Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Irving, John (Vol. 112) - Wendy Steiner (review date 19 May 1989)

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Wendy Steiner (review date 19 May 1989)

SOURCE; "The American Wholegrain," in Times Literary Supplement, May 19, 1989, p. 535.

[In the following review, Steiner offers a generally unfavorable assessment of A Prayer for Owen Meany.]

Suppose that your best friend accidentally killed your mother with a Little League baseball. Suppose he was a near-midget whose voice never changed and whose parents believed he was the product of a virgin birth. Suppose he saw himself as God's instrument, knew the date of his death from a vision of his gravestone that appeared during a production of A Christmas Carol, and died a hero exactly as a dream of his foretold. Would this be enough to cement your faith in Christianity? John Irving's latest blockbuster, A Prayer for Owen Meany, poses this question. Needless to say, the book puts more than a little strain on the reader's ability to keep a straight face.

A Prayer for Owen Meany...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Jack Beatty (review date 23 September 1981)
   2. Caryn Fuoroli (review date January 1982)
   3. Evan Carton (essay date Fall 1986)
   4. Janice Doane and Devon Hodges (essay date 1986)
   5. Wendy Steiner (review date 19 May 1989)
   6. Robert Towers (review date 20 July 1989)
   7. Edward C. Reilly (essay date 1991)
   8. Kim McKay (essay date Winter 1992)
   9. Raymond J. Wilson III (essay date Fall 1992)
   10. Irving Weinman (review date 9 April 1993)
   11. Robert Towers (review date 4 September 1994)
   12. Sven Birkerts (review date 4 February 1996)
   13. Andrew Rosenheim (review date 4 February 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright