John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Perhaps it's because I read it between my third and fourth
years at university, when I reading a great deal about Christianity and forms
of belief, that this novel was so resonant for me. The plot follows two boys,
John and Owen, from their childhood to their mature lives. John is the
present-day narrator, having left the United States to settle in Toronto. Owen
believes he is an instrument of God, born to enact a divine purpose; while the
story follows this direction, there is much else going on as well. While there
are many familiar Irving-esque themes in the book, there are also some particular
ideas and explorations that raise the book above Irving's earlier absurd and sometimes
simply comic interests.
To be fair, I should also list The Cider House Rules as one of my five-star books, but Owen Meany reaches slightly beyond Cider House for me because of the
character of Owen Meany himself. The
Cider House Rules is a novel about extraordinary circumstances with a cast
of unusual characters. And for that matter, I might list The Hotel New Hampshire, too, although it's not really a five-star
novel despite giving me a long-standing creative motif. For me, A Prayer for Owen Meany is the story of
the formation of an unusual character. If you haven't read this book and love
character-driven narrative, you should really enjoy this novel.
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