A Prayer for Owen Meany

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A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel by American writer John Irving, first published in 1989.

Plot summary

The novel is told through the eyes of a mature John Wheelwright, an English teacher at a private girls' school in Canada, who elaborates on the events surrounding his close friendship with Owen Meany during the 1950s and 1960s in a small town and at a private boarding school in New England. These, John makes clear, are responsible for his belief in God. Owen is disproportionately short and his voicebox is fixed, so that he always sounds as if he is screaming. Owen's short stature makes him the butt of many jokes and pranks, though his peers do not generally dislike him. Children and adults alike seem drawn to and are almost protective of Owen. Owen is also the recipient of many special privileges, such as getting to play the baby Jesus in a Christmas pageant because he is the only actor who can fit in the crib and not cry.

The novel deals with some serious spiritual issues, such as the importance of faith, matters of social justice, and the concept of fate, in the context of a comically-absurd narrative. Throughout the novel, John and Owen both offer criticisms of organized religion and religious hypocrisy. However, the spiritual dimension is repeatedly emphasized by Owen's foretelling of his own impending death. He is quite certain that he will die because he is an "instrument of God" and thus will serve some good and important purpose. He also believes that he knows the date of his death and that a heroic act on his part will kill him but also save some children. He is a bit unclear, however, about where and how this act will occur.

The narrative is constructed as the interweaving of three different stories of past John, present John, and Owen's life. There is the historical retelling of John's and Owen's childhood; the story of their (and particularly Owen's) adult lives; and the story of John's life after Owen's death. The three streams are brought together at the dénouement - the death of Owen. Owen had always predicted both the manner and the importance of his own death.

The familiar Irving setting (based on his own biography) of a New England private school relates the novel to the frameworks of his other works. However, other familiar Irving themes and settings (e.g. prostitutes, wrestling, Vienna, and sexual relationships between young men and older women) are missing, or mentioned only briefly.

Young Johnny Wheelwright is skeptical of Owen Meany's unquestioned belief in the purpose of all things. He has certain reasons: namely, his mother's premature death (as the result of the impact of a baseball hit by Owen), and his mother's failure ever to disclose his father's identity. John is depicted as being spiritually apathetic as a youth, but the conclusion brings these spiritual pieces of the story together. Since the novel is written retrospectively, much of the novel takes the tone of John's newfound wisdom.

John occasionally withdraws from the past to offer criticisms of the Vietnam War and the Iran-Contra Affair.

The setting is based on Phillips Exeter Academy, in Exeter, New Hampshire. A real-life John Wheelwright was the founder of the town of Exeter in 1638.

Adaptations

The 1998 feature-length film Simon Birch, directed by Mark Steven Johnson, was loosely based on the novel. The film starred Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt and Jim Carrey. It omitted much of the latter half of the novel and altered the ending. The movie does not share the book's title at Irving's request; he did not believe the film was a proper representation of the novel.

In 2002, the Royal National Theatre staged Simon Bent's adaptation A Prayer for Owen Meany: On Faith starring Aiden Mcardle as the title character.

Cultural references

Californian punk rock band Lagwagon based the song "Owen Meaney" from their 1998 album Let's Talk About Feelings on the book.

The band Jimmy Eat World also based the song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" from their 1999 album Clarity on the book.

Danish band Nephew mention Owen Meany in the song "Swimming Time" from their debut album Swimming Time - ("stacking all the books, sampling Owen Meany").

In the movie Milk Money, the elementary school is christened Owen Meany Elementary.

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Last updated on Sunday February 24, 2008 at 23:09:54 PST (GMT -0800)
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