A Prayer for Owen Meany

Overview

Owen Meany, a latter-day prophet and Christ-like figure dies a martyr after having inspired true Christian belief in the narrator, Johnny Wheelwright. The boys grow up close friends in a small New Hampshire town, where Owen's loutish parents own a quarry and where the fatherless Johnny, whose beloved mother never reveals the secret of his paternity, becomes an orphan at age 11 when a foul ball hit by Owen in a Little League game strikes his mother on the head, killing her instantly. The tragedy notwithstanding, Owen and Johnny cleave to a friendship sealed when Owen uses desperate means to keep Johnny from going to Vietnam, and brought to its apotheosis when Johnny is present at the death Owen has seen prefigured in a vision.

Details

Publisher

Ballantine Books

Published

1997

Pages

543

Language

EN

Categories

Fiction / Sagas, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / War & Military, Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Places / United States

ISBN-13

9780345417978