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Not What You Meant?  There are 30 definitions for Owen.

A Prayer for Owen Meany Study Guide

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by John Irving
About 100 pages (29,998 words)
A Prayer for Owen Meany Summary

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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.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 391 words. This study guide contains 29,998 words (approx. 100 pages at 300 words per page).

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A Prayer for Owen Meany from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.



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