A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany - by John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of those books that sucks you in.  It sucks you in deep into the narrative, the characters, the personalities, and you simply don’t want to let go.  This is not a fast moving book.  Not at all.  But since you enjoy being sucked into it, this is not a deterrent.  In fact, it’s just the opposite.  Once you’re into this world, you almost wish you could stay there forever.  This is the definition of great writing. 

Our protagonist is John Wheelwright, and this is his story.  He’s in his mid-forties as he narrates his tale, which begins as a young boy in post-war America.  He lives a rather affluent life, growing up in New Hampshire with his single mother and grandmother.  There’s also his best friend Owen.  Owen is one of those people that seems as though he could only exist in a story.  He’s rather an odd character.  He’s remarkably small for his age, quite goofy looking, and has a speech impediment that leaves him with a consistent, high pitched whine of a voice.  Every time we read dialogue uttered by Owen, author John Irving displays it in ALL CAPS.  This in itself is annoying, but I guess that’s the point.  Irving wants to remind his readers that whenever Owen Meany talks, it’s a bit of an annoyance and takes a while for others to get used to.

You would think that such a character would be mercilessly picked on and bullied, but it’s quite the opposite.  This little guy is a borderline genius and seems to be more knowledgeable than anyone else around.  If he was 6’2’’ and handsome, he could rival John F Kennedy in a popularity contest.  We follow John and Owen from the time they’re small boys up until their mid-twenties when the Vietnam War is in full swing.  We go very deep into the many events of their lives.  There are plenty of readers, I would imagine, that would find all of this detail pointless and think “Get on with the plot”.  But it’s really hard to fully enjoy this plot without all of the detail.

It’s seems as though Owen knows his destiny.  Throughout his childhood, he sees what God’s intention is for him.  He doesn’t quite understand it, but he knows it.  This doesn’t make life for Owen any easier.  Think about it.  Would you really want to be convinced that YOU knew the exact date of your death and have reoccurring dreams that point this event out to you explicitly?  Although he shares this impending doom with John and other characters, no one really believes him.  How could they?  So calmer minds try to convince poor Owen that he’s imagining the whole thing. When we finally arrive at the event that Owen feels is being foretold by God, there never seems to be that huge of a revelation.  Again, it’s not the plot that is necessarily so enthralling, but rather the story itself. 

This is one of those classic books that has never been made into a movie, and I’m not sure it ever should – or could.  Owen is simply one of those characters that we might have trouble believing in had anyone tried to visualize what such a human being would look and sound like.  In other words, he seems quite unbelievable – except when John Irving writes about him.

As I mentioned, this book is a retrospective story.  John Wheelwright is a high school professor in his forties when he tells his tale.  I felt like we jumped around a bit too much to the present day.  When we fast-forward at brief intervals to 1987, it seems like merely an excuse for the author to criticize Ronald Reagan’s handling of Iran-Contra.  They (John Wheelwright and John Irving) obviously hate the man.  Perhaps these diversions are meant to illustrate just how empty Wheelwright’s life is now without Owen.  There doesn’t seem to be anything remarkable about John’s latter day life.  He’s quite the boring character.  He doesn’t feel despondent however.  In fact, having lived a life with Owen Meany as a best friend for so much of his early life makes him feel quite blessed.  Once we’ve experienced a portion of our life with someone like Owen, how can anything possibly top that?

An excellent story.  Very unbelievable, and not for everyone, but none of this hindered my experience.  Well deserving of the “Classic” moniker.