I still haven’t made up my mind about John Irving.
To be honest, I’ve only read three of his novels; the first, The World According to Garp when I was much too young (13? 14?) - I saw adults making stupid choices, the sexual elements made me very uncomfortable and the driveway accident was doubly shocking. Roberta Muldoon didn’t particularly bother me, however. I probably should read it again someday, but am not in any hurry.
About a decade ago, I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and it pretty much left me cold, as well. I found Owen’s ALL CAPS dialog annoying and I didn’t think much of the narrator.
I was intrigued when I heard about In One Person, but it slipped off my radar til last month, when it showed up as a Kindle deal - I checked it out from the library and I’m glad I did.
Told in first person through the eyes of Billy, a bisexual man; we see him growing up fatherless in small town Vermont in the 1960’s, pursuing a writing career in NYC in the 1970’s, and facing the deaths of friends and acquaintances to AIDS in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He considers himself “a sexual suspect” - trusted by neither women nor men, yet he forms lifelong bonds with fellow travelers of varying identities.
This novel went a long way towards taking the bad taste of TWATG out of my mouth, so to speak. Not only am I nearly two decades older, but Irving’s characters seem much more sympathetic in this novel; even as they make poor choices, hurting each other and themselves. IMHO, Irving’s strength is definitely character development; by the end of the novel, I felt like I knew all of Billy’s friends (and enemies) as well as he did; perhaps better.
The narrative isn’t chronological, but it was easy enough to adjust to the shifts in timeline. The plot isn’t really the point of the novel, but worked well enough - I’m rather disappointed with Irving’s portrayal of women (especially mothers); but I wasn’t terribly surprised. I had a bit of a struggle believing that the town of Favorite River would be so accepting of Miss Frost and Grandpa Harry (having grown up in small towns myself); but then again, Vermont was one of the first states to ratify gay marriage. I also found myself wondering how autobiographical the novel was - then realized it really wasn’t any of my business. I’d love to hear from any transgendered and/or bisexual readers to see what they thought of the novel.
Will I read it again? Possibly - I passed on the cheap Kindle version offer, but I’m very picky about actually buying books, even in electronic format. I figure it will be easy enough to obtain from the library if I feel the need to revisit it.