I owe the faith I have in myself to Owen Meany, my childhood friend...
Remembering him every day is a way to survive in the face of adversity. Lifelong hermit John Wheelwright recites a colourful litany for the schoolmate who was his mentor in his calf years, a model of uncommon virtue and, above all, an inseparable partner, so many times interfering with his story and the events in his native Gravesend. Judge for yourself what tremendous things the undersized messiah Owen Meany did in a staid New England small town in the 1950s. Although it squeaks scarily and is promoted in written debates in capital letters, it is not worth overhearing. Not only does he say what hypocritical America will not dare to say for a long time, but above all he asks not what the country can do for him, but what he can do for it...
A thoroughly modern yet haunting parallel to the martyred life and legacy of Jesus Christ stands at the pinnacle of John Irving's work. With a joy of storytelling whose vividness is not unlike that of the beloved Dickens, the author depicts a friendship beyond the grave. No one is an island, we have to stick together and in an era of hypocrites, only believe in what makes sense. In the "sweet" 60s, whose ideas were killed off by the Vietnam War, this will be shown in full nakedness.
