I am glad I ‘knew’ Owen Meany, glad I followed him and stepped into his vision of palm trees.John Irving is a master of the messed-up. Who was Owen Meany? How does one navigate through the hypocrisy of life? How does life go on when all seems lost … There are no answers, only questions and a lingering sense of loss. Gulping enormous portions in my agony as I came to realise the essence of Irving’s tale and message. She remains with her finger on that pulse throughout the text, appearing towards it end as Hester the Molester, a famous rock singer. She is the signifier of the age, her finger on the national and cultural pulse of the peace movement, the swing of the anti-Vietnam War swell, and the music and passion that accompanied it. In fact, Hester becomes a remarkable character in this text, despite the relatively minor role that she is assigned. We caught glimpses of the nature of their love, but it was constantly left in the background. But so much of this relationship was hidden, unknowable for readers.

I was quite taken by Owen’s relationship with Hester and intrigued by the strength of their connection and the depth of feeling which went along with that bond. He is somehow all-knowing and omniscient, despite the fact that he is not in fact the narrator of this tale. Owen is the strength of his book, he is “a great and luminous character”,ĭefinitely the hero of this tale, possessed with infinite wisdom and conviction. I found myself torn between my desperate desire to know Owen Meany more, to read the unfolding of his narrative, and my general irritation with John Wheelwright and his overall lack of commitment to … well … to anything. I am not sure what exactly changed at the approximate-300 page mark, either it was that the humour suddenly took hold (the Christmas Pageant was quite hysterical) or it was that Irving began to clarify his questioning of faith and the implications of this questioning. It was frustrating: I loved the writing style, the wit, the satire, empathised with the various intricacies and peculiarities of the various characters, yet the book simply didn’t hold my attention. I confess that it took me about 300 pages to actually start enjoying this book.

A prayer for owen meany review