I think I could have enjoyed this book but the author chose to put all of "Owen's" words in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and it is REALLY ANNOYING TO TRY AND READ A BOOK WITH FREQUENT CAPITALIZATION. I understand why he chose this technique but I think it was unnecessary and ultimately unsatisfying. I gave up on it pretty early on. ( )

Of all the John Irving I've read this one is still my favorite and holds a place on my top ten list. ( )

This is the ninth book I've read by Irving. It opened a whole side of him which has long been there but this was my first encounter with it. I should have known that a book whose title begins with "A prayer" would have a lot to do with religion, faith and doubt. I was prepared for the usual Irving trappings, New England, New Hampshire, boarding schools, small person, disfigurement, missing limbs, amputation, sex, death, sports, coming of age, missing fathers, single parents, Germans, protests, acting out, literature, actors, professors, teachers, abortions, grandparents etc. What was missing Iowa and wrestling.

The two central characters are lifelong friends. One, Owen Meany, is extremely short and always screaming, he has no other voice. A unique feature of this book is every word Owen utters is written in all capital letters or as they called it, MONUMENT CASE. This was appropriate as Owen's family owned a granite business which produced monuments for Cemetaries. The friendship is challenged when Owen is pitch hitting in a losing little league game where the coach wants to get it over with and tells Owen for the first time ever to swing away. Owen eventually does and hits a line drive foul just outside the third base line only to hit John's mother's in the head instantly killing her. John's mother is one of the few people who loved Owen. Owen is beside himself with remorse. This is where we begin to see religion enter the story. Owen is convinced he's God's instrument but this tragic event makes him question his faith. John on the other hand just considers this a tragic accident and he, like everyone else, doubt that God has a special purpose for Owen.

Owen says that God speaks to him in visions while he sleeps and this is how he knows what he does is God's will. John pushes back telling Owen these are probably dreams or nightmares. At one point Owen tells John he is going to die a hero saving children and even knows exactly when he's going to die, but will not tell John what the date is. Unbeknownst to John Owen actually discusses these visions with the local ministers and even a priest. While Owen has a heart of gold he has little tolerance for authorities especially those who claim to speak for God. While both a stand out student and being extremely powerful for such a small person, due to his working in his father's granite business, Owen is continually getting in trouble, especially for speaking out. Because he knows he will die a hero he volunteers to go to Vietnam but because of his size and his experience in the mortuary business the Army has other plans for him and assigns has him to stay stateside and console the families of soldiers that did not come home alive.

It may seem like I'm giving away the plot. I felt there was no need to say spoiler alert when discussing a book that was published twenty years ago. Let me assure you there are many subplots which I have not even touched upon, such as how Owen helps John's search for his real father, how John learns faith, how girls react to Owen, what slam ducking in under three seconds has anything to do with all this, what John does with life after Owen, what do boarding schools have to do with this, how do cousins enter the picture, who is Hester the Molester, how do the wars and events of the sixties, seventies and eighties impact everyone, and then there's more to John's mother than just a pretty face, etc. Read the book to fill in those stories.

Irving knows his bible. The book is laced with quotations often with book and verse and debated rather than just quoted. There's a tension between various forms of Christianity such as Protestant sects and the Catholic church. The role of ministers and priests is explored, especially how they live and interact with their congregations. How kids experience a nativity play is revisited several times. Perhaps the most important religious theme is the exploration of faith and doubt. Irving wrestles with this and in many ways it's central to the entire book.

On the more academic side, this book is an homage to Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. I've yet to read The Tin Drum but have heard about it for fifty years and it's now next on my reading list. There are some parallels that quickly jump to mind. A very short central character who constantly screams, it's his only voice. A society indelibly marked by failed wars, Germany in WWII and the U.S. in Vietnam, especially failed political leadership. More subtle are the initials of the main character, O.M. for Oskar Morgenstern. I'm sure this list will grow longer once I actually read The Tin Drum.

And then there's the movie. At first I was under the impression that this was never made in to a movie. That made sense to me as I could see how difficult it would be to turn in to a movie. After checking Wikipedia I learned that it had been made into a movie only its title is Simon Burch. Turns out that Irving insisted they change the title and all the character names, even the name of town. I can see why he wanted to disassociate his work from the much inferior movie. Yes movies usually leave out a lot of the book. In this case that included, screaming, boarding school, all anti-war material, the marriage, changed who John's real father is, how he learned about him, and what he did after learning the truth. The movie comes across as smarmy. The book does not. The movie does have some interesting casting including Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn, and even Jim Carey as the adult version of John. Pass on the movie, stick with the book. ( )

"Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you—and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you."

"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."

"She possessed the nonspecific clumsiness of someone who makes such a constant effort to be inconspicuous that she is creatively awkward—without meaning to, Germaine hoarded attention to herself; her almost electric nervousness disturbed the atmosphere surrounding her." ( )

So hard to categorize or describe this book; it's like nothing else. Owen is, for sure, an unforgettable character; but in a quieter way, so is every other character in the book. Indelible scenes. Not everyone will enjoy the quirkiness of the book, but on my bookshelves, it is a gem and a classic. ( )