![]() ![]() Sweetly moralistic, Wheelwright, who became "a Christian because of Owen Meany," sometimes launches into tirades about Reagan and the Iran/contra fiasco, but mostly he tells Owen's story: Meany, who always writes and speaks in the uppercase, is the real mouthpiece here, though Wheelwright is his Nick Carraway. His best friend, Johnny Wheelwright, is the book's narrator: from Toronto, where he has lived for some 20 odd years, he tells the story of Owen Meany, who has a voice that "comes from God," of his own "Father Hunt"-Wheelwright is the product of his mother's "little fling"-and of growing up in the Sixties, when some people believed in destiny, others in coincidence. ![]() In 1953, Owen Meany-a physically tiny man with a big voice who believes he's God's instrument-kills his best friend's mother with a foul ball. This one-set in New Hampshire in the 50's and 60's-is a little of both, but not enough of either: its tone is finally too self-righteous to be fully convincing as fiction. ![]() Irving's novels, which often begin in autobiographical commonplace, get transformed along the way: sometimes into fairy tale (The Hotel New Hampshire), sometimes into modern-day ironic fable (The World According to Garp). ![]()
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