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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