A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel [B1756]

1997 PB in nice clean condition. A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick. "A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation. ... An amazingly brave piece of work ... so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." -STEPHEN KING, Washington Post.

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.

In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys-best friends-are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany, one of literary fiction's most unforgettable characters, believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Great re-read after about 30 years! I admire this writer so much based on this one novel; why have I not read other novels by him? I'll try to remedy that this year. Such an incredibly compelling plot! It's Gatsby-esque in that John Wainwright is a 'witness' narrator to the more central character of Owen. I hope this story endures as one of the great late-20th century American novels. Owen is surely one of its great, timeless protagonists."; "I fell In love with Owen Meany! What a great story, what great characters, what suspense! If you read this book, and you should, you'll be halfway through thinking this 5 star review was so off base, but keep reading, because by the end of the novel you'll know it's spot on."; "Absolute cinema in every single way. The kind of book where everything falls into place so slowly but so well and you finish it just sitting there in complete silence."; "It's been over a month and I still think about this book pretty regularly, so I think that alone makes it deserving of 5 stars."