A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
List Price: $14.95
Pages: 543
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0345417976
Publisher: Ballantine
Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God’s instrument. He is.
This is John Irving’s most comic novel; yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving’s most heartbreaking character.
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1. Though he's portrayed as an instrument of God, Owen Meany causes the
death of John's mother. What other deaths was Owen indirectly involved
with? Do you find Owen's close relationship with death to support or undermine
his miraculous purpose?
2. Owen speaks and writes
in capital letters, emphasizing the potency of his strange voice. At the
academy, he is even referred to as the Voice. Why is Owen's voice so important?
What other occasions can you think of in which Owen's voice played an
especially mean-ingful role?
3. Reverend Merrill always
speaks of faith in tandem with doubt. Do you believe that one can exist
without the other or that one strengthens the other? Was your opinion
about Merrill's views on faith and doubt affected by the revelation of
his relationship to John Wheelwright?
4. Merrill experiences a bogus
miracle and resurgence of faith when John stages his mother's dressmaker
dummy outside the church. Later, John's involvement in Owen's rescue of
the Vietnamese chil-dren spurs John's own faith: "I am a Christian because
of Owen Meany," he says. Do you think the genuineness of Owen's miracle
makes the birth of John's faith more valid than the faith engendered by
Merrill's bogus miracle?
5. The Meanys claim that,
like Jesus, Owen was the product of a vir-gin birth. Owen dislikes the
Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the
Meanys leave the Christmas Pageant. Name other instances when Owen's feelings
toward his family seem conflicted. Do you think Owen ever considers himself
Christlike?
6. An observer necessary to
the Christmas Pageant but seldom an ac-tive participant, John plays Joseph
to Owen's baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just
a Joseph." Do you see John's role as Joseph-like throughout the story?
Are there other biblical characters with whom you identify John?
7. Did Irving's references
to the armless Indian and the pawless armadillo prepare you for Owen's
sacrifice? What other clues did Irving give about Owen's final heroic
scene?
8. Throughout the novel, John
gives hints to the forthcoming action, adding, "As you shall see." Did
you find this to be an effective way to keep you reading and engaged in
the story?
9. Owen Meany taught John
that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific,
from the particular to the whole and back again." Do you think Irving
followed his own recipe for a good book? Supply examples in support of
your position.
10. Given John's dislike of
Gravesend Academy, which expelled Owen, did you find it interesting that
John later taught at an academy in Toronto? In what other ways does John,
as an adult, embrace issues or events that he was indifferent or hostile
to as an adolescent?
11. John assists Owen in rescuing
the children, but John always plays the supporting part in Owen's adventures.
Based on the scenes in Toronto in the 1980s, do you think John ever escaped
his support-ing role? How do you think John's retained virginity reflects
on his sense of self?
12. Did your feelings about
the U.S. involvement in Vietnam change after reading Irving's portrayal
of the peace movement, the draft dodgers, and Owen's involvement in the
army? Were you surprised by Owen's efforts to get to Vietnam?
13. John's reactions to and
obsession with the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s reflect his position
as neither a true Canadian nor a true American. Do you think that non-Americans
have a clearer vision of the machinations and deceptions within American
politics? What did John's focus on American politics tell you about his
adult character?
14. Irving frequently foreshadows
tragedy; for example, hailstones hit John's mother on the head during
her wedding day, providing a glimpse of her later death by a baseball.
What other events does Irving foreshadow?
15. Several reviews call A
Prayer for Owen Meany "Dickensian," and Irving himself incorporates scenes
from Dickens in the story. In what ways does Irving's writing remind you
of Dickens's? What other writers would you compare Irving to?
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"Extraordinary, so original, and so enriching . . . A rare creation in the somehow exhausted world of late 20th century fiction . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world."—Stephen King, The Washington
Post Book World
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating, and darkly comic . . . Dickensian in scope . . . Quite stunning and very ambitious."—Los Angeles Times Book Review
