John Irving's "In One Person"

[spiro3]

I know this novel started a lengthy thread in the Lounge Forum, but nothing there indicates whether the book is a good read or not. Reviews seem to be mixed......anyone one here cracked it yet? And your opinion is?

[+ Lucky]

I am half way through it and enjoying it a lot. Irving takes on gay, bisexual, and transgender issues as if he has been there! It's interesting, educational, and very sexy. Anyone wanting to write their sexual memoirs will have an extra hurdle after this one.

[+ Lucky]

Irving has moved on to the AIDS epidemic, and the trouble with reading a good writer is that he knows how to tell this story correctly. I wasn't really wanting to revisit that time, the worst of those years, but I don't mind going there with Irving, I guess. It's still sad.

[+ Lucky]

I have finished the novel, and recommend it heartily. It is a novel- I doubt that one family would have so many transgendered people. But, as a look at early gay life and its maturation, it's a darn good novel.

[+ newatthis]

Just finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it -- I find his colloquial style very engaging. The simultaneous immersion into small-town New England, wrestling, and (as it is called by the end of the book) LBGTQ life is fascinating. Irving is an acknowledged expert on the first two; I wonder if he has first-hand experience of the third as well.

[+ newatthis]

...The simultaneous immersion into small-town New England, wrestling, and (as it is called by the end of the book) LBGTQ life is fascinating. Irving is an acknowledged expert on the first two; I wonder if he has first-hand experience of the third as well.

Coincidentally, there is an interview with Irving in today's NYTimes Book Review. He describes Great Expectations as the book that changed his life, like the lead character in In One Person. Makes me wonder even more how much else in the book is based on personal experience.