A Prayer for Owen Meany

Critics

• In Garp's footsteps

  John Irving is the author of one of the oddest cult novels ever written. In The World According To Garp (1978), he created a set of half-comic, half-serious characters dispensing a dull New England wisdom. Although it was unlikely to travel, The Worl ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sun, 26 Sep 2010

• A Prayer for Owen Meany By John Irving

  John Irving's seventh novel is dominated by an extraordinary and preposterous hero. A tiny boy from the massive granite quarries of Gravesend, N.H. A prophet with a wrecked voice. A hero who speaks in a perpetual scream of UNIFORM UPPER-CASE LETTERS. ... (read full critics)

  bookpage published on Sun, 12 Sep 2010

8 Reviews

• 

  When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time -the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that a ... (continue)

  When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time -the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes - when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever - there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.

  Questo è un libro fondamentale.

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  ogni osso ha il suo cane said on Feb 19, 2011 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  When I finished listening to this book, I felt like good friends had left after a lengthy visit to my home.

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  Lgpitre said on Jul 6, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• "You can hide from your father, but you can't hide from God."

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  Juls said on May 5, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Let me start by saying I really disliked this book. It's getting 2 stars because my copy has a huge photo of the author on the back cover with his arms crossed and this look on his face that says, "Yeah, I wrote this piece of crap. What are you gonna do about it?" And that's just funny to me and ... (continue)

  Let me start by saying I really disliked this book. It's getting 2 stars because my copy has a huge photo of the author on the back cover with his arms crossed and this look on his face that says, "Yeah, I wrote this piece of crap. What are you gonna do about it?" And that's just funny to me and deserving of the second star :D

  This is a book about a nasty, unlikable set of kids who grow into nasty, unlikable teens and then later nasty, unlikable adults. I really wish they all would have died. I especially wish Owen would have died very early in the book because his dialog WHICH WAS TYPED INTO ALL CAPS EVERY SINGLE FREAKING TIME HE SPOKE was extremely annoying. I guess the author figured he was too lousy of a writer to get the description of Owen's voice across using the English language, so instead he has to scream it in your face the whole time. The reader is supposed to read the descriptions of how Owen speaks and then be able to understand he is kinda screechy. The reader does not need the author to screech it for us the whole time.

  The whole book was also freaking boring. Nothing interesting happened and the characters, despite one of them being quite small, were also not interesting. I kept falling asleep every time I picked up the book.

  I feel like my time was extra wasted because you go through the whole life of the main character, only to have him come out as an absolute obnoxious asshole as an adult. There's no point to the character's journey if you get to the end and really, really wish he had died. Preferably in some horrendous and painful way.

  I also don't get the point of making this mostly real life stuff, and then putting in the fantasy aspects of the virgin birth and the visions of the future, ect. Pick a genre, dude!

  I also thought the ending was really ridiculous to the point of being comical. I feel like the author spit in my face and said, "Oh and by the way, the hokey pokey IS what it's all about."

  Ignore the hype and skip this book.

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  Deanna Kyre said on Mar 5, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This has always been my favorite John Irving novel!

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  Jamie Gemuend767 said on Feb 24, 2009 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  A small quote I liked

  "It's a no-win argument - that business of what we're born with and what our environment does to us. And it's a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth."
  Chapter Two: The Armadillo

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  Dani said on Jul 29, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Others
• ISBN-10: 0886192269
• ISBN-13: 9780886192266
• Publisher: Lester and Orpen Dennys
• Pub date: Jan 01, 1989
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover, School & Library Binding and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Deutsche Bücher, Libri Italiani, Latviešu grāmatas

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