A Prayer for Owen Meany

The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto and taken on Canadian citizenship.

The story is narrated in two interwoven time frames. The first-time frame is the perspective of John in the present day (1987). The second time frame is John's memories of the past: growing up in New Hampshire in the 1950s and 1960s alongside his best friend, Owen Meany.

John Irving uses a unique style when writing A Prayer for Owen Meany. The author and editor Debra Shostak noticed Irving's "repetitive plot", visible throughout several of his novels.[3] Irving gave two possible explanations for this, writing about the "order" this brings to a plot, instead of it being "chaotic and corny". This repetition also serves to place emphasis on certain key events and ideas. Irving described his writing process by saying, "I have the last chapters in my mind before I see the first chapters...I usually begin with endings, a sense of aftermath, of dust settling, of epilogue. I love plot, and how can you plot a novel if you don't know the ending first?"[3] Bernstein also notes that Irving "strives for big novels in the 19th-century manner-eventful, heavily peopled stories of the sort...that you don't see much anymore."[4] Another hallmark of the novel's style is that Irving writes Owen's dialogue in all-capital letters.[5]

Following motifs of faith, religion, war and friendship, John Irving discussed the backstory of A Prayer for Owen Meany before an assembly of drama students at Yale University.[6] Irving revealed the "effects of the morbid Vietnam generation" on the plot of his novel. He tried to communicate, "a victim of the war, but not the victim you see coming from Vietnam."[6] He also mentioned a small boy from his New Hampshire hometown, a boy named Russell, who inspired the character, Owen Meany. This protagonist with a "rock-dust falsetto" became the kid from the granite quarry who later dies in the Vietnam War.[6] Critics also mentioned the similarities in plot between Irving's novels. Shostak recalled repetitive New Hampshire-based stories involving themes such as faith and determination.[3] Irving has also added that his "accumulated churchgoing" has influenced his writing process.[4]

John Irving's mother, Frances Winslow, was not married at the time of his conception. Irving never met his biological father. As a child, he was told nothing about his father, and he told his mother that unless she gave him some information about his biological father, in his writing he would invent the father and the circumstances of how she got pregnant. Winslow would reply, "Go ahead, dear." This theme was also used in The World According to Garp.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was published by William Morrow and Company in March 1989. Garp Enterprises owns this copyright.[7] Morrow released an e-book edition on March 13, 2012.[8]

A Prayer for Owen Meany has been both widely praised and criticized. Alfred Kazin described John Wheelwright as a "conscious and unapologetic wimp" and referred to Owen Meany as a "little squirt".[9] However, J. Denny Weaver commented on Owen's "heroic death", and remarked on the book's continuing theme that life is miraculous.[10] Overall, critics found the novel to be a different but successful addition to Irving's works. The book was on the New York Times Bestseller List.[11]

According to publisher Simon & Schuster, A Prayer for Owen Meany is Irving's "all-time bestselling novel, in every language".[12]

Novelist Frederick Buechner, a former teacher of Irving at the Phillips Exeter Academy whom Irving quoted in an epigraph to A Prayer for Owen Meany, called it simply "a really good book".[13]

In 1997, Book-It Repertory Theatre of Seattle, created a narrative-style theatrical adaptation of the novel's fourth chapter, "The Little Lord Jesus". The adaptation is titled "Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant" and has been produced seven times.[14]

The 1998 feature-length film Simon Birch, written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, was loosely based on the novel. The film starred Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt and Jim Carrey. It omitted much of the latter half of the novel and altered the ending. The movie does not share the same title as the book or the character names at Irving's request; he felt that it would "mislead the novel's readers to see a film of that same title which was so different from the book."[15]

In 2002, the Royal National Theatre staged Simon Bent's adaptation A Prayer for Owen Meany: On Faith starring Aidan McArdle as the title character and Richard Hope as John Wheelwright.[16]

In 2009, the BBC aired Linda Marshall Griffiths' adaptation of A Prayer for Owen Meany starring Henry Goodman, Toby Jones, Charlotte Emmerson and Max Baldry as a five-part Afternoon Play on BBC Radio Four.[17]

In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of A Prayer for Owen Meany, narrated by Joe Barrett, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.

There have also been numerous theatrical adaptations, including Yale University's Dramatic Association's Freshman Show.[4][6]

California punk rock band Lagwagon's song "Owen Meaney" from their 1998 album Let's Talk About Feelings is based on the book.

The band Jimmy Eat World based the song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" from their 1999 album Clarity on the book.

In the movie Milk Money, the school is named Owen Meany Jr. High School.

Former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson has passed out this book to his team in the past as part of his ritual of assigning readings to players.[18]

• A Prayer for Owen Meany on Google Books
• John Irving's official website
• Wolfe, Graham. "'Theatrical Extraineity': John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany and Dickensian Theatre-Fiction": https://www.academia.edu/36335039/_Theatrical_Extraneity_John_Irvings_A_Prayer_for_Owen_Meany_and_Dickensian_Theatre-Fiction._