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Got to page 102 and it was a struggle. John Irving is a fine writer, but like many men his age, John Updike among them, he goes into his later years with one foot in the grave and one hand on his genitals. I never read so much about breasts and penises in one place without anyone having actual sex. This is fair: he's the author and he can do what he wants. But I'm getting too old for this.
I am the editor and publisher of this novel. Here's what I think about it:We use the word "great' so often that we've degraded its meaning. Great haircut! Great idea! Great casserole! So what can I say, without committing sins of hyperbole, about an author who truly does possess greatness?IN ONE PERSON is John Irving's thirteenth novel. Having closely read all of the others, I can say with some confidence that it is as relevant to our time and as satisfying a story as were THE WORLD ACCORDING TO...
Irving is known to tackle the tough issues of our times, sexuality, Vietnam, abortion, and in this novel: gender crossing.Billy, the bi-sexual narrator, is a successful author in his late sixties, who has had an upbringing and career not unlike Irving’s, who is reflecting on his life and his “outsider” status. His theatrical family helped confuse gender for him right from the get-go: his grandfather was a cross-dresser, so was his absentee father, the Shakespearean theatre productions put on by
John Irving is a unique force in contemporary fiction. He can be a brave and bold voice for fairness and common sense. The complexity of his plots is matched by the quirkiness of his characters. Sexual identity, with all its twists and permutations, would seem like a perfect fit for the Irving treatment. Sadly, it is not. This story is narrated by Bill Abbott, an impressionable adolescent who is struggling with his bisexuality at a repressive boarding school in the waning days of the 1950's. He
I'm going to have to say that this book is my least favorite of Irving's. I can sum it up in three words:Wash, Rinse, Repeat!There were times when I thought I was reading A Prayer for Owen Meany. Change the name of the narrator and the town, and instead of focusing on friendship and the Vietnam War, focus on homosexuality and the Aids Epidemic.Like I said - wash, rinse, repeat.
I have to disagree with the few friends and people I follow on this one. Having read at least ten of Irving's books and loved most all of them, I was very much looking forward to this one. Big disappointment.Not being familiar with all of Shakespeare's plays, I found the amateur plays performed under the tutilege of his stepfather (who he was also secretly crushing on), the machinations of the characters in such plays and the ongoing confusion of Billy's sexuality (lusting after 'small' breasts
I can remember the first time I heard anything about John Irving. I was in college, at a family reunion. My Dad had two cousins, spinsters, sisters ,never been married. In their 70's. They were in something called a "bookclub". (This was the early 80s.) I'd never heard of a "bookclub"? What was that? They were talking about the different books they had been reading in their club,and all their members were about their age. Except this one "girl" as they called her. Now considering their age this
Man.Despite reading a couple of good reviews I was still pretty skeptical of this book. I hold a couple of Irving's novels in very high esteem. I enjoyed Last Night in Twisted River enough, but remember it taking me a long time to get into it. I know I struggled through the first half of Until I Find You and absolutely loved the second half (the first half being around 400 pages). The Fourth Hand was pretty much disappointing but A Widow for One Year I adored. I remember how hard I fell for John...
There is a scene near the end of John Irving’s 2012 novel, In One Person,in which a character who is a writer is confronted:…I’ve read all your books and I know what you do—I mean, in your writing. You make all these sexual extremes seem normal—that is what you do. Like Gee, that girl, or whatever she is—or what she’s becoming. You create these characters who are so sexually ‘different,’ as you might call them—or ‘fucked up,’ which is what I would call them—and then you expect us to sympathize w...
”Look, here it is--I just have to say this,” young Kittredge said; he almost couldn’t look at me. “i don’t know you, I admit--I don’t have a clue who my father really was, either, But I’ve read all your books, and I know what you do--I mean, in your writing. You make all these sexual extremes seem normal--that what you do. Like Gee, that girl, or what she is--or what she’s becoming. You create these characters who are so sexually ‘different,’ as you might call them--or ‘fucked up,’ which is what...
WINNER OF THE 25th Lambda Literary Award—BEST BISEXUAL LITERATURE! Rating: 3.75* of five The Publisher Says: A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving
This book starts out with a number of similarities to A Prayer for Owen Meany: MC attends private boy's school ✔️Step-father teaches at this school ✔️Best friend has an odd voice ✔️There's a community amateur theatrical society that the MC's family takes a regular part in. ✔️MC has a missing and mysterious father ✔️It was as though John Irving used the same blueprint for both novels, maybe because Owen Meany was such a success. At first I thought the similarities would have me comparing (even mo...
In One Person by John Irving was a struggle, there were a few highlights of interest – fascination even, but most of it was dross. Shame really, as my previous two reads of his, Garp and Owen Meaney were terrific.This one centres around the life story of Billy, it’s a coming-of-age piece starting with his dubious beginnings, through to his school and college days and then his career as a writer. The focus is really about the lad coming to terms with, and his life as a bisexual. Poor Billy used t...
john, john, john!!you suck me in. every time!there's this matrix on wikipedia (now deleted, but preserved here: http://s.mlkshk.com/r/5BKP). i am sure you have seen it. the matrix makes me sigh and amuses me. it's a conundrum. near the end of the book, I felt like you were ticking boxes. giving readers a list of socially important things to mull. i don't take issue with the issues...they are important and need to be written about so that tolerance and acceptance become the norms...i take iss...
In One Person is the tragi/comedic rollicking ride through the life of Bill Abbott; a boy who “has crushes on the wrong people", bisexual writer, graduate of Favourite River Academy in Vermont and finally successful novelist. As is usually the case in John Irving's novels, it features a family of quirky characters, wrestling and tackles the subject of sexual identity. Full of the usual suspects, the novel includes one with a speech impediment, a cross-dresser, a lifelong best friend/sometime lov...
I am conflicted in my feelings about this book. The tone of the story is everyday, and that serves to normalize the "deviant" sexualities on display. This is sucessful, and in many ways, the point. However , there is a strange tension between the hard-to-believe and the boring. I found it hard to accept the high percentage of gay, cross-dressing, or transgender people (there is just one lesbian woman, Gerry) in a small town, all of whom are connected somehow to Billy, the bisexual narrator. Bill...
I loved this big-hearted novel that portrays the life trajectory of boy growing up bisexual in a small Vermont town in the 50's and his erotic and personal transformations to old age. Coming of age for Bill begins to veer in disturbing fashion by crushes on "the wrong people". These include a fellow private school student, who is a champion wrestler and actor in the town drama group, and older women such as the town librarian, Miss Frost. Despite the usual homophobic repression and antagonism fr...
As a graduate student I had a great interest in gender studies; I thought that domain was where both the most interesting fiction and scholarship was happening. Unfortunately while reading this novel, it seemed like it was intended a be political statement on gender studies filled with maxims about sexual difference. The actual story was meandering and flat; it needed to be about 150 pages shorter. It should not take a novel 350 pages to become compelling. I kept going because I knew Irving had
I was a John Irving devotee for much of my life. Since I first read Garp, I have been an avid fan of Irving's writing, and have enjoyed much of it. But since The Fourth Hand, I've been feeling somewhat cheated, and this latest novel was the last straw. I confess I have not finished it, but I am so completely detached and disinterested in the story and characters I am not compelled to spend my time slogging through to the end. On top of the familiar people and places (New England town with a boys...
DNF @ 36%I have decided to move on from this one. There is just nothing in this story that keeps me interested, and that is a huge shame because the premise of the book - a coming of age story of a young guy who discovers he is not fitting in with the people around him because of his outlook on life and his sexuality - sounded somewhat intriguing.I have no idea what to expect, but after just over a third in the book, I just cannot buy into the story or the characters. This is meant to be a tragi...