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A Prayer for Owen Meany Mass Market

Author: Visit Amazon's John Irving Page | Language: English | ISBN: 006220422X | Format: EPUB

A Prayer for Owen Meany Mass Market Description

Amazon.com Review

Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom. John Irving's novel, which inspired the 1998 Jim Carrey movie Simon Birch, is his most popular book in Britain, and perhaps the oddest Christian mystic novel since Flannery O'Connor's work. Irving fans will find much that is familiar: the New England prep-school-town setting, symbolic amputations of man and beast, the Garp-like unknown father of the narrator (Owen's orphaned best friend), the rough comedy. The scene of doltish the doltish headmaster driving a trashed VW down the school's marble staircase is a marvelous set piece. So are the Christmas pageants Owen stars in. But it's all, as Highlights magazine used to put it, "fun with a purpose." When Owen plays baby Jesus in the pageants, and glimpses a tombstone with his death date while enacting A Christmas Carol, the slapstick doesn't cancel the fact that he was born to be martyred. The book's countless subplots add up to a moral argument, specifically an indictment of American foreign policy--from Vietnam to the Contras.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Joe Barrett captures the humor and sorrow of Irving's classic novel about faith, friendship and fate. We follow the adventures of diminutive Owen Meany and his best friend Johnny Wheelwright as they grapple with life, death and devotion and come of age in the small town of Gravesend, N.H. Barrett deftly portrays a host of strange and wonderful characters as Owen commandeers the local Christmas pageant, battles with an autocratic headmaster and fulfills what he believes to be his destiny. Faced with the unenviable task of capturing the singular voice of the titular character (in the novel, Owen's dialogue is capitalized to represent his strident, squeaking speech), Barrett produces a workmanlike rendition of Owen that, while not perfect, grows on listeners as the story unfolds. True to the spirit of the text, Barrett's masterful rendition is a delight. A Morrow hardcover. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Harper; Reprint edition (April 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006220422X
ISBN-13: 978-0062204226
Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.7 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

I started reading A Prayer for Owen Meany at the urging of a friend, part of our on-going reading program. She had just started the novel, and said it was funny and I would enjoy it. I never expected that it would move me so. John Irving has written a profound novel of faith, friendship, and fate.
It took me one or two sections to understand Irving's style. He likes to jump around a lot, and as the story is written as a memoir, that is certainly understandable. But Johnny Wheelwright (the narrative voice of the story) wants to tell us too much, too fast, and it doesn't all make sense at first. Only one thing is clear from the beginning: Owen Meany is destined to change Johnny's life.
Owen and Johnny are friends in New Hampshire in the 1950s. They have a unique bond which due in part to Owen's extraordinary presence. 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. The bond between Owen and Johnny is sealed by a freak accident when Owen hits a baseball, killing Johnny's mother.
As they grow up, it becomes clear to Johnny that Owen thinks he is guided by God. The accident with Johnny's mother is just one incident that ultimately will lead Johnny to find his own faith.
There are moments of biting humor in the novel as well as moments of sadness. Although the majority of the story centers on Johnny's childhood, it continues through his high school and college years. As expected for the setting, Kennedy and the Vietnam War become important themes throughout the story.
There are also moments when Johnny -- writing the novel in 1987 -- steps out of character to tell the reader in a diary-like fashion about his life in the present as a teacher.

It is one thing to rediscover a classic, a novel that people have enjoyed for years and years. It is another thing to read a book that has just been published and come to the realization that you are holding a classic in your hand. I remember finishing "A Prayer for Owen Meany" for the first time and telling everybody I know, "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK." John Irving is one of the few authors I buy hardback as soon as a new one comes out and I am truly glad I came to this particular book the way I did.
The book has what is probably my all time favorite opening line, but what struck me the most at the end was how everything came together. The recurring themes, images, events all blend together into a memorable climax. It also has several wickedly funny scenes which just reinforces my earlier conviction that Irving and I have the same sense of humor.
The story is about faith on a personal level, which is intriguing since religion in this country is usually presented on a social level. I think it is also a meditation on the nature of heroism, albeit in a most unusual context.
This book can not be made into a film, so it is not surprising that we ended up with "Simon Birch." Irving could not have solved the problems because they are impossible to solve. The voice of Owen Meany, always presented in the book as CAPITAL LETTERS could never survive the transition from novel to film. You can not capture something like that and you should not even try. The only sad thing is that children seemed to like "Simon Birch" a lot and we can only imagine their shock if they get around to reading the novel.
I think the best way to approach this book is through the earlier efforts of John Irving.

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