A Prayer for Owen Meany (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: John Irving
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1953-1987
- Setting: Gravesend, New Hampshire, and Toronto, Canada
- Principal Characters: John Wheelwright, Owen Meany, Dan Needham, Tabitha Wheelwright Needham, Harriet Wheelwright, Hester Eastman, Lewis Merrill
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, Teaching or teachers, 1960’s, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Exile or expatriates, Virginity or virgins, 1980’s, New England, New Hampshire, Vietnam War, Single parents or single-parent families, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Faith, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Miracles, Citizenship, Dwarfs
- Locales: Toronto, Canada, Gravesend, NH
Salvation and redemption have long been among John Irving’s central themes, though they are not usually presented in such directly theological terms as in A Prayer for Owen Meany. In his earlier novels, especially The World According to Garp (1978), The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), and The Cider House Rules (1985), the central characters search for meaning in the midst of chaos and absurdity, and find it in human connectedness, represented metaphorically by the family—often, odd families indeed. A Prayer for Owen Meany details the friendship—from...
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