I don’t know what to think, especially since Irving has lived in Toronto,and the subject must have come up in Canadian circles. It is curious that the parallels between the two books are not more widely discussed; the Wikipedia article, for example, cites other influences for Owen Meany but not that one. Clearly there has been no scandal. Since Irving’s book was published long before Davies’ death, it seems logical to infer that the borrowing was benign, perhaps homage or perhaps in a “watch me do this!” vein that seems consistent with Irving’s literary acrobatics and might not have been at all disturbing to Davies. I found in some brief online research that Irving listed _The Fifth Business_ among his top ten books. There may be some information that we do not know about a connection between the two authors.

Stoppard’s debt to Shakespeare is to my mind quite different even if Irving’s borrowing is to be considered benign. Like Leonard Bernstein with _West Side Story_, and Jane Smiley with _A Thousand Acres_, Stoppard is using material that is so entirely well known as to be instantly recognizable. The potential problem with the Irving/Davies thing is that Davies’ book is not known by absolutely everybody the way Shakespeare’s plays are. To students who are trying to figure out where the line between legitimate use and plagiarism lies, one might say simply that if half the world would catch your reference, it’s not plagiarism; it’s allusion.

I’ve never heard of Manticore or World of Wonders being taught probably because you’d need the prologue that is Fifth Business.

Elswhere — “I just put it down to being on a John Irving kick” — ha ha! Actually, that would be an interesting topic for a blog post, or maybe a meme: authors that, when you’ve read one, you’ve read ‘em all. And congrats on the upcoming move!