Books: What I'm Reading

I just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. While talking with a friend of mine about books, he suggested I read this. "It could change your life," he said. Getting to know him better, I have a feeling it changed his. It is a rather long book, but hardly a difficult or laborious read. I had a hard time putting it down. John Irving is a great story teller. That is something that I really admire in a good writer, and I wish I had more of a talent for it. I connected to the book, its characters and themes, and remained so to the end.

I think the book is ultimately about faith and purpose. It is also a commentary on war and social mores, the pollution of the American Dream, the abuse of power by government. You know, nothing at all remotely relevant today (ha!). But all this takes a back seat to an engaging story about unlikely miracles, faith and doubt, perseverance, and friendship, with one of the strangest, most memorable characters in fiction at the fore. Most people have heard the general plot: two young boys growing up together in small-town New England; Owen, the small, physically underdeveloped (and mentally overdeveloped) one with a strange voice; John, the other boy and narrarator; a little league game where Owen (who has never made contact with the ball before) finally hits a fly ball that strikes and kills his best friend's mother; Owen's declaration that he is God's instrument, which later seems by all accounts to be confirmed in a horrifying and miraculous, yet poignant, way. (Yes, it's the watered-down plot of the film Simon Birch, which I didn't care for, but Irving distanced himself from the movie and made the screenplay writers change all the characters' names. The book is really quite different.)

A Prayer for Owen Meany has been called a "brave book" by Stephen King, and rightly so. It asks hard questions and attacks our complacency and apathy. It says doubt is okay, but faith is better. It is also a very moving story with a message that should resonate with all of us. My friend later told me that the book was so powerful for him because it reminded him that our lives have purpose; that nothing happens that is meaningless, even things we could never imagine having any reason to them; that we truly are God's instruments.