Irving described his writing process by saying, 'I have the last chapters in my mind before I see the first chapters.I usually begin with endings, a sense of aftermath, of dust settling, of epilogue. This repetition also serves to place emphasis on certain key events and ideas. Irving gave two possible explanations for this, writing about the 'order' this brings to a plot, instead of it being 'chaotic and corny'. The author and editor Debra Shostak noticed Irving's 'repetitive plot', visible throughout several of his novels. John Irving uses a unique style when writing A Prayer for Owen Meany. 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. The first time frame is the perspective of John in the present day (1987).

The story is narrated in two interwoven time frames. 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 and taken on Canadian citizenship. A Prayer for Owen Meany, however, follows an independent and separate plot. 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. Grass was a great influence for John Irving, as well as a close friend. The novel is also an homage to Günter Grass's most famous novel, The Tin Drum. 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. 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. A Prayer for Owen Meany is the seventh novel by American writer John Irving.

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