Disclaimer: If you ever
plan on reading In One Person, by
John Irving, then I absolutely insist that you don’t read this posting, there
will be spoilers! And if the idea of reading
a book about gay people scares the you know what out of you, then I invite you
to keep reading (hopefully with an open heart and mind)!
I read a book by John Irving last year called, A Widow for One Year and I was instantly
a fan. I had also seen The Cider House Rules in theaters over a
decade ago and had fallen in love with that story. So needless to say, I knew when I read that
book last year that I was not done with John Irving. So imagine my surprise when I accompanied a
co-worker to the library on campus only for her to show me her little
secret: The library actually has new
release books, and most the time you can find what you are looking for because
the students are too busy checking out books needed for academic purposes
rather than leisurely reading. So as I
spun the new release rack around and saw the new John Irving book, I couldn’t
resist! I knew any public library would
have a wait and I needed to line something up in case I ever finished that
beast known as Les Miserables (I did
and it was amazing). But this is not a review of that book, for
while Les Mis made a socioeconomic
statement for its time, I believe John Irving’s book has the capability to
leave a powerful resounding statement about the times in which we live and about
an “issue” that even played a role in our last political election.
Irving’s book follows a boy (William, Bill, Billy) from his
developmental years all the way through to his employment later in life at the
Academy that we saw him attend as a young boy.
The boy is the narrator, and he is telling the story from his later
years. We also know that the boy becomes
a writer. We learn early on in the book
that the boy feels as though he has a habit of developing crushes “on the wrong
people”. It doesn’t take long for us to
learn that the boy is bi-sexual. I knew
this would be a book that would challenge me, I’m a very liberal person, but
that said I have always had a hard time understanding cross dressers and transgender
people and this book delves right into those topics. I would never say that I wish any ill-will
towards people that cross dress or switch sexes (obviously), I just haven’t been exposed to
that culture and it leaves me feeling ignorant.
So, that said, I knew this book was going to be unlike anything I ever
encountered.
In the boy’s hometown in Vermont, there are so many
characters! The way the story is written
I couldn’t help but try to guess at who was gay? Who was bi?
Who was a woman that used to be a man?
Or still has man parts but wants to be perceived and treated like a
woman? At one point, I declared to my
good friend and neighbor, “I think everyone in this book is gay!” What is the author trying to do?
I kept with it though, and I’m glad I did; because midway
through I came to a chapter where the boy’s first love interest (the town
librarian who is a transsexual and much older) teaches the boy a wrestling
move.
“'You will one day be bullied, William,’ Miss Frost said… ‘You’re
going to get pushed around, sooner or later…’” She explains to him about the
cruelty that people will undoubtedly show to him at one point in his life and
she teaches him a wrestling move that will hopefully be enough to fight off his
opponent for a moment, if only to give him enough time to run. In the gym watching this lesson between the
teenager and his older love interest are the boy’s step-father, uncle, grandfather,
his best friend (Elaine), and the wrestling coach. While the book has its fair share of people
who are upset with William because of who he is, these people (in the gym) seem to accept
him and understand that Miss Frost is teaching him a lesson that might one day
save his life. Any reader of this book
is also in the gym getting to see this scene unfold, and much like William’s
community in the bleachers I found myself wondering as I always have
before: Why would someone want to hurt
someone because of their sexual orientation?
Why are there people that are so cruel?
And it’s at this point that I realized: it no longer mattered that half
the town seemed gay what mattered is that I had gotten to know these characters
and had extreme amounts of compassion for their story and who they innately
are.
As I continued reading I noticed that the next half of the
book shifted drastically—whereas the first half seemed so sexually promiscuous,
the last half was devastating—The 80’s came and with it the AIDS epidemic. We watch as characters from William’s life
pass away and we worry that he might someday die of the same thing or of a hate
crime.
While we don’t ever know how William’s life ends we do get
to see a lot of things come to fruition.
When a son of someone from William’s past shows up to confront him about
his sexually perverse novels and how unnatural they are and how unfair it is
that he fills these books with a bunch of sexually confused people only to have
the readers find compassion for the characters along the way---
And it clicks! John
Irving is a genius! He takes us as
readers on that exact journey!!! And just
when I think: it is 2012, I have friends that are gay and I am liberal; I realized that
I still rode the roller coaster of acceptance that John Irving so masterfully
set up in what is sure to be another bestseller.
Well done!
