In One Person: A Novel

In One Person by John Irving

Do you ever pick an author just for the distinct pleasure of getting your money's worth in a book? This is exactly how I feel when I read books by my favourite author, John Irving. "In One Person" is rich in detail and filled with an array of characters that makes the story come alive in the reader's mind. There are so many topics brought into focus by the interplay of the events that the main character, Billy Abbott, experiences in the chronology of his life. The story starts with Billy's experience at the all boy's academy, Favourite River Academy. At this point , we are introduced to an array of characters like:

-Billy's mom, who never hesitates to verbalize her disdain for his dad

-Billy's stepdad, who teaches at the academy

-Billy's grandfather, who loves playing female characters in the local plays

-Kittredge-the wrestler and bully

-Elaine-Billy's best friend and confidante

-Elaine's mom, Billy's speech teacher and advisor

-the wonderful Miss Frost, local librarian, who is not what she seems to be.
That is just a partial list of a splendid variety of characters who make the story so compelling. The story also twists and turns constantly. I was very moved by all of the characters and my emotions and opinions were also constantly being challenged. Depicting life from the point of view of someone who is supposedly "different" was eye opening. After reading the book, I had to take the time to really appreciate and consider the reading journey that I had taken. Even though, there were some descriptions that might be considered illicit, they were important in developing understanding for the characters and what they endure in their lives. The central theme dealing with sexuality, was done so well that the reader can only come away from the book with a broader understanding and a much kinder and positive way of looking at people who we deem "different". The book makes me hopeful that people can learn to be more loving and understanding . The description of the aids epidemic in the 80's was heartwrenching. I would definitely re-read this book just so that I can enjoy the great story that it is, but also to think .......what would I do? how would I react?

A really tough read for me, but may not be for everyone else. It is a romp through one mans sexual adventures. Not for the timid or prudish.

This book grabbed me on the first page. The chapters that get inside Billy's head as a child and teenager are sometimes brilliant. His observations of adults often droll. Many characters are engaging. The book is thought provoking about what forms sexual identity and whether it is mutable, not to mention the degree to which society defines an individual by real or perceived orientation(s). Given the recent Supreme Court arguments on DOMA and California's Prop 8, it is timely.

But...... The introduction of some characters seems extraneous other than to wrap up a somewhat messy plot. Loose ends are wrapped up in tidy and sometimes unlikely ways. Major characters vanish and reappear almost randomly, as if there is a checklist to be sure each one is followed to the end (theirs or the story's).

I can't say that I am sorry I stuck with it to the end, but can't help thinking that my time could have been better spent on another book.

As always, John Irving is amazing. My favorite story teller. He just has a way...

If any censor really knew what was in this book, it would be on a banned list posthaste. They'd launch every copy to the Moon if they could. Just about every bit of it is about sex, and not in the missionary position. If you have issues with nontraditional sex, you will be nauseated by this book and that's your loss.

This is the tale of William Abbott, and when we meet him he has a teen crush on his town's librarian, Miss Frost, who senses that Bill is going to have a difficult sex life and tries her best to prepare him for the future. I can't go into too much detail without spoiling. Anyway, we follow him through a few relationships as he becomes himself, and again I can't really say a whole lot more without giving you a blow-by-blow and I won't be rude and do that.

One of the points of the novel are that everyone is a little queer. In Bill's home town, First Sister, Vermont, it seems like everyone has some sexual ambiguity about them or some sort of issue that could be termed perverse, and people may find that hard to believe. But that's only because Irving is driving the point home that "weird" sexual behavior is a lot more common than people want to admit. The other major point is that all this sexual strangeness has some of its roots in genetics-Bill finds out his father was, and I am quoting one of the characters, "a little light in the loafers". I should mention that his maternal grandfather likes to dress like a woman and does so during the many Shakespeare plays that go on in First Sister. But it's also part social, and Irving critiques the segregation of men and women at school age for presuming that it will make proper traditional men and women. It doesn't.

I learned to love the characters that I met for about 250 pages. Then Irving drags everything to a halt to stress the horror of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. It's Irving's prerogative to linger on that horrid Reagan decade where they denied it was happening, but it does detract from the pacing of the book. Then there are some somewhat predictable plot points to bring everything to a close. It turns out to be a long 400 pages.

However, I'm still going to recommend this book highly to heteros because this may be as close to gay literature that you will probably encounter, and you should learn a few things about the LGBTQ experience on general principles. I can't say for sure how the gay community would react to Irving's book and his depictions, but as you all know he's a great writer and I will assume this is fair treatment and did his homework and asked his LGBTQ friends for help. And you will like almost all of these people, even the mean ones.

It's been six years since the publication of this book, and so a lot of what he introduces as novel has entered the culture and its lexicon. But for me, it was a breakthrough book. I will need to take a rest from Irving, I have spent many nights in First Sister's universe. But this book hits all the right notes, touching, funny, provocative, just about everything you want in a novel. Go for it.

Great

This was the first Irving novel in awhile that I enjoyed as much as Cider House Rules or Garp, etc. I was only disappointed when the journey ended.

John Irving…the last two novels I have read of his have been disappointments. It makes me not want to go back and reread “A Prayer for Owen Meany” in case that book (which I loved) is not as good as I remember it.
“In One Person” had such potential. A story of a man who is bisexual, living from the mid-1940s to the early 2000s. A lot has changed in the world, especially for gay people, in that time frame. It is a topic rich with possibilities. This novel does not meet them.
The book is massively redundant. Irving repeats himself in this text, a lot. I did not see it as part of the narrator’s characterization, so what was the point? Another fail are the last 50 pages, or so. The novel descends into intolerant tolerance and is just preachy, and for lack of better words, stupid and smug. Irving seems to want to end his novel making a “point”, instead of ending the story in a manner true to the characters and the world of the novel. Yet another gripe is that there are too many unrealistic moments in the text. Everyone that the narrator feared in high school, or had a mild crush on, or at least partly knew is either gay, a transsexual, or some other form of “out of the norm”. Come on Irving. The narrator is bisexual, that does not mean that everyone he knows also has some form of sexual difference. There is also a completely unexplained, dropped in ghost element to the text that does not seem to serve any purpose. I could go on, but I won’t.
That is not to say that the book is all bad. It did keep my attention, although I’m not sure why. There are also moments in the text (alas only moments, a sentence or two here and there) that spoke to me and had some profundity and truth to them. I also found the part of the novel where the narrator deals with and lives through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to be especially gripping and well done. Irving seems to capture the devastation of that time for the gay community. There are also a couple of well-developed characters in the text, although oddly not the ones that Irving spends the most time on.
I wish “In One Person” had been a better novel. A novel like this needs to be written, but it needs to be a great one. Irving has not accomplished that. It is just okay.

I am an avid fan of John Irving and have read all of his books. Irving is a master wordsmith and brilliant writer, but I think his talents were wasted on this bland novel.
Finishing this book was hard as I was tempted to put it down many times, but, alas, my devotion to Irving kept me going.
The main character is as interesting as watching paint dry and I would not care to know him in real life. Surely, someone who is cultured in arts, talented, well-traveled, and bisexual would be a little intriguing. Unfortunately, he is not.
There are great moments in this book, but the book overall was not great.

A most curious tale - highly praised by some but hard to like by this reader. If cross-dressing as a family trait interests you and if the progress through adolescence and into manhood by a personally uncertain fellow of such inclination draws your attention, then you may appreciate this experienced novelist's repetitious technique. Without being interested in such dubiousness by the main character nor in the surrounding character's secrets, I made it to the end - and wondered what the fuss was about.