Extremely thought provoking. The life of Owen Meany is difficult due to his short height and a background which doesn’t support or encourage him. However people fall under his spell because he has charisma and great intelligence.
I was compelled to follow the story through thick and thin. There is a lot of American politics which I am now reading up on but the paralells with our current western foreign policies is rather depressing.
This is a magnificent story which had me in tears. Not quite as humorous as Irving’s other stories but very rich in emotions.

Summer, 1953. In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany are playing in a Little League baseball game. When Owen hits a foul ball which kills John’s mother, their lives are changed in an instant.

It is dismissed as a tragic accident but Owen disagrees. He believes that he is God’s instrument, put on Earth for a higher purpose. And as the boys come into adulthood to the background of the Vietnam War, a series of remarkable events show that perhaps Owen’s divine plan was not imagined after all.

Discover the funny yet poignant classic by the bestselling author of The World According to Garp.

‘So extraordinary, so original, and so enriching’ Stephen King, The Washington Post

‘May justly join the classic American list’ Anthony Burgess, Observer

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