A Prayer for Owen Meany | Literary Criticism & Book Review

A Prayer for Owen Meany Critical Overview

Critical reaction to A Prayer for Owen Meany was decidedly mixed. R. Z. Sheppard's assessment in Time was almost entirely positive. Describing the novel as "a fable of political predestination," he commented that Irving "delivers a boisterous cast, a spirited story line and a quality of prose that is frequently underestimated, even by his admirers." On the other hand, Peter S. Prescott in Newsweek expressed a strong dislike for the novel, deriding its hero's "prep-school capers and comments on American foreign policy" and advising any potential reader to "run while you can." Prescott complained that "this grossly long book lacks charm precisely because it works so hard to be sweet."

William Pritchard, in a generally positive review in the New Republic, picked out Irving's quality of readability as a virtue, arguing that "the best and funniest things in the new novel are its superbly narrated sequences of...
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