The upcoming John Irving novel, In One Person, has been my primary object of book lust since I first heard about it. And then this week, I actually found myself with a galley, and I cannot tell you what a freaking distraction it has been. I plan to finish this weekend. And then re-read right before publication in May. If you are an Irving fan like me who has loved all of his books even the lesser (you know the ones - I bet we would all pick the same three), but have a special love for Garp, this one is for you. Thought that before I saw this from Irving's Facebook page:
Here’s an early look at the cover of my new novel, In One Person, to be published May 8, 2012. My thirteenth novel, In One Person is about sexual identity. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character, tells the story of his life as a “sexual suspect”—from his adolescence in the fifties, through the AIDS epidemic, into the present.
I first used the phrase “sexual suspect” in 1978, in my novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp. I return to that theme in this novel; as a bisexual man, Billy is a “sexual suspect” in the eyes of both straight and gay people.
In One Person is my most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, but it’s also a tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers. Not least, In One Person is a portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”
Has made my week.
