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A Prayer For Owen Meany [Paperback]

John Irving (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 May 1990

'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.'

Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is both extraordinary and terrifying.

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A Prayer For Owen Meany + The World According To Garp (Black Swan) + Cider House Rules - The Novel
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Product details

  • Paperback: 636 pages
  • Publisher: Black Swan; New Ed edition (1 May 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0552993697
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552993692
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mum with a baseball and believes--correctly, it transpires--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 Dr Dolder, Owen's shrink, drunkenly driving his VW down the school's marble steps is a marvellous 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 change 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' 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

Review

I believe it to be a work of genius... because of its absolutely irrepressible flow of invention and suggestion, expressed in some of the most fascinating prose written in fiction today. Originality has distinguished all Mr Irving's books, but in A Prayer For Owen Meany it achieves a new pitch and a new profundity (Independent )

Marvellously funny... What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh? (Spectator )

So extraordinary, so original, and so enriching (The Washington Post )

May justly join the classic American list (Observer )

A heartbreaking masterpiece of a novel... tremendously ambitious and fiendishly clever (Dominic Holland Sunday Express )
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, funny and thoughtful...... 10 Oct 2009
By Wynne Kelly TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book in every way - poignant, funny and thoughtful. Johnny Wheelwright recounts the story of his friendship with Owen - a boy of very small stature (dwarfism is never mentioned) who is highly intelligent and socially manipulative. But as well as being clever Owen is convinced he has been chosen by God for a special purpose. He also claims to know the date of his death - a fact that Johnny treats with great scepticism. There is much sadness in the book - Owen seems to come from such an unloving family, Johnny would love to know who his real father is, people die unexpectedly and tragically. But the friendship and love of Johnny and Owen overcomes all this as they move through childhood to adulthood.

The narrative is brilliantly constructed and everything in the story is relevant. Irving explores ideas on organised religion and spiritually and although the story is set in small town New Hampshire the wider political scene is referred to as John links his narrative with facts about the Vietnam War and the Iran-Contra affair.

I chose to read this book as it so often appears on those lists of "most favourite books". I left in on my book shelf for over a year - initially put off by the 640 pages. But now I realise it was a wonderful treat just waiting for me! Owen Meany must be one of the best literary creations of all times.....
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A heartbreaking masterpiece. 18 April 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
"What's your favourite..." can be such an irritating question, but for me, for books, there's an instant answer - 'A Prayer For Owen Meany.' I could tell you about angels and armadillos, armless Indians and the headless Mary Magdalene, the lethal baseball, what the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come saw and exactly how it connects with the corpse of a helicopter pilot burned and blistered in Vietnam, and, of course, THE VOICE - and I'd still not manage to get you to the heart of this novel. And the heart is the key to it; like his beloved Dickens, Irving sets out to speak to your emotions, to make you laugh and - ultimately - bring you to tears. It is a masterpiece both of virtuoso plotting and of creating heartbreakingly involving characters. A friend of mine, after finishing the book, said 'For a few days I missed Owen Meany as if I'd known him.' If you do nothing else today, take a recommendation and read this book. Just think of it as my litle gift to you...
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A life-changing novel 19 Nov 2003
By Mrs. H. E. Freeborn
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It would be pointless to summarise the plot and main features of this terrific novel, as other commentators have done so already. Suffice to say, however, that Owen Meany is a character who stays with the reader long after the book has been put down. John Irving has created a hauntingly beautiful fable in which our personal values are challenged. I have had coversations with complete strangers in bookshops about this novel - and I defy anyone not to weep at the end.
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Weeping for Owen Meany 15 May 2003
By N. Crump
Format:Paperback
I've just this minute finished Owen Meany and I my eyes are filled with tears. So much is already said about this book. I will simply say that I was impatient through the book, although I enjoyed it, because I didn't understand where it was going. I should have understood all the time that Owen was speaking to me, the reader, as much as to John in saying that "A LITTLE FAITH IS NEEDED".
I perservered (and really it wasn't such a difficult task) and at the end was the reward which was unbelieavbly moving. The most touching story I've ever read - just so emotionally and spiritually big, but accessible. Maybe that was the point. Don't let your impatience get the better of you, treasure every page like you would each moment of your growing child - because the end comes all too soon.
Reaching the conclusion is an epiphany in itself, but its a book full of revelations about humanity and God even to the hardened atheist, the most unsentimental or even the driven agnostic like me. It was a privledge.
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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite book 8 Sep 2006
By Mr. S. D. Organ
Format:Paperback
5 stars doesn't really do this justice. John Irving transcends perfection with 'A Prayer For Owen Meany'. This book is probably the most moving piece of literature I've ever read. That's not because it's particularly sad. It's more down to the love felt by the narrator towards Owen, and Owen's immense faith.

There's not much more that can be said without ruining the intricate plot. Owen Meany is a magical character and I would recommend this book above any other.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Prayer for Owen Meany 11 Aug 2005
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
A prayer needs to be said for those reading this book - there are few who could even dream of writing this well. You are drawn into the world and feel such a range of emotions - the worst being that the story will end! And when it does, the sense of loss you feel is unbelievable.
John Irving, when writing like this, should never be allowed to stop. Some books make me feel that I am good enough to write - John Irving lets me know that I've barely learnt to read when compared with him.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece 12 Dec 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
My friend recommended this book. She's always been an avid reader and hoped in the future to become a writer herself. However, she said that after reading it she no longer wanted to pursue that idea because any book she ever wrote would never be as good as A Prayer for Owen Meany. Having just finished reading it myself, I understand what she means (not that I don't have any faith in my friend's ability!). It's a true literary masterpiece. In meeting Owen I feel I've known and lost a friend - wonderful from beginning to end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Best ever read
Best book Ive ever read, and only one Ive re read. Bought Kindle version to re read after 15 years.
Published 10 days ago by Alan
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a Wonderful Book
What a fascinating story and it's beautifully written too. What more could you ask? Owen Meany is more than a character, he becomes someone you seek to know and understand. Read more
Published 24 days ago by SA Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Irving - not to be missed
Possibly Irving's all time best. The tale of little OWen Meany with the squeaky voice and his obsessive relationship with religion and god are enthralling. Read more
Published 1 month ago by RB BRU
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
It is a work of genius. I bought this for my 2 year old as it is one of my favorite books, and the protagonist's are the same age in the story. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Marlon
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
A book that sucks you in and holds you in its peculiar sway to the last word. It is excellent.
Published 2 months ago by Susan Stuart
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
I have always loved this book and reading it again has just reminded what an astonishing tale it is. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Taxdoctor
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding.
This is one of the best novels I have read and I have read many. This is a truly inspiring story
Published 3 months ago by Mr. S. Harrington
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good read
It was so unusual, but it drew you into the charactor Owen Meany who was so fascinating,. a different age, but one i could relate too.
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. Kay Earith
3.0 out of 5 stars Too long
I found this book interesting, different but maybe 200 pages too long. I felt some of the spiritual messages were not that clear and the book repetitive in parts. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sharon
3.0 out of 5 stars Rather scruffy book
This second hand book is rather scruffier than some second hand ones I've bought, but for 1p plus postage it is acceptable!
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. E. Miles
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