Owen and Johnny are growing up in a small town in New Hampshire, they are the best of friends. Both boys love Johnny's mother--Owen's parents are basically weird; Johnny's mother dies early on in the story, set upon by a bizarre twist of fate, forcing the boys to give up Little League and drawing them closer together.

  Among Owen's favorite treasures are a dressmaker's dummy and an armadillo, both 'gifts' from Johnny. Owen's claims-to-fame include portraying the Baby Jesus and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come during the course of one Christmas Eve; and being the VOICE on his prep school newspaper. Owen desperately wants to go to Vietnam.

  Johnny is an uninterested student. He does not know who his father is, his mother's only explanation to anyone was that she met a man on the Boston & Maine railroad. Owen helps Johnny look for his father, and teaches Johnny how to be a reader. Owen will do anything to keep Johnny from going to Vietnam.

  The book does not measure up to John Irving's previous novels. Alfred Kazin writing in the N.Y. Times (March 12, 1989), calls the plot simplistic, the book full of too obvious religious symbology, and accuses Irving of aimlessly wandering from one subject to another. What starts out as a very interesting story, is interrupted periodically for the remainder of the book by the author stating his views on Vietnam and Reagan's America. Irving hardly bothers veiling his comments within the context of the story.

  Owen is essentially the victim of a cruel joke played upon him by his ignorant parents, which seals his fate and faith for the rest of the story, and disrupts the lives of the people that care about him. Not unlike Jerry Falwell declaring Oliver North a hero, several characters in this story get in serious trouble because they cannot figure out what, whom, and how much to believe about God, religion, faith, and miracles, and it screws up their lives. Irving writes miracles, angels, ghosts, and visions into this story, it is up to the reader and the characters in this story to believe in them or to pass them off as mere coincidence.

  Johnny wonders near the end of the story if Owen is doubting the reality of his life's purpose--their conversation centers on events they shared in childhood--"Maybe nothing's going to happen," Owen says to Johnny. An obvious reference to Christ before his crucifixion? Irving wrote all of Owen's dialogue in ALL CAPS; many bibles are printed in red-letter editions. Throughout the story Owen abuses a stone statue of Mary Magdalene, he calls the goalie, that guards the playground of a parochial school; Owen's parents hate the Catholics.

  Johnny winds up in Canada teaching English to girls at a church school. He complains to his adopted father that "wit is one of many aspects of life and literature that is far easier to recognize on stage than in a book." Kazin says Prayer "is already so perfect for the movies." Talking about his students Johnny tells Dan: "the story, the story; it is all they are interested in!...It's always description that they miss .... They want dialogue, they want action." Although this is a conversation between Johnny and Dan, I cannot help but think it is also a suggestion from Irving to the reader. Still, it is this story: Owen Meany, that remains unfocused, that is all over the place, that maybe Irving got lazy writing.

Alan Grover Daniel.