On Reading John Irvings's "A Prayer For Owen Meaney"

I started reading John Irving's books a long time ago. I was deLighted by the way his plots tie up - no loose end left untied when the story closes. The first I read was 'Hotel New Hampshire', a strange, rambling story about a strange rambling family. Loving that, I followed it with 'The World according to Garp', and that began my desire to read them all. And I have. As a new book comes out I buy it (in paperback - I'm not made of money!) and find myself some selected time to read it. Not all are great, but each is a joy to read.

'A Prayer for Owen Meaney' is, for me, the excellent one. I guess that, before I dive into explaining why, I should probably construe my context, since this book is about Faith in God and predestination. I am an atheist, confirmed and convinced. I do not recognise the need for religion, nor the existence of a suspect for having it. So I am not biased towards the underlying thesis of this book at all.

Owen Meany

The story is of Johnny Wainwright and Owen Meaney, friends from different sides of the tracks. Johnny, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and Owen, the son of a stonemason, whose voice has somehow been damaged and who seems to scream rather than talk, are lifelong friends. We see them grow up together, with Johnny's family using their affect to help Owen, a clever and odd boy, to get a decent education. His scholarship to the private school attended by his friend is supported by the Wainwright family, his uniform purchased and converyance arranged, so he can go to school with John.

On Reading John Irvings's "A Prayer For Owen Meaney"

The story is also about John's mother and how Owen brings about her death in a freak accident, and their subsequent search to try to identify and track down John's father, whom his mother never named. It is funny and touching and very much tied to the America of the Fifties and Sixties. It is a lovely comprehension into small town New England society, and into ordinary people's reaction to the Vietnam War.

Some of the comedy is contributed by the way in which John's extended family react to Owen - and some of the tragedy. John's cousins live out in the country and on a visit to their home Owen is subjected to ludicrous bullying by the cousins - though he if often bullied, being Miniature and odd. His association with Hester as an adult is of such pathos that, even as it makes me laugh, it makes me weep.

Irving is, as I have mentioned, a plotter supreme. Nothing here does not link with something else. No line, no paragraph can be missed or skipped over, because if it is you will lose something absolutely important. Throughout the story the two boys, and then later, the two young men effect a ritual of playing basketball - well, not the whole game, just the two of them, with John boosting Owen, who has never grown tall, so he can score basket upon basket in quick succession. They time themselves, and the book comes back to the action again and again. And you wonder why at the time.

Owen believes that he has been born for a Purpose, and his mother claims that he was the effect of a virgin birth. His religious beliefs make him determined that he knows the time and date of his own death, and that he will not make old bones. Before he leaves to serve in the army while the Vietnam War he makes determined that Johnny will not be able to go. How this happens I will not uncover, but suffice it to say, his father's profession is the key to it.

And he does die young, having fulfilled his Purpose. This death leads John, who is the 'I' in this first man novel, to remain a Christian throughout his life, even after he has fled his native United States and become a Canadian. He claims at the starting of the novel that the suspect he is a practising Christian is because of Own Meaney's life, and then demonstrates why.

The book is full of Miniature cameos of habitancy who come into their lives, and is particularly loving about John's mother and her husband (a trainer of Owen and John, but not John's father). The strange workings of New England community are looked at and laughed at and John's grandmother in single is a lovely portrait of upper class North American society. We are made to laugh at the rivalries between small town preachers, and non-denominational church groups, and their stupidity and false pride.

And there is the armadillo and the football cards. But if you want to know about them you will need to buy the book. It is filled with beautifully-drawn characters, humour, pathos, sex - yes, there's some of that too. It laughs at and with the kinds of habitancy who lived in New England long before the arrival of the Internet, though it is very funny about Johnny's grandmother's penchant for television and her love of and devotion to her servant.

I heartily propose this book to anyone. I have lent it to teenagers, colleagues, family and friends. Actually, I don't know where it is at the moment. It is my second copy. I may have to buy a third.

On Reading John Irvings's "A Prayer For Owen Meaney"

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Literary Talent - John Irving - Author Biographies

It has been said that John Irving often uses the literary technique of a story within a story and he uses it masterfully. A few his novels have a character who is a writer. John Irving is thought about one of the best novelists in contemporary literature. He is a devotee storyteller and comic genius of our age.

John Irving was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr., on March 2, 1942, in Exeter, New Hampshire. His father was serving as an airman stationed in the Pacific. John never did meet his father.

Owen Meany

John's parents were divorced when he was only two years old. When his mother married Colin Irving in 1948, Colin adopted John. His mother changed his name to John Winslow Irving. Winslow was her maiden name.

Literary Talent - John Irving - Author Biographies

John lived with his grandmother, in a large old house, until he was six years old when his mother remarried. When he was growing up, he was a moody and aloof child and that house provided many places where he could get off by himself. He said that no adult would talk to him about his father. So, in his mind, he demonized his father.

John says that it was when he was approximately 40 years old and in the process of a disunion from his first wife, that his mother gave him a packet of letters that his father had written in 1943. This is when he found out that his dad had wanted taste with him. By this time his father had already died.

John had his first novel, 'Setting Free the Bees,' published when he was only 26 years old. In 1972, after his second novel was published, he was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the University of Iowa. While there John received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It was in 1976 that John Moved to Massachusetts to come to be Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. He served as Writer-in-Residence at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

It wasn't until 1978, when 'The World agreeing to Garp,' was published, that John Irving was catapulted onto the 'Best Seller' realm. All his books since then have been best sellers. His later works have been compared to the work of Charles Dickens.

John had been active in wrestling while he was growing up and in college. In the 1980s, he coached wresting at prep schools all while he prolonged his writing.

In 1999, John wrote the screenplay for his novel, 'Cider House Rules,' and finally won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Since then he has prolonged to adapt his works into request for retrial pictures.

John is known for is strong opinions and is anti censorship. John says, "If you feel so strongly about what's on television, don't have one. If you feel so strongly about citizen having abortions, don't have one. But, we are a country that likes to be punitive. We want to restrict. It is a kind of religious fervor run amok."

In 1987, John Irving John married his literary agent, Janet Turnbull. They live in Toronto and Southern Vermont. John has two sons.

Books by John Irving:

Novels:
Setting Free the Bees (1968)
The Water-Method Man (1972)
The 154-Pound Marriage (1974)
The World agreeing to Garp (1974)
The Hotel New Hampshire (1981)
The Cider House Rules (1985)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1988)
A Son of the Circus (1994)
A Widow for One Year (1998)
The Fourth Hand (2001)
Until I Find You (2005)
Last Night in Twisted River (2009)

Omnibus:
3 by Irving (1980)
Three faultless Novels (1995)

Collections:
Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (1993)

Picture Books:
A Sound Like person Trying Not to Make a Sound (2004)

Non Fiction:
The Imaginary Girlfriend: A Memoir (1996)
My Movie Business: A Memoir (1999)

Literary Talent - John Irving - Author Biographies

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