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.