![Willem Gerrish '22 portrait](/sites/default/files/styles/reduced_original/public/media-images/willem-gerrish-2022-selection.jpg?itok=sZ5x3mju)
John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Selected by Willem Gerrish '22
Selected by Willem Gerrish '22
I was raised in coastal New Hampshire, about 20 minutes from the town of Exeter that inspired Gravesend, the main setting for A Prayer for Owen Meany. When I first read Irving’s novel, I felt like I was reading a fictionalization of my own childhood, albeit about a half century before mine. His encapsulation of the mysteries and idiosyncrasies of a small New Hampshire town is a near-perfect realization of the people and places that mean the most to me, and for that and many other reasons it has always held a special place in my heart.
![Willem Gerrish '22 portrait](/sites/default/files/styles/large_landscape/public/media-images/willem-gerrish-2022-portrait.jpg?itok=gEbz84Qv)
Willem Gerrish '22