“In One Person”

OH, THE WINDS OF change; they do not blow gently into the small towns of northern New England.

John Irving‘s newest novel In One Person is the fictional story of one man’s journey on a road less traveled. Written in the first person from the perspective of the main character – William (“Bill”) Francis Dean, Jr. – the story begins in late 2010. Bill is nearly 70 years old and looks back upon his life as a bisexual man trying to come to terms with who he is in a world reluctant to accept those that are different. Growing up in the 1950’s and early 1960’s in a small town in Vermont where conventional norms prevail, Bill struggles to understand his passions, his crushes, and his family. When he is introduced rather late – at age 13 – to literature by his newly acquired stepfather, Richard and the local town librarian, Miss Frost, he starts to better understand he is not alone.

Bill attends Favorite River Academy, an all boys private school in First Sister, Vermont where his stepfather and uncle both teach, coach sports, and manage the drama department. Bill is also actively involved in the The First Street Players – the town’s amateur acting society – because his grandfather, aunt, uncle, and mother are all part of the theater group that brings great stories to the stage. Together these works – literature and theater – give meaning and hope to a young boy who knows he is different from a very early age yet doesn’t know how to be anybody but who he really is – giving meaning to the author’s assertion that “We already are who we are, aren’t we?”

A considerable part of the book takes place during Bill’s high school years at Favorite River Academy where he realizes

in a small, less-than-first-rate boarding school, there are various indications of the adult world – some truly sensitive and good-hearted grown-ups who were trying to make the adult world more comprehensible and more bearable for young people, while there were also those dinosaurs of an inflexible rectitude and the tirelessly intractable homophobes men of their ilk and generation have spawned.

Theater shows, great works of literature, and a few accepting adults all play a big role in Bill’s long road of discovery and lead him to become a writer and leave the small town in which he grew up.

Throughout his life, Bill assembles a cast of friends and lovers who he aptly refers to as “angels” both for the way they save him from a life he wasn’t meant to live and for the terror of the unknown that they bring. The story spans through the conventional 1950’s, the tumultuous 1960’s, the party years of the 1970’s, and the AIDS epidemic that defined the 1980’s and early 1990’s. As time passes by, the reader gains an understanding of a person who was both adventurous and afraid to act on his passions.

There is a heavy emphasis on the importance of literature and theater in this novel and consequently a familiarity with the works of Henrick Ibsen and three of his most famous plays:  Hedda Gabler, A Doll’s House, and The Wild Duck is very helpful. In addition, knowledge of Agatha’s Christie’s “Black Coffee,” along with:  Tom Jones, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Giovanni’s Room make the novel more meaningful. And, finally, a familiarity with Shakespeare and a few of his most famous plays: King Lear, The Tempest, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and Romeo and Juliet are essential.

In One Person is a compelling story in which Irving writes about the sexual aspects of growing up and self discovery that readers are both comfortable and ill at ease with. The fear of the unknown, of being different or admitting to feelings that are socially unacceptable are worthy of conversation and Irving brings forth these topics in a triumphant way: through words and literature in his most recent novel.