In One Person

I really like John Irving. Billy is perhaps the most complicated character I can recall from any of his books. Most characters in his books die, and the way that many characters in this book died of AIDS was excruciating. Such a sad time in the 80s when there were no treatments.

This novel suggests that Irving may have lost his edge. It is "profoundly" superficial and has cast his characters as more cartoonist than realistic. There was far too much superfluous material, and the story would have moved along better had a better editor done some decisions. Not sure if Irving was trying but he did not do well by the LGBT "Q" community with his shallow depiction. Disappointing? A resounding YES!

John Irving can wtite about any subject and you know that the read will be excellent. In One Person he takes the reader into an unknown world through the transparent and truthful lives of fully developed characters who you want to know, who you cheer for and cry tears.
Big Al is my favorite new character. LGBTQA. should include S for straight!

I don't usually write negative comments because the world has enough negativity, but in this case I made an exception. What amazed me about the book was not the content but the fact it was published in 2012. Forty years ago this might have been a radical landmark book, today it is more of a grave marker. This is not really a novel (which implies plot and character development) but a fictionalized serial obituary. The scenes of friends dying from AIDS is understandable, but why add so many other fatalities, car wrecks, several suicides, old age, a 73 year old woman killed in bar fight? To put the situation is Irving's own words: "Just look at what you write, BIll-- your middle name is overkill." (371) Indeed this book gives new and literal meaning to the concept of overkill. And Bill's reactions to all this carnage is something less than passionate. He records them as if reporting the weather. The non-chronological format destroys what little chance there may have been for the narrator to share his development. Again in Irving's words: "And Oliver cries too much: he is more a cipher for Dicken's abundant passion for damaged children than he ever is a fully-fleshed out character." (40) Sorry, but this book left me cold.

I like stories that encompass an individual's lifetime and this ranks as one of the best of the genre (if this is a genre?). A beautifully crafted book telling the story of a life lived in less than easy circumstances but through times in which society's attitudes changed greatly. Just a thoroughly good book.

I have read every John Irving book published and my hardcover copies are in a row in my wall-unit by the year they were published...A Prayer for Owen Meany and Garp are my favorites. This book was good but really dragged until about 2/3 of the way through it....the usual great character studies and family disfunction and of course a few major "incidents" to keep you reading it. However, on a scale of 1-10 I'd only give this one a 5...it's OK but NOT great like I think the rest of his books are...Irving is perhaps my favorite contemporary American writer.

If you are interested in each of our unique authentic differences this book is for you ... I loved it as it always fascinated me that my 6 siblings & myself, while having some common traits our values & personalities were so different, so how can we REALLY understand people in general ....

Once again Irving visits his favorite parent/son themes but manages to tell an entirely fresh and unique story. He skillfully weaves humor and adolescent angst, and manages to be both sensitive and entertaining yet realistic without descending into melodrama in his description of horrifying events. I expected this book to be one of the year's best so far and it delivered.

There are few books that I recommend to people. I will quickly forget the title or the story. This book, however, will remain with me for quite a while and will be recommended to many. It is not for everyone since it is quite explicit on sexuality of all types and liberal in its views. But this novel made me search and buy several other John Irving novels. His writing is captivating; characters very original; and plots weaving through many settings. I highly recommend.

Fine novel. A highly insightful and knowledgable saga of lives zig-zagging across the spectrum of human sexuality over a span of 50 plus years. It doesn't preach, but it does force the reader to accept the amazing variety of human sexual identity and experience that has always existed, but has only evolved to the current level of visibility and understanding that it enjoys today (in the Western world, at least).

Author John Irving takes the rich mix of characters that he has created in this story through a gauntlet of tolerance and intolerance that some survive and flourish in, but which causes others to flee into exile or hiding and still others to wither and die. There are some lovable folks here and some that most of us would not enjoy spending five minutes time with. The central character of Billy Abbott has his merits and serves as the explorer of sexual worlds, but in the end, he is no particular hero--more a kind of everyman who stands somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of sexuality (as a bisexual).

Above all, this is a fine piece of writing that moves back and forth from the 1940s to 2011 and through dozens of human relationships that are complicated and often disappointing, but never uninteresting or without friction or strong emotion. A fine read.

Although my signature on this review says "Australia" I am an American on a sailboat about half way through a circumnavigation. Im currently in Australia and, thanks to electronic publishing, was able to learn about this excellent work, purchase it and take delivery while anchored on the Great Barrier Reef.

I bought this book as an ebook after reading a review in the electronic version of the New Yorker. I did not read any of the online reviews before I bought it, but I will go back and read the reviews now to see what I missed in this wonderful book.

This is a book I will read many times.

This is one of the best novels I have read in the past 5 years. The character development is excellent. In the hands of any lesser author many of the characters in this book would not have been believable but Irving manages to not just make them believable but also make the reader care about them. You even find yourself caring about the antagonists like the homophobic school doctor who comes across as less a bad guy and more a victim of his own narrow view of life.

Irving does a very good job of setting the stage for the human consequences of the AIDS pandemic in the 80s. Before the decimation starts he creates a wide array of characters who end up being impacted by the disease.

One thing I really like about this book is that it provides the reader with a reading list for other classic works that impact the development of the characters and this story. I'm rereading "Madame Bovary" as a result but was disappointed to learn that James Baldwin's books are not available in digital format so I'll have to forgo reading "Giovani's Room" until I either stumble across a copy at a book exchange or get back to the states and can have books shipped to me from the store.

This is a book that belongs on the list of those you should read before you die along with those of Naipaul, Marquez, Seth to name a few living authors.

John Irving employs his many skills to bring to life a varied group of characters who surround the novel's protagonist. The book is populated by people representing every letter in the LGBTQ acronym. It is the authors gift that he takes these characters with their strengths, faults and eccentricities and makes them not only sympathetic but inspiring. The reader follows them from a small town in bucolic Vermont, to Austria, San Francisco, New York and back to Vermont. Through them we relive the plague and through them we learn the value of understanding, friendship and, yes, love.

After reading an interview with John Irving and listening to him read excerpts from this book, I was eager to get started reading as soon as possible. Good story, slow to start, dragged about here and there, but a good read none the less. Characters are easy to relate to. Story line had a few twists and turns with a few surprises.

John Irving is a wonderful writer. However, I found this book a bit long winded. I felt like there was something repetitive and I kept turning the page waiting for something to catch my interest. I read to fall asleep..this novel worked as a sleep aid, better than melatonin.