Glenn read and liked Sarah's review of A Prayer for Owen Meany:

"I think most people want to believe that their actions are important and have meaning, but only so far as this belief doesn’t make them feel guilty or require real sacrifice. But to truly see the bigger picture… to see yourself as an irreplaceabl...more I think most people want to believe that their actions are important and have meaning, but only so far as this belief doesn’t make them feel guilty or require real sacrifice. But to truly see the bigger picture… to see yourself as an irreplaceable and integral part of a larger network affecting the world is terrifying because then you're personally accountable. And to act within that knowledge and for the true benefit of others requires real courage and faith.

I think Owen Meany does a wonderful job showing how real, actionable faith is a huge responsibility and not always the comfort it’s promised to be. But once you see and understand and appreciate the connections between yourself, your family and friends, and the larger world, how can you not move toward right action? Maybe the sacrifice isn’t always rewarded and the good guys don’t win and nobody notices your work, but the real payoff is knowing that you’re never alone. That those connections will always give you strength. I’m an atheist, so where Owen sees God, I see community and family. But it’s still the same message.(less) "

Glenn read and liked Kerfe's review of A Prayer for Owen Meany:

"The characters and stories in this book linger. It's messy with contradiction. Religion, faith and doubt, politics, war, life and death, truth, sex, family, education, America, the nature of love and friendship, growing up (or not)--all bases are co...more The characters and stories in this book linger. It's messy with contradiction. Religion, faith and doubt, politics, war, life and death, truth, sex, family, education, America, the nature of love and friendship, growing up (or not)--all bases are covered, denied, embraced, refused, embellished and stripped bare.

Moving between the narrator John Wheelwright's present, during the Reagan administration, and his youth in the 50's and 60's in a small New Hampshire town, the central character, Owen Meany, looms as large as the capital letters of his Voice throughout the book. John says at one point that he always remembers Owen as a child, and as a reader, I felt that as well. Even as a teenager and young adult, driving, smoking, working, drinking, living with John's cousin Hester, even after he became an Army officer, even then, he still seemed like a lost, earnest, precocious little boy. His struggles with God and his faith, his fatalistic shaping of not only his own life, but that of the people who intersect it, are acts of both intellectual maturity and a childish belief in magic.

Irving's observations, often puncutated not only by John's cynical words , but by Owen's counterpoint VOICE, about Americans and American politics and religion, have been chillingly repeated with the Bush administration and our involvement in Iraq.

On the Tonkin Gulf Resolution:
"DOES THAT MEAN THE PRESIDENT CAN DECLARE A WAR WITHOUT DECLARING IT?"

On the first American troops arriving in Vietnam:
"THERE'S NO END TO THIS...THERE'S NO GOOD WAY TO END IT."

From John's diary:
May 30, 1987--I should know better than to read even as much as a headline in The New York Times...
Reagan Declares
Firmness on Gulf;
Plans Are Unclear
Isn't that a classic? I don't mean the semicolon; I mean, isn't that just what the world needs? Unclear firmness! That is typical American policy: don't be clear, but be firm!

Mavericks, anyone?

It's not often I find myself laughing out loud while reading on the subway, but the children's Christmas pageant, especially, is not to be missed.

The fantastical way the elements come together to realize Owen's childhood premonitions and Dream leave the reader with the same unanswered questions that John has. What to make of it? A Miracle? Is God the answer? John says yes, yet does not really act on that belief.

Owen once told John that you have to act as though what you do matters, even though you can never be sure--that's what faith is. "YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT."


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Glenn read and liked Tom's review of A Prayer for Owen Meany:

"I'm sure you can read a million reviews about this book. It seems to be many people's favorite. Let me just say that I have read 5 or 6 John Irving books, and this is the only one that is much more than a good story. About 10 years ago I was assistin...more I'm sure you can read a million reviews about this book. It seems to be many people's favorite. Let me just say that I have read 5 or 6 John Irving books, and this is the only one that is much more than a good story. About 10 years ago I was assisting a photography class for adults, and one of the particpants, a minister, saw that I was reading this book. He said that A prayer for Owen Meany had more to say about the nature of God than anything he had ever read. We had a fabulous conversation about the book. I am basically an atheist, without the anti-god feeling that sometimes implies, yet despite our religious differences, we took exactly the same things away from this story. It's a powerful narrative.(less) "