Book Review: "In One Person" by John Irving

John Irving is one of those rare writers where everything you read by them is just as good as the last thing you read by them. I first read Irving in my teens and that was the great novel The Cider House Rules. Then I read The World According to Garp. And unfortunately, that was it for a very long time. Coming into contact with John Irving's works again in my 20s because of simply finding them in the library and remembering they were on the list of books I wanted to read, I took up A Prayer for Owen Meany. That is one of those novels that you read and you absolutely positively do not forget it in any way, shape or form. It hits the soul. Most recently I have read his books The Hotel New Hampshire and, the one this review is about, In One Person. And nobody writes situational introspective crisis quite like Irving does - I will tell you that.

In One Person is a recollection of the life of William Abbott (Billy), which he tells from his days at school all the way to the present day. He knows, from an early age, that he is 'different' in some way - Billy, in fact, is bisexual. He knows this as fact and presents the recollection of his days at school as difficult and overbearing as he explains how he had to learn to reason with the difference as growing up to find his place in the world was now going to become extremely difficult. He seems to be on the cusp of knowing who he wants to be and figuring out what he wants to do - and he must do both before it is too late.

One thing I loved about learning about his school days and his trail towards accepting himself was that he attended the library a lot. He read a lot of books, he was very interested in literature and there are characters, ideas and lines that appear throughout the book that reference other novels and writers. As he connects with these characters, we slowly see his world unfold and learn tiny bits more about him and his family and friends along the way.

As we move through the novel, one thing we do see is the passage of time. Though our narrator never really suffered the intense prejudices of bullying, we do see people who are thoroughly good natured, well put together and high functioning that lose jobs, family and friends because of their sexual orientation and preferences. And if that part was not upsetting enough for you, as the passage of time goes on, we end up coming on to the AIDS epidemic. Yes, it is really quite heartbreaking stuff here.

Through death, through heartbreak and through conflict - John Irving makes us see the world from the point of view of a man who knows that hiding who he really is will eventually blow up in his face. And yet, revealing who he really is might lose him everything important in his life. An intense exploration into identity, personality, introspection and a love letter to the LGBT+ movement, this novel truly is a work of art from John Irving once again.

In conclusion, I will be reading more Irving novels now that you come to mention it. I have missed out on this stuff for so long, I don't really know how I forgot him. But this book, if not the last one I read, has convinced me that I need this writer back in my life.