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A Prayer for Owen Meany
  
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A Prayer for Owen Meany (Paperback)

by John Irving (Author) "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,..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 1999)
  • ISBN-10: 0345915569
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345915566
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

DOMINIC HOLLAND, Sunday Express

'a heartbreaking masterpiece of a novel... tremendously ambitious and fiendishly clever' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
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. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

99 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (99 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite book, 8 Sep 2006
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (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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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A heartbreaking masterpiece., 18 April 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (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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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A modern classic, 28 Oct 2006
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (Paperback)
Owen Meany is one of the great fictional characters of our time. In my opinion, this is the novel in which John Irving reaches the peak of his form. The humour, irony, pathos and humanity that Irving puts into all of his novels blends so well here to create the quirkiest of all stories. Owen Meany is maybe the most unlikely hero of any novel but this extraordinary book tells his story and makes us understand what a hero he is. Very moving.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible
Im sorry I cant believe im reading the same book as other reviewers! Im 21 years old I found the book so not interesting so maybe its a bit too old for me, Im going to read it... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Sophie Callan

4.0 out of 5 stars brilliant book but tiny print
I've read this book twice and love it. this copy was bought for a friend but i was a little disappointed as the book itself was very small (smaller than the average paperback) and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by superconsumer

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking
Owen Meaney is simply one of those books that everyone should read. Defining the term `modern classic', it has one of the true great characters of literary fiction. Read more
Published 2 months ago by KPC

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant narration....
I have done a separate review for A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is a wonderful, compelling book and lends itself well to an audio version. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wynne Kelly

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, funny and thoughtful......
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... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wynne Kelly

4.0 out of 5 stars A Prayer for Own Meany
This is a truly wonderful book - it manages to be incredibly sad and incredibly funny, often simultaneously. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. C. Verrall

4.0 out of 5 stars Vivid!
To begin with I was not sure how I was going to get on with this book, but as Owen always points out, have a little faith. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Pen pal

5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Irving book, brilliant stuff....
This is an amazing book. I read it from cover to cover in one sitting (an all nighter, and the exhaustion in the morning was totally worth it!) Oh and just a thought.... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ms. S. R. Boatfield

5.0 out of 5 stars my favourite John Irving book
A book so full of characters impeccably brought to life on the page that in spite of their oddities they seem just as real as members of your family and you want to cherish them... Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. Lacroix

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky and extraordinarily moving
I bought this book for my wife after she'd listened to a radio adaption of the story; she gave it to me to read after she'd finished it. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jeremy Walton

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