![]() ![]() ![]() Owen believes that he's supposed to die on July 8, 1968, and he is almost certain, based on the dreams he's been having, that John has to be there. He asks John to come meet him in Arizona, telling him that they can have a nice, relaxing vacation together. Owen is in the army, and one of his big duties is to escort the bodies of dead soldiers back to their families. The end of the novel plunks us in sunny, hot Phoenix, Arizona. John hasn't been rambling about just any old thing that popped into his head all this time he was building up to Owen's big moment. The end of the novel takes all of these seemingly unrelated details and events and ties them into a pretty neat little bundle. Why, for instance, does John spend so much time describing how he and Owen practice "The Shot"? (In case you forgot, "The Shot" refers to the way that John assists Owen in making a slam-dunk in basketball by hoisting him up in the air.) Why does John spend the better part of two pages talking about the layout of the airport bathroom? What is it with Owen and nuns – why does he find them so terrifying? Why is Owen so preoccupied with representations of people and animals that don't have arms? We never cease to think of other things that puzzle us. We also puzzled over why some events or activities received so much attention. ![]() ![]() We don't know about you, but when we were reading A Prayer for Owen Meany, we couldn't believe how much attention John, our narrator, pays to every single little detail. ![]()
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