A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is one of the most remarkable stories I have ever read, though I didn’t fully recognize that until the final pages. The book demanded patience, but it rewarded that patience completely. The conclusion pulls everything together in a deeply emotional and satisfying way that reframes everything that came before it.
The novel is a coming-of-age story centered on the friendship between John Wheelwright and Owen Meany. John narrates the story as a grown man in 1987, looking back on his relationship with Owen from their elementary school days in the late 1940s through young adulthood. It is a character-driven story, and Irving does a masterful job of bringing these two lives to life on the page.
Several mysteries kept me turning pages despite the book’s unhurried pace: Who is John Wheelwright’s father? Why did his mother travel to Boston one day per week for years, and what secret was she hiding? What causes genuine faith in God? Why does Owen have an unshakeable belief that God has a special purpose for his life, and how will he fulfill it? These questions simmer beneath the surface of every chapter.
Owen is highly intelligent and brimming with opinions and confidence, yet he is unusually short and speaks in a strange, high-pitched voice that one character describes as a perpetual scream. John is normal-sized and intelligent, but as a child he is convinced he is stupid; he struggles with reading in a way that suggests an undiagnosed learning disability. Despite their differences, the pair is inseparable, and their devotion to each other is the emotional backbone of the novel. Irving renders their friendship with warmth, humor, and authenticity.
This book was not always easy to get through. Very little propels the plot forward in a conventional sense. There is no single driving goal the characters are pursuing. Events accumulate rather than escalate. If you are accustomed to plot-driven fiction, as I am, you may find yourself wondering where it’s all going. Stay with it. The book also contains strong language, including frequent use of the F-word, but it is not a vulgar story. In fact, at its heart, it is a profound affirmation of faith, an argument, told through friendship and loss and grace, that God is lovingly present in every detail of life.
At over 600 pages, A Prayer for Owen Meany is a commitment. But when you reach that final chapter and everything clicks into place, you may find yourself returning to this book again and again. I highly recommend it. You can find it here.