a mistake he would say, "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO." Owen Meany's voice is capitalized through the whole book to show how his voice's importance and its distinctiveness. The dwarfed child has a strange voice that chills most people (including Johnny's grandmother), but he also has an adult-like wisdom and understanding. He felt that "IF GOD GAVE ME THIS VOICE, HE HAD A REASON." He felt this reasoning just as how he accurately felt he was God's instrument. The accident with Johnny's mother is just one incident that ultimately will lead Johnny to find his own faith. Owen felt he lost his hands when he killed Johnny's mother(his mother)with the swing of a bat. Owen's role as the ghost of Christmas of the future also shows us how powerful Owen was when he made some of the families terrified to even remeber the old family classic.

Owen braveness also make us feel like cowards for ever fearing society. Owen's hard work to fight society actually seems quite easy to us from what Owen faced. His differences from everyone around him were what made him the true Voice. After reading this book I felt that it a great book and even can be master by a high-schooler if put the effort, just how Owen tells Johnny that it's his lack of imagination that bores him out. The length of the book does not amount to the details need to describe Owen Meany, the true instrument of God.

Rating:
Summary: lightweight
Review: Here is the opening sentence of the novel:

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.

Now I have to admit to not keeping up with John Irving's career, the last thing I read was Garp, but it seems to me that this is where I left him twenty years ago. All of the faux Christian elements are back--virgin births, saintly mothers, neutered heroes, etc. The narrative voice is similar; the narrator is the weakest character. The politics is still lightly leftish. And so on... Irving set out to be his generation's Dickens, but would appear to be turning into it's Vonnegut, endlessly rewriting the same novel under the mistaken impression that he is conveying profound truths, when in fact he is offering up mild amusements.

The specific focus of this book is the type of religious manifestation or miracle that would be necessary to make someone believe in God. Irving quotes Frederick Buechner:

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 me in 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.

The narrator of the story, Johnny Wheelwright, finds his revelatory experience in the life & martyrdom of his boyhood friend Owen Meany, a dwarf who speaks in a high pitched but stentorian voice, which Irving renders, to the reader's profound annoyance, in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. He has several visions and dreams which convince him that he is predestined to save a flock of Vietnamese children. The book wends along for some 500 pages to this inevitable conclusion, with myriad stops for Irving's confused political ravings and introduction of bizarre but pointless supporting characters. It is a mark of the author's ability to please his audience and the inherent drama in the fate of Meany that we are swept along, reasonably willingly, to this conclusion. It is the essence of his weakness that we finish the book thinking, not about what it all meant, but that, thanks to a few well-handled set pieces, it would make a decent slapstick comedy for the movies.

For when we step back from the tale for just a moment, we quickly see that the whole thing is a triumph of form over substance. Irving is fascinated by the trappings and structures of Christianity (it occured to me, as I skipped to Owen's speeches, that putting his words in block letters recalled the Red Letter Bibles, which put Christ's words in red), but he apparently has no interest in the import of Christian beliefs, nor any understanding of faith. The Gospels are vibrant documents today, not because of the arc of the story they tell, but because of the message of brotherly love and human redemption that Christ brought with him. Irving preaches little more than that the Vietnam War was, and America is, a mess. It's not exactly analogous to The Sermon on the Mount.

As to his obsession with miracles, the whole thing strikes me as utterly obtuse. The future that Meany foresaw for himself came to pass, so Wheelwright believes in God? Bill Clinton knew he'd be President one day, has his convinced anyone of the existence of a divine being? When Frederick Buechner wrote the passage that is quoted above, could he not see that his existence and his ability to convey his thoughts are a miracle entire? He and Irving really seem to be looking for magic tricks, not for miracles, because the miracle is all around them.

Meanwhile, Owen Meany continually acts in the book so as to conform with his visions. He seems to have abdicated that which makes us human, free will. If Irving's understanding of Christianity is really this meager, it's hard to see how he could ever have much of value to convey to us.

What we end up with here is a reasonably amusing book, which is only a simulacrum of a story of religious belief. If you do not approach it expecting anything more than a pleasant diversion, you'll not be disappointed. If you expect to be enlightened, look elsewhere.

GRADE: C

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Summary: Remembering Owen Meany
Review: I have never read a book by John Irving before. So, maybe I don't have much basis for comparison. However, I found A Prayer For Owen Meany to be a touching story. " I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his vioice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he is the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God." Johnny Wheelwright says of his best friend Owen Meany. There you have it. In the first paragraph of the first chapter Irving tells the reader what it is all about. Luckily for us, there is much more. The story follows the lives of best friends John and Owen; and the experiences they have. Irving does a great job developing the extraordinary character, Owen Meany and the effect he has on John. Throughout the story Owen constantly saves John and teaches him lessons he will later use in life. What is so special about Owen Meany? Well, he believes he is a messanger of God, a chosen one forced to do God's will. And, he is. Owen, throughout the book has strange insights and ideas on God and what his own life will become.Owen, also, happens to be very strange himself. Not only is Owen exceptionally small but he has an abnormal voice which Irving emphasizes by writing Owen's speech in all CAPITAL LETTERS. I found this really effective. Every time I turned the page and saw those big, capital letters I couldn't wait to find out what Owen would say next. It also helped that Owen happened to be an extremely interesting character. He is full of imaginative ideas and theories that will amaze you by how close to home they hit. The story was full of symbolism and foreshadowing and overall just showed an interesting writing style. Irving brings you into Owen Meany's world and insures that you will feel every bit of pain, happiness, and sadness that Owen feels. The story is an amazing journey that I recommend anyone to take. Like John Wheelwright I will always remember a boy with a wrecked voice, Owen Meany.

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Summary: an AMAZING novel
Review: I'm not a big reader and I found Owen Meany difficult to put down. There is so much depth to the novel. The characters are developed well. I feel like I have met Owen. He is am amazing person. He claims to be "GOD'S INSTRUMENT" and shows angelic qualities. He is able to forsee his fate. However, he also shows some human characteristics. He knows how to live a fulfilling life. I am not religious but I have more faith because of this book. I was so upset when it was over. I didn't want the story to come to an end; there was a surprise on every page. The ending is very appropriate. John Irving has an amazing imagination. I was shocked to find out that this was not a true story. This book may create a new outlook for you on life, faith, and fate. Irving knows how to affect your mind and your heart. I highly recommend that you read this book at some point in your life.

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Summary: Just can't put into words-You'll have to read it yourself!
Review: I am finding this review hard to write. There are so many levels to this novel and it covers such a long stretch of time...

I enjoyed the struggle of faith that is dealt with throughout the book. Mr. Irving makes a lot of good points about what it is that makes us believe (or not believe) in God. His characters are very believable and well rounded. They grow, they move on.

I just can't express what a moving novel this is. I would highly recommend it and enjoyed it thoroughly but there is too much to share and too much I wouldn't want to give away. I have read three other Irving novels and this is by far my favorite.

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Summary: Quite possibly Irving's best book
Review: There is no such thing as a perfect book, but John Ieving's A Prayer for Owen Meany comes very, very close. Featuring a literate story, characters that come to life in the heart and mind, and an ending that is both joyful and heartbreaking A Prayer for Owen Meany is required reading.

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Summary: Born To Be Martyred
Review: "Owen gave me more than he ever took from me...What did he ever say that wasn't right?" Johnny Wheelwright

On a summer's day in 1953, eleven-year-old Owen Meany, the diminutive social outcast with the squeaky, high-pitched voice, hits a foul ball in a Little League game (the only ball he's ever hit, by the way), and instantly kills his best friend's mother. Owen, who does not believe in accidents, knows that this death was God's will and that, somehow, he is destined to live his own life as an instrument of the Almighty. What happens to Owen, and his best friend, Johnny Wheelwright, in the years to come, is both extraordinarily uplifting and extraordinarily terrifying.

Despite the death of Johnny's beloved mother, he and Owen share a lifelong friendship that is sealed when Owen resorts to extraordinary means to keep Johnny out of the Vietnam war and reaches its apotheosis when Johnny is present at the death Owen has seen prefigured in a vision at a Christmas pageant.

Following Owen and Johnny through childhood, high school and college, the spookily prescient Owen Meany manages to intimidate children and adults alike with both his visions and his faith.

The novel's central question centers on "why Johnny is a Christian because of Owen Meany," but there are other mysteries to unravel that are just as interesting, if not more so, such as, "who is Johnny's father?"

The Christian theme is obviously central to A Prayer for Owen Meany, yet Irving is unclear about how he wishes it to be interpreted. Although the book is heavily steeped in the ritual and practice of mainline Protestantism, it conveys a sense of religiosity rather than religion, the miraculous rather than the spiritual. Perhaps its religious message is that it simply doesn't have one...outside of Owen, himself, that is.

Those who are familiar with John Irving's work will instantly recognize his signature: the New England prep school community, the unknown father of the first-person narrator (a la Garp), the rough comedy, the perversity, the brilliant set pieces.

Despite the somewhat overworked theme (a boy killing or injuring his best friend's mother...think of Robertson Davies and Nancy Willard), the story, itself, is wonderful, miraculous, even. Readers will be pulled into it by the sheer power of Owen and Johnny's friendship and the desire to see at least some resolution to Johnny's lifelong mysteries.

But like most of Irving's novels, A Prayer for Owen Meany cannot decide just what to be: a folksy Bildungsroman, a Christian/Freudian allegory or an commentary on the sad state of American politics.

Unfortunately, Irving, always outspoken, leans a little too heavily on the political side in this book, and his venomous polemic, which is neither persuasive nor well-integrated, denigrates the near mythic-story of the captivating and heartbreaking Owen Meany.

The book is written as a memoir, told by Johnny, and, as such, it contains many jumps in time. This is something that Irving handles well and we are never disoriented or confused as to time and place.

Irving's prose, which is so good it is often underestimated even by his most ardent admirers, is smooth as silk in this novel, and he once again successfully combines comedy with tragedy, pathos with quiet humor.

His classical style is present and perfect, as always, but in this book, Irving is too blatant with both foreshadowing and symbolism. Irving doesn't seem to trust his readers enough; he doesn't seem to realize that...we will get it. We don't need to be, nor want to be, hit over the heads. In a story as good as this one, a lighter touch would have been a delight.

The climax is the best thing about this book. It is not only convincing and "just right," it is absolute sheer perfection. It pulls everything else about the story together and the scenes leading up to it are extremely well-written. The thinking behind those scenes, however, might just be a little too preppy, a little too sure of itself.

As good as this book is, and it is excellent, it still lacks the power, vision and humor of The World According to Garp, Irving's masterpiece. Owen Meany, however, is not Garp, he is himself, and his story is uniquely his own, as it should be.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is, in the end, ambitious, intelligent, stunning and darkly comic. With this book, John Irving joins the company of other first-class writers of boy's stories...Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington and J.D. Salinger. And that is not bad company in which to find oneself.

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Summary: Enjoyable reading material
Review: When I first learned that I would have to read A Prayer for Owen Meany, I thought it would be another awful summer assignment. I was mistaken; it is the second best book I ever read for school, I recommend to everyone that they read this book. I enjoy the imagery, predestination and foreshadowing techniques of John Irving as well as all the irony and symbolism that you can find in the book. Most of all I like the character of Owen himself and how Irving made him into a modern day Deity. The only drawback to this is during the few lengthy chapters Irving would go off on tangents to give detailed background information, it does all come together at the end, but when you are reading you wonder why Irving would go into detail about such trivial things. At least it seems trivial as you are reading. This technique does have its merits. Most of the time books hurry endings and give short pointless summaries of the rest of the characters lives; hoping to just end it. In A Prayer for Owen Meany, everything made sense at the end. All of Irving's tangents came together to form a shape. I cannot say enough about this book. It contains everything that one could hope for when picking up a novel.