Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

A Masterfully Narrated, Unforgettably Human Novel

Within the last several months, at least three or four books have stayed with me, but the one that impressed me the most was In One Person by John Irving, published in 2012. I wrote a product review for it. "In One Person: A Novel"  .

It is a coming of age book about a boy in his teens, William Abbott a.k.a Billie, who happens to be bisexual. Through the confusion of his sexuality, he starts to have crushes for people, men or women, but his biggest crush is for the town librarian called Miss Frost, who used to be a man as Billie much later finds out. Miss Frost is the one person who has inspired the boy and introduced him to great literature, such as Dickens, Flaubert, James Baldwin, and the plays of Ibsen. Miss Frost who used to be a wrestler also teaches Billie one wrestling move, called duck-under, which Billie uses it much later when he most needs it.

Another important person in Billie’s life is Elaine, his best friend. Family dysfunction, single parenthood, step parenthood, and AIDS are some of the other smaller subplots in the book.

The story is told by Billie, in his much older years, as he looks back to his adolescence and the years that came later. The novel has many subplots, all enmeshed together so masterfully that it is inevitable not to admire the skill of the author. One of those plots has to do with Billie’s father and Shakespeare. Billie’s father’s passion, as a director of a Shakespeare theater, pulls the family from city to city, and even Billie ends up playing in the productions.

As such, the novel gains its title from Shakespeare, from Richard II: "Thus play I in one person many people, / And none contented." The author deftly uses Shakespeare’s style in plotting, since offstage, a few deaths together happen to minor characters as well as witticisms that spring up in personal conversations. Although the author’s style of telling this story is episodic, everything is so well connected that the flow feels as if it were chronological. I was awed by that. On top of it all, the plot is a bit sad and a bit funny, tragicomedy style, and after the last page of the book, I felt deeply touched, saddened, and elevated, too.

In addition, the book is written with great sensitivity about all people who are misunderstood and who misunderstand themselves about their sexual orientation, and suffer for it greatly. In doing so, the book addresses much larger and probably highly controversial issues than just good fiction. Yet, I felt it to be exquisite fiction, and in every way, a testament to the genius of John Irving.


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Prompt: Write about a book that you recently read that stayed with you after you closed the last page