In One Person

It's no Owen Meany but it's clearly an Irving novel. Europe, gender fluidity, family, New England, wrestling, death; love, loss, self discovery, novelist protagonist, teacher. It's like a recipe, but, just like enjoy my favourite recipes, so too do I enjoy John Irving's novels.

I liked this book more than I thought I would from the jacket description. This is the first John Irving I've ever read, so I don't have his previous novels to compare this book to.

I also don't write amazing reviews, and a lot of Irving's fans are well-read and can write a much better review than I, so I'm not going to attempt much.

I admit: the beginning of the book made me uncomfortable. I don't like reading much sex anyway in my fiction (it makes me blush or something), and this book had beyond the more widely accepted heterosexual experience. But then I did manage to get past it. And once I did, I believe that may be part of the author's goal: for the reader to accept the homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual experience as not unusual, not shocking.

It's always a delight to read about a character who has a completely, 100% different life than I do, especially one in a “real” setting (not fantasy or science fiction). Billy went to an amazing private college preparatory all-male school, and then went on to tour Europe, live in New York City, live in San Francisco and even return briefly to his hometown in New England. Not many people have this life. Couple that with Billy's coupling (ahem), and there's just little I can personally relate to.

The book is still great despite almost otherworldly characters. And they certainly are: you've got cousin Gerry the lesbian, grandpa the crossdresser, Kittredge the ... strange, Donna the transsexual, and so many others. It's hard to imagine their paths would all cross. There's definitely a sense of unreality, or this can't really happen-ness.

Toward the end of the book, the characters could have all ended up in a wild orgy in the town library, and I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

I'll be reading more John Irving in the future, and then I'll see how this book compares to his others.

I never knew that I would get deeply involved with this novel. By the time I reached halfway through, the characters, the families felt to me like distant relatives. My only gripe would be that even though the main character identified himself as a ‘bisexual' man, the voice that the author provided for him made him looked ‘straight' in my eyes. Which was evident from the fact that most of his perspective were heavily based on his relationships with woman whilst with men, it was a secondary topic. This was not shocking considering that the author is straight to begin with. And another thing I would like to point out, this novel contains a serious pet peeve of mine. Its a novel that contain spoilers to other novels! gah. Thank you Mr. Irving for spoiling Madam Bovary for me. I know its a classic novel, but some of us haven't got the chance to read it yet. So be aware of that factor when approaching this novel or the thought of spoilers irks you.