Review Detail

Reader reviewed by HawkeyeRob

If you like books with well-developed characters and sprawling, complex plots, John Irving is the author for you, and A Prayer for Owen Meany is his finest work.

Owen Meany is an undersized kid who believes he was put on earth to do something extraordinary. As the book progresses, John, the narrator, tells of how Owen goes from being the little kid who gets passed around (literally) by his friends in Sunday school to a young man who goes to great lengths to protect his friend and to achieve something greater than his small stature.

The movie Simon Burch was loosely based on this novel, but the plot of the film really only covers the first part of the book. It also did not do Irving's story justice nearly as well as The Cider House Rules, a much better film that was actually written by Irving.