- Hardcover
- Publisher: Random House Inc; New edition edition (Jan 6 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679642595
- ISBN-13: 978-0679642596
- Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 3.5 x 20.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 748 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (913 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#64,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sports
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Irving and his world,
By Waddleforth (Cambodia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (Mass Market Paperback)
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY is a fascinating book, but it won't be for everyone. Irving has indeed created an odd couple of characters: Owen Meany, the dwarfish youth with high-pitched voice of stunning self-importance that wavers between arrogance one moment and self-sacrificial lamb of God the next, and his sidekick Johnny Wheelwright, illegitimate child of a striking, freespirited woman soon killed off by a baseball Owen accidentally slams across the baseball field during a Little League game to hit its killing blow against her temple. Not that this would destroy the odd friendship of these two. Indeed, it bonds them for life.As for Owen, he doesn't believe in accidents, especially not this one. What transpires through the remainder of the story, tracing the lives of these two from children into adulthood, is a complex weave of seeming circumstance into eventual climactic conclusion that rather neatly ties many loose threads together into a tight knot. Owen has foreseen his own death by a visionary dream, and he never doubts, at least not until the final days of his life, that this dream is the beacon guiding him home (home being, for Owen, heaven for those who would enter through the gates of martyrdom). In the process of these two strange lives, topics of destiny and fate, religion, American politics and foreign policy, various rites of passage from childhood into adulthood, and other miscellaneous lighter and deeper issues are undertaken. These, too, all come together into the neat knot at the book's end. The only other novel that came together this way for me (and everyone else) was THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD with its equally strange characters and situations. Irving is a quality writer. But, although I have yet to read his other works, I suspect this one is not his best. The ideas he undertakes are fascinating enough, yet I found myself unmoved by either Owen's fate or Johnny's somewhat victimized standing by. Still, I would recommend A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY along with the wonderful BARK OF THE DOGWOOD as they are both stellar and first rate---really top drawer, both. If you like to laugh and cry, try these books.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Truly terribly written and even worse story line,
By Devon Mildren (Exeter, NH) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is not at all what I expected from John Irving. Not only is the story weak, it is truly insipid and carries on and on with vulgar and unrelated information for pages and pages. The book focuses on this supposedly faithful Owen Meany, who is a complete hipocrite, and works completely against the them of faith that is supposed to be put forth. I truly have never found a more mediocre and badly written story with as irritating a character as Owen Meany and his rediculuously pathetic friend who narrates the story. How John Irving of all people manages to come up with the out there story line is incomprehensible - it seems as if he couldn't decide what type of story he wanted to write. The only thing that is more amazing than that an excellent writer could write such basic level trash is that people could actually enjoy it. Save yourself and read one of his other books.
1.0 out of 5 stars
1-star rating is even too much,
This review is from: A Prayer for Owen Meany (Mass Market Paperback)
This book, despite all the acclaim it's received, is nothing but trash. Irving writes with a forced and awkward hand - there is no fluidity in this novel. It is incoherent and utterly ridiculous. The reader experiences no satisfaction at the end of the book, not even considering the untimely demise of the irritating Meany boy. Ugh, if burning books weren't frowned upon, guess which one would be roasting right now? Go on, guess.
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