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Description edit
This is John Irving's most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving's most heartbreaking character. John Irving's novel, which inspired the 1998 Jim Carrey movie Simon Birch, is his most popular book in Britain, and perhaps the oddest Christian mystic novel since Flannery O'Connor's work.... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom.
Characters/People edit
- Alfred Eastman: Owner of Eastman Lumber Company and husband of Martha
- Martha Eastman: Homemaker; wife of Alfred
- Hester Eastman: Youngest of three sister; hostile to her parents.Alleged to intimidate brother's girldriends and to be sexuall promiscuous in later life.
- Noah Eastman: Add a description of this character.
- Simon Eastman
- John Wheelwright: An all-American boy, the narrator of our story. He was born the illegitimate son of a small town's privileged and favorite daughter. Despite these less-than-perfect origins, he is a normal and happy boy with few aspirations, who really only stands out because of his best friend, Owen. "Joseph" in a school pageant describes him very well.
- May: Maid in Eastman's house
- Firewater: Dog.
- Owen Meany: Owen is small and has a voice that will never change and never develop. He believes he is God's Instrument and nothing seems to steer the reader from agreeing.
- Tabitha Wheelwright: John's vivacious and beautiful mother. There was speculation by other members of her family that she was slow, but John believed that she was just unusually cheerful, and didn't let hardships in her life slow her down.
- Harriet Wheelwright: John's formidable grandmother. Harriet is a town matriarch, and a very important lady. She is the closest thing to royalty in the town of Gravesend.
- Dan Needham: John's loving stepfather (and later adoptive father), a private high school theater teacher. Dan never treated John as anything but his own son, and is always a champion and great male figure for both John and Owen.
- Hester: John's beautiful tomboyish cousin, a troubled girl with sex appeal and a strong will who causes strange and conflicting feelings in both of the boys.
- Lydia: Harriet's servant who lives with Harriet as a companion after losing the use of her legs. She becomes Harriet's closest friend.
- Lewis Merrill: One of two local pastors, a man of conflicting beliefs who believes that doubt is not the enemy of faith, but the core of it. Leader of the Congregationalist church. Important character in the story.
- Randy White: An arrogant businessman-turned-headmaster who "butts heads" with Owen during his time in high school, and ends up shaping the course of his life.
- Dick: A nihilistic boy whose brother died in Vietnam - he is contemptuous and waiting for the day he can legally kill people by signing up for the army.
- Noah and Simon: Hester's brothers and Johnny's cousins. They are active, competitive boys who torment Hester when younger, giving her the nickname "Hester the Molestor" which later becomes important.
Quotes edit
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“When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time -- the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes -- when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever -- there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.”
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“The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them.”
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“He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.”
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“I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.”
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“As often as I feel certain that God exits, I feel as often at a loss to say what difference it makes – that He exists – or even: that to believe in God, which I do, raises more questions than it presents answers. Thus, when I am feeling my most faithful, I also feel full of a few hard questions that I would like to put to God – I mean, critical questions of the How-Can-He, How-Could-He, How-Dare-You variety.””
Lewis Merrill -
“O God--please give him back! I shall keep asking You.”
John Wheelwright -
“Your boredom is your problem <...> It's your lack of imagination that bores you.”
Owen Meany -
“If you're a victim, the world will use you.”
Owen Meany -
“I'm doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”
John
Setting & Locations edit
- Loveless Lake: Fictional Lake where Eastmans keep a boathouse
- Sawyer Depot: Fictional location in New Hampshire where the Eastmans live
- Gravesend Academy: A private boys school.
- Toronto, Canada
- Gravesend, New Hamphire: Where John Wheelwright and Owen Meany grew up.
First Sentence edit
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
Table of Contents edit
Chapter 1 - The Foul Ball
Chapter 2 - The Armadillo
Chapter 3 - The Angel
Chapter 4 - The Little Lord Jesus
Chapter 5 - The Ghost of the Future
Chapter 6 - The Voice
Chapter 7 - The Dream
Chapter 8 - The Finger
Chapter 9 - The Shot
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Big Fat Books. (community list)
This is book 76 of 98 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Anastasia Krupnik, and followed by Crazy.
This is book 112 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Stone Diaries, and followed by Wide Sargasso Sea.
This is book 196 of 1272 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Like Water for Chocolate, and followed by London Fields.
This is book 44 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
Preceded by One Hundred Years of Solitude, and followed by The Woman in White.
This is book 52 of 96 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Dune, and followed by Perfume.
This is book 28 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Trustee from the Toolroom, and followed by The Stand.
This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Reading Challenge (2011). (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 1 of 49 in Amazon Book Club Picks. (authoritative list)
This is book 28 of 196 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Middlemarch, and followed by The Grapes of Wrath.
Authors & Contributors edit
- John Irving (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: William Morrow
Country: USA
Publication Date: March 1989
ISBN: 0-688-08760-4
Page Count: 640
Publisher: William Morrow
Country: USA
Publication Date: March 1989
ISBN: 0-688-08760-4
Page Count: 640
Awards edit
- BBC's Big Read (April 2003, #28)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3559.R8 P7 1989
- Dewey: 813.54
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsGreat for young adults on up, also younger teens with good reading skills. Some foul language and sexual discussions unsuitable for some people
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
Movie Connections edit
- Simon Birch (IMDb): Loosely based on this novel.
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