Brief Synopsis

“The novel, set in the 1950s in the prep school town of Gravesend, is an extraordinary account of friendship, coming of age, families, “normalcy,” politics, faith, and doubt. The title character is an unusually small child–as an adult barely five feet tall–with a strange and striking voice that makes many people uneasy.

The only son of a New Hampshire granite quarrier and his odd and reclusive wife, Owen is best friends with Johnny Wheelwright, the narrator of the book and grandson of one of the town’s most distinguished families. The friendship is sealed by a freak accident when Owen hits a baseball that kills Johnny’s mother, Tabitha, who is just arriving at the game.

The remainder of the novel is a back-and-forth between past and present as Johnny searches for his identity–his mother is unmarried and never reveals the father’s name–and Owen searches for his destiny–he believes that he is an instrument of God. Both searches have amazing resolutions.”

Synopsis retrieved from:

http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1736

Introduction to the Blog

Welcome to my blog! As you already know from the title of the page, this blog is dedicated to those reading and studying John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989). The purpose of this blog is to support the reading comprehension of students as they move through the novel. I decided to focus on this particular novel because it was one of the more enjoyable and influential pieces of literature that I myself read as a high school student several years ago.  A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel of great merit due to its intricate plot, impressive use of literary elements and techniques, and development of memorable characters that will continue to resonate with readers even after they have finished the book. The novel itself was extremely successful, achieving the rank of number one of the international bestseller list after its release.  As quoted by Stephen King on the novel’s cover, “Extraordinary, so original, and so enriching… A rare creation in the somehow exhausted work of late 20th century fiction… Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world.”

With few exceptions, the information presented in this blog is taken from my personal notes and writings about the novel.

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