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''A Prayer for Owen Meany'' was the seventh novel by American writer John Irving. Published in 1989, it tells the story of John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany growing up together in a small New Hampshire town during the 1950s and 1960s. According to John's narration, Owen is a remarkable boy in many ways; he believes himself to be God's instrument and sets out to fulfill the fate he has prophesied for himself. The novel is also a homage to Günter Grass' most famous novel, ''The Tin Drum''. Grass was a great influence for John Irving, as well as a close friend. The main characters of both novels, Owen Meany and Oskar Matzerath, share the same initials as well as some other characteristics, and their stories show some parallels.〔More precisely, the main character of ''The Tin Drum'', Oskar Matzerath, appears split into Owen Meany and John Wheelwright in Irving's book. Many parallels between the characters Owen/John and Oscar are listed on (this German website ), the most obvious being * Body size * "Broken" voice * Both display supernatural powers (Oskar by his own choice stops growing at the age of 3/Owen foresees his future) * Absence of father (Oskar and John) * Both work as stonemasons producing gravestones * Oskar compares himself to Jesus, Owen impersonates him * Oskar and Owen are improbably intelligent and articulate, even as children * A war is central to both stories * Both stories are told in retrospection as well as in present tense * Oskar prevents an execution by drumming (which he trained all his life); Owen prevents the killing of Vietnamese children by applying a basketball shot (which he trained all his life) 〕 Irving has confirmed the similarities.〔See e.g., Irving's NYT article (''A Soldier Once'' ) about Grass' autobiography ''Peeling the Onion'', 8th July 2007.〕 ''A Prayer for Owen Meany'', however, follows an independent and separate plot. ==Plot summary== The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and taken on Canadian citizenship. The story is narrated in two interwoven time frames. The first time frame is the perspective of John in the present day (1987). The second time frame is John's memories of the past: growing up in New Hampshire in the 1950s and 1960s alongside his best friend, Owen Meany. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Prayer for Owen Meany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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