A Prayer For Owen Meany

Wuthering Bites Book Club Review at a Glance

What We Said

This was the second John Irving book read in our book club (also A Widow For One Year and The Cider House Rules). It was a toss-up in our club as to whether this or Cider House Rules is the better book. Needless to say, we all enjoyed it. Owen Meany is a great character. From his appearance, to his actions, to his voice, he is one of the more memorable characters created by John Irving. We thought he was endearing. As with any John Irving book there are numerous characters and plot twists to discuss. There are many good discussion topics inherent in Owen Meany - self-fulfilling prophecy, religion, friendship and destiny to name a few. This is a most enjoyable and worthwhile novel.
-Sue

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John Irving was born in Exeter, NH in 1942 and grew up right on Front Street. His father taught history at Phillips-Exeter Academy, giving John automatic admittance to attend the prep school. He went the University of New Hampshire and while there, participated in the study-abroad program in Vienna. He married his first wife while an undergraduate and had his first of three sons at 23. Irving's first teaching job was at Windham College in Vermont. He divorced his first wife in 1981 and later married his agent, Janet Turnbull, a Canadian. Irving lives in Toronto and Vermont with Janet and their young son Everett.

• Setting Free the Bears, 1969
• The Water-Method Man, 1972
• The 158-Pound Marriage, 1974
• The World According to Garp, 1978
• The Hotel New Hampshire, 1981
• The Cider House Rules, 1985
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, 1989
• A Son of the Circus, 1994
• Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, 1996
• A Widow For One Year, 1988
• My Movie Business: A Memoir, 1999
• The Fourth Hand, 2001

From the Publisher

OWEN MEANY (we must always use the upper case for OWEN, because that is how he speaks) is a very small boy with A VERY BIG VOICE who has become an icon in American literature. Readers have bestowed a reverence verging on the worshipful regarding the book, A Prayer for Owen Meany.
When OWEN accidentally kills his best friend's mother with a foul ball in a Little League game, he becomes convinced that he is an instrument of God and that only martyrdom will redeem his act. The story begins on that fateful day in 1953, but it plays out against the Vietnam War. Some readers believe it to be a novel about America's involvement in Vietnam, and it is, to some degree. Others proclaim it as a great religious novel, or at least one that examines religious beliefs and morality. That, too, is accurate. It is, as are all Irving's novels, a highly complex story with intertwining subplots, strange characters with dark secrets and Irving's very own entertaining and often hilarious narrative. Still others call it John Irving's greatest accomplishment, and some go so far as to say it is the best book they've ever read. However it is viewed, Armadillos, dress forms and Christmas pageants will forever summon visions of OWEN MEANY in the hearts and minds of millions of readers.
This was John Irving's seventh novel, published in 1989, four years after The Cider House Rules.

Reading Group Guide

These questions and discussion topics are offered to enhance your discussion of A Prayer for Owne Meany by John Irving.

• Though he's portrayed as an instrument of God, Owen Meany causes the death of John's mother. What other deaths was Owen indirectly involved with? Do you find Owen's close relationship with death to support or undermine his miraculous purpose?
• Owen speaks and writes in capital letters, emphasizing the potency of his strange voice. At the academy, he is even referred to as the Voice. Why is Owen's voice so important? What other occasions can you think of in which Owen's voice played an especially mean-ingful role?
• Reverend Merrill always speaks of faith in tandem with doubt. Do you believe that one can exist without the other or that one strengthens the other? Was your opinion about Merrill's views on faith and doubt affected by the revelation of his relationship to John Wheelwright?
• Merrill experiences a bogus miracle and resurgence of faith when John stages his mother's dressmaker dummy outside the church. Later, John's involvement in Owen's rescue of the Vietnamese chil-dren spurs John's own faith: "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," he says. Do you think the genuineness of Owen's miracle makes the birth of John's faith more valid than the faith engendered by Merrill's bogus miracle?
• The Meanys claim that, like Jesus, Owen was the product of a vir-gin birth. Owen dislikes the Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the Meanys leave the Christmas Pageant. Name other instances when Owen's feelings toward his family seem conflicted. Do you think Owen ever considers himself Christlike?
• An observer necessary to the Christmas Pageant but seldom an ac-tive participant, John plays Joseph to Owen's baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just a Joseph." Do you see John's role as Joseph-like throughout the story? Are there other biblical characters with whom you identify John?
• Did Irving's references to the armless Indian and the pawless armadillo prepare you for Owen's sacrifice? What other clues did Irving give about Owen's final heroic scene?
• Throughout the novel, John gives hints to the forthcoming action, adding, "As you shall see." Did you find this to be an effective way to keep you reading and engaged in the story?
• Owen Meany taught John that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole and back again." Do you think Irving followed his own recipe for a good book? Supply examples in support of your position.
• Given John's dislike of Gravesend Academy, which expelled Owen, did you find it interesting that John later taught at an academy in Toronto? In what other ways does John, as an adult, embrace issues or events that he was indifferent or hostile to as an adolescent?
• John assists Owen in rescuing the children, but John always plays the supporting part in Owen's adventures. Based on the scenes in Toronto in the 1980s, do you think John ever escaped his support-ing role? How do you think John's retained virginity reflects on his sense of self?
• Did your feelings about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam change after reading Irving's portrayal of the peace movement, the draft dodgers, and Owen's involvement in the army? Were you surprised by Owen's efforts to get to Vietnam?
• John's reactions to and obsession with the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s reflect his position as neither a true Canadian nor a true American. Do you think that non-Americans have a clearer vision of the machinations and deceptions within American politics? What did John's focus on American politics tell you about his adult character?
• Irving frequently foreshadows tragedy; for example, hailstones hit John's mother on the head during her wedding day, providing a glimpse of her later death by a baseball. What other events does Irving foreshadow?
• Several reviews call A Prayer for Owen Meany "Dickensian," and Irving himself incorporates scenes from Dickens in the story. In what ways does Irving's writing remind you of Dickens's? What other writers would you compare Irving to?

- Random House, Inc.