In One Person

John Irving's latest novel did not disappoint me.  It did not overwhelm, entrance, or move me to tears as a few of his earlier novels have done, but it did not disappoint me and for that I am grateful.

You need to know that I have LOVED John Irving for a very long time.  Not as long as I've loved my husband, but still...1978...that's a long time to love someone from afar (that's Irving, not my husband).   That's the year The World According to Garp was published and I was completely enthralled by Irving's storytelling mastery.  Thirty-four years later (OMG) I still recall the "Under Toad" and its incredible, disastrous pull on Jenny Garp, her son, and his family.  If you've never read The World According To Garp, it's not too late!

But back to my infatuation: I continued to read and greatly enjoy Irving's subsequent novels.  The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year were all, in my opinion, well-crafted.  Critics seem to become increasingly disenchanted with his later novels, and I skipped the next three or four, but then picked up Last Night in Twisted River, the novel just previous to In One Person, and I was happy to have read it.

Almost all of Irving's novels share elements of the same theme as well as character "types."  His novels never veer far from Vermont or New Hampshire and many of his characters are what he describes as "sexual suspects."  In One Person is no exception.

The novel is structured as a memoir of bisexual Billy Abbott, an extremely likable and, as you might imagine, tortured "hero." This story is not for the sexually "faint-of-heart" as I mentioned to my husband while reading it.  Billy's sexual encounters with both men and women are described fairly graphically, and while they are definitely NOT the focus of the story, they are described in detail.

The story, as Irving's stories always are, is peopled with many quirky personalities and diverse sexualities.  Billy's grandfather, well-known and respected in the small town of First Sister, Vermont as a successful businessman is also the town's leading actor in the community theater.  However, he only plays women's roles and is obviously very comfortable in that niche.  Suffice to say, Billy grows up surrounded by family members, friends and role models who are as sexually diverse as they are loving and supportive (mostly, with a few notable exceptions) of Billy's quest to find his sexual identity.  There is a lot of mystery attached to the man Billy is told is his father, whom he hasn't yet met as the story opens (Billy is 11 or 12).    Irving is a top-notch storyteller and his novels always incorporate many side stories and forks in the road.  The good news is they all lead back to the main story; the bad news is not everyone will enjoy the meandering.

I've always thought one of this author's greatest talents is how FULLY he tells the story.  There simply are no loose threads.  There are no unimportant characters or meaningless plot twists.  There ARE plot twists, though, and as a fan of Irving's I am able to trust that this unexpected turn or "random" appearance of a character will be connected eventually; but I'm not sure that all readers might have the patience to stick with some of the more convoluted story lines.

A good portion of the story takes place in the 90s in New York, as the AIDS epidemic devastates the gay community and Billy, by now a successful author, loses several friends and ex-lovers.  Irving excels at pulling the reader into the heartbreak and loss experienced during that time.

I noticed, for the first time in an Irving novel, the author's redundant characterization and summarizing and it did start to wear on me.  As Irving ages (he just turned seventy) perhaps he doesn't trust the reader's recall of the various characters and feels the need to remind us; I'd rather he didn't. His descriptions and turns of phrase are memorable and stay with the reader, making the repetitiveness unnecessary.

But Irving has some important points to make and he wants to make sure his audience gets them.  The same message is delivered by two different characters (Billy and the town librarian, Miss Frost, who has sexual secrets of her own): "My dear boy, please don't put a label on me---don't make me a category before you get to know me!"

Sexual tolerance is Irving's message and it certainly is a timely one, isn't it?