Rating: 
Summary: I've fallen in love with this book!
Review: Not having read John Irving before, I had to become accustomed to his style of writing. Irving simultaneously develops his characters and moves the plot at just the right pace to let the reader fall head over heels into the story. Upon finishing the book last night, I literally cried because Owen Meany, Johnny Wheelwright and the minor characters in whose lives I had become involved (and almost intertwined!) were no longer there. As a person who has struggled with many aspects of faith and religion, I grew to love Owen Meany and feel him as a friend guiding me to ask questions about myself. This novel is one for believers, non-believers, and anyone who has ever wondered about God or miracles. Owen Meany has been my miracle for the past 600 pages, and I only hope that other readers will take the time to experience such a wonderful masterpiece. John Irving is a genius!
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Summary: God's Instrument?
Review: Coming of age story about an eleven year old and his best friend, Owen Meany, who claims that he is God's instruement.
John Irving who was born on March 2, 1942 met his first big commercial sucess with "The World according to Garp". His best know works include:"The World according to Garp", "The Cider House Rules", and "A Prayer for Owen Meany". Irvings reinvention of old-qualities combined with the contempory ideas make him a popular writer.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" is a heart touching tale that makes you want to laugh, cry, or hold you in silent awe. John Irvings protrayal of characters bring them to life so much that they could pass as you own son/daughter. His comical writing feels right at home and deserves to be read. "A Prayer for Owen Meany" is a must read book for the human spirit and soul.
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Summary: The most amazing book ever! (and nothing like the movie)
Review: I was recommended this book by my English teacher, who told me that it was possibly her favorite book of all time (and she's read a lot of books). Therefore, I had high expectations when I set out to read "A Prayer for Owen Meany." Wonderfully, my expectations were more than met. Irving's book was solid genius the whole 600-and-some pages! This story is told through the perspective of John Wheelwright, an eleven-year old boy growing up in Gravesend, New Hampshire. His best friend is Owen Meany, a tiny boy with a permanently falsetto voice. Together, the two are impossibly funny... Owen has a great sense of humor and a never-ending supply of optimism as well as sarcasm. Even though people take advantage of his size (lifting him above their heads in Sunday School, never letting him swing in baseball because the pitchers could never throw in his impossibly small strike zone) Owen is always tolerating. One day, both boy's lives change forever ... Everyone knows that the books are always better than the movies made to represent them, but this book is so much better it's incredible that anything could ever be this good. At any rate, this book is amazing. By the end, I truly believed in what Owen believed in (but this doesn't mean you have to be religious or anything to appreciate it). The character development is amazing, the plot is so rich, and the situations are so complex and (in most cases) extremely funny. Irving ties in historical events with his fictional story, and his weaving is so flawless that the story seems real - and how I wish it were real! I think by this point you can tell what my opinion on the book is, but I'll say it one more time: I loved it! (And no one I've talked to has disagreed)
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, but long and wandering
Review: Marvelous story-telling. Hilarious set-piece episodes that could easily stand alone (I'm thinking of the side-splittingly-funny Christmas pageant, in particular). Amid all the rollicking entertainment, there are powerful messages on literature, love, history, and God scattered throughout the book.
Now: why only 4 stars?
Nobody ever accused John Irving of being concise - and he's not. Owen Meany is loooong, and there were many places I wished for an editor with a lawn mower to cut the weeds from this otherwise wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: I believe in Owen!
Review: Everyone that reads this book will feel like it's protragonist, John Wheelwright because everyone that reads this book will feel like Owen is their best friend. I fell in love with this novel (and Owen), the only dissapointment I encountered was when I ran out of pages to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I don't have anything to add that haven't been said in other reviews. Great book.
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Summary: Faith, War and Friendship in the Sixties
Review: This book, set in a small town in New Hampshire in the 1950s and 1960s, chronicles the friendship between two boys growing up together. John Wheelwright is the illegitimate son of a daughter of the town's most illustrious family; Owen Meany is the son of a local quarry owner. The two boys have quite differing characters. John (the narrator) is quiet and shy; Owen, although short in stature and cursed with a loud, high-pitched and rasping voice, is confident and outgoing. The central incident in the novel comes early on. John's mother is accidentally killed by a baseball struck by Owen during a Little League game. Despite this tragedy, the boys remain close friends, but Owen becomes convinced as a result that he is God's chosen instrument with some special purpose in life. This conviction remains with him throughout his life, and becomes the central theme of the book, as we follow John and Owen through their school and university days and into adult life. Without revealing too much of the plot, I can say that Owen's faith is vindicated and that he dies tragically but heroically, in a manner which he has, in part, foreseen. This is a book which (perhaps unusually for a novel written in the last quarter of the twentieth century) treats religious faith seriously. John has become a non-believer following his mother's death, but is inspired by Owen's example to return to faith in God. The religious life of the community is a theme that runs throughout the book (there is, for example, a hilarious account of a school nativity play) and a local clergyman plays an important part in the development of the plot. The theme of religious faith, however, is balanced by another theme, that of war. In Britain, we tend to look back nostalgically on the sixties as the carefree era of the Beatles, Swinging London and free love. For Americans, however, there was a darker side to the decade in the shape of the Vietnam War, and throughout the latter part of the book the war is an inescapable presence, casting its shadow over all, especially the young. Owen helps John to escape the draft, but volunteers for military service himself in order to achieve what he sees as his ordained destiny. Some other reviewers have complained that the book is too long. It is certainly a long book (about 630 pages in my edition), but there is little in it (apart, perhaps, from some of the Canadian scenes- in later life John is a schoolteacher in Canada) which I felt should have been cut. Perhaps episodes such as the nativity play and the accounts of Owen's battles with the headmaster of his school (surely the most obnoxious fictional headmaster since Wackford Squeers) are not strictly necessary in terms of plot development, but they are so brilliantly written that the book would be poorer without them. One criticism that is perhaps justified is that Mr Irving devotes too much time and energy to the Iran-Contra affair. My objection is not necessarily political - there was, after all, much to criticise in the Reagan administration's behaviour during that affair - but rather artistic, in that political analysis of a scandal from the eighties seems misplaced in a novel which is mainly about the fifties and sixties. On the whole, however, I found this an excellent book. Mr Irving develops his characters with great skill. Owen himself is a particularly memorable character, but there are others who also stand out, such as John's eccentric cousin Hester, who later becomes Owen's girlfriend, John's kindly stepfather, Dan Needham and the doubt-ridden clergyman Lewis Merrill. The author also displays great skill in weaving together his various themes of faith, war and friendship to produce a book which is not only highly readable but also thought-provoking and (despite its serious subject matter) at times very funny.
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Summary: Quite a Character
Review: Owen Meany is a most unique character. Irving masterfully describes details of Owen's life that range from touching to hilarious, from tragic to triumphant. Owen's character is painted with colorful contradictions. He's is at once thoughtful and impulsive. His appearance is both irresistibly cute and deeply disconcerting to those around him. His voice, which you can almost hear when Irving describes it, is both startling to adults and calming to children. He is both moral and somewhat criminal; at turns self-serving and selfless. While the story and the characters maintain center stage, various themes run through the story. The Vietnam War plays a major if distant role. The transgressions of political figures also come up frequently, from rumors of John F. Kennedy's dalliance with Marilyn to illegal foreign policy of the Reagan administration. Although written in 1989, the political themes especially resonate today: "What do Americans know about Morality? ...They don't want their presidents to deceive their wives but they don't mind if their presidents deceive Congress - lie to the people and violate the people's constitution!" [p. 299] But the primary themes are religion, spirituality, fate, and faith. Religion is generally considered secondary, even detrimental, to spirituality and faith. On these themes, the beliefs of Owen and his best friend John Wheelwright (the narrator) frequently conflict, but in the end, it's hard to argue with Owen's conviction. With apologies to John Irving, I must say that the pace of the story seems to drag at times. Irving manages to maintain suspense about certain matters but my patience occasionally wore thin when the main story bogged down in detail, or was set aside for seemingly unrelated events and ruminations in the later life of the narrator. Another minor complaint: one particular passage confuses me regarding Owen's height. He is described throughout the book as being exceedingly small but on page 465, Owen complains that he's five feet tall and there is no mention that Owen is exaggerating and nobody listening challenges the statement. This doesn't seem "tiny" to me -- just a little on the short side. While Owen may be physically tiny, in many ways he is larger than life and he lives his life with an admirable conviction and spirit. The story makes the reader alternately laugh and think with an occasional moment of sadness. This is a most enjoyable and worthwhile novel.
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Summary: Do you know you DESTINY?
Review: At the conclusion of the novel all the small intricacies and details of it come together to give the reader a sense of closure. I was utterly amazed and in awe of Owen Meany and the relentless faith he showed in believing himself to be an instrument of God. It makes you wonder what your purpose in life is supposed to be and how you will go about trying to fulfill that purpose. The characters were very well drawn out and, like the pieces in a puzzle, everything fits in the end. I'm not sure what a perfect book is but this as close to a perfect book as there is.
Rating:
Summary: John Irving's best
Review: I am a huge John Irving fan, and not ONLY because I live in New Hampshire, too! A Prayer for Owen Meany is THE best work John Irving has done. Hotel New Hampshire used to be my favorite before I read this. A must read for John Irving fans, and for everyone that wants a book that will be forever memorable.
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