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yeller 's review for:
In One Person
by John Irving
John Irving is one of my favorite authors, but I came into this book warily because of the mixed reviews. All in all, I enjoyed it. To me, it was an odd mix of "The World According to Garp" and RENT. It was an engaging story, especially if you go into it expecting to read a story, not to read a political novel. As a political novel, it falls short for me. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table, although I was overjoyed to see bisexual and transgender people represented in a mainstream novel, because it's so rare that that happens. I was so excited by that, and I continue to be. In that respect, I think the book succeeded, in bringing some super marginalized queer identities back to the forefront, at least in literary circles.
As a story, like I said, it's similar to Garp and Owen Meany. It goes through the main character's entire life, birth to old age. I was invested, I didn't get bored. It was entertaining enough for me to rate it a four, as a lot of my criticisms are petty and nitpicky. I did love Elaine and Bill's friendship, and it's complications. I always love how Irving writes his main characters relationships with people. They are always complicated and unique and realistic, in my opinion. I think he did an excellent job of showing homophobia/queerphobia/transphobia across the scale of it. I think a lot of people think these phobias have one face, when really they have many, and I think Irving showed that well. His characters are well-written, as they always are. It's an extremely well-written book, and I enjoyed it.
Also, as hard as these scenes were to get through, the portion of the book devoted the AIDS epidemic, in my opinion, was wonderful. I read my mother a few passages (my mother knew quite a few people who died of AIDS, as she was heavily involved in the gay community once upon a time), and she expressed how realistic they were. Realistic enough it was almost impossible for her to listen to them without getting emotional. Yes, this book makes it seem like everyone was dying AIDS when many did survive. However, I think this generation is forgetting how awful AIDS is and was (it's making a resurgence among gay populations who, in some cases, are attracting it ON PURPOSE), so maybe we need a reminder. Irving did a great job of showing how it must have felt to see so many around you dying. I think it was very effective that he focused on the people who did die rather than those that survived.
That being said, another writer character, Irving? Really? And another thing, while I understand Bill was heavily involved in the gay community (and that during much of the years this book takes place, queer people really didn't have non-queer friends most of the time), the sheer number of gay and transgender people who happened to be in Bill's class at First Sister Academy seemed unrealistic. There were too many of them, it felt odd to me. I think the tipping point was Kittredge, at the end. The discovery that he had gender reassignment surgery just ended up being one too many for me.
My final criticisms are that I don't think the ending was as strong as it could, and should, have been. It seemed to sort of end really suddenly, without any real closure. Normally, I accept that as an author's choice, but in a book that tells the story of a lifetime of one person, closure is important to me. And finally, the scene where Bill meets his father and his father's lover seemed out of nowhere, and I don't know if it really added anything.
As a story, like I said, it's similar to Garp and Owen Meany. It goes through the main character's entire life, birth to old age. I was invested, I didn't get bored. It was entertaining enough for me to rate it a four, as a lot of my criticisms are petty and nitpicky. I did love Elaine and Bill's friendship, and it's complications. I always love how Irving writes his main characters relationships with people. They are always complicated and unique and realistic, in my opinion. I think he did an excellent job of showing homophobia/queerphobia/transphobia across the scale of it. I think a lot of people think these phobias have one face, when really they have many, and I think Irving showed that well. His characters are well-written, as they always are. It's an extremely well-written book, and I enjoyed it.
Also, as hard as these scenes were to get through, the portion of the book devoted the AIDS epidemic, in my opinion, was wonderful. I read my mother a few passages (my mother knew quite a few people who died of AIDS, as she was heavily involved in the gay community once upon a time), and she expressed how realistic they were. Realistic enough it was almost impossible for her to listen to them without getting emotional. Yes, this book makes it seem like everyone was dying AIDS when many did survive. However, I think this generation is forgetting how awful AIDS is and was (it's making a resurgence among gay populations who, in some cases, are attracting it ON PURPOSE), so maybe we need a reminder. Irving did a great job of showing how it must have felt to see so many around you dying. I think it was very effective that he focused on the people who did die rather than those that survived.
That being said, another writer character, Irving? Really? And another thing, while I understand Bill was heavily involved in the gay community (and that during much of the years this book takes place, queer people really didn't have non-queer friends most of the time), the sheer number of gay and transgender people who happened to be in Bill's class at First Sister Academy seemed unrealistic. There were too many of them, it felt odd to me. I think the tipping point was Kittredge, at the end. The discovery that he had gender reassignment surgery just ended up being one too many for me.
My final criticisms are that I don't think the ending was as strong as it could, and should, have been. It seemed to sort of end really suddenly, without any real closure. Normally, I accept that as an author's choice, but in a book that tells the story of a lifetime of one person, closure is important to me. And finally, the scene where Bill meets his father and his father's lover seemed out of nowhere, and I don't know if it really added anything.