Courtesy of Beaverdale Books

Review by Barb Palar

By John Irving

Simon & Schuster

5/8/2012

$28

448 pp

He’s back. John Irving, the writer who brought us “The World According to Garp” and “A Prayer for Owen Meany,” has resurrected some of his best themes in his latest novel, “In One Person.” Billy Abbott, the hero of the tale, is bisexual, growing up in the 1950s in similar style to Owen Meany, the stepson of a teacher at an all-boy’s school. He and his best friend, Elaine, both harbor a secret desire for the school’s standout wrestler and stage performer, Jacques Kittredge, who plagues and torments both of them for their whole lives. Billy also falls in love with the town’s transgender librarian, who teaches him some of his most valuable life lessons, including the Duck Under wrestling move.

With an absent father, Billy also learns valuable life lessons, and love, from his cross-dressing grandfather, star of the community theater, and from his stepfather, who is the theater director of the boarding school. In true Irving style, the book takes us on romps through Vienna and the sweaty smelly wrestling mats of an all-boy’s school. It explores sexual deviancy. And it breaks our hearts. An early AIDS activist, Irving gives a heartbreaking backwards glimpse into New York City in the 1980s, the height of the epidemic. If you’d given up on Irving, as I had, after a few lackluster recent attempts, “In One Person” will renew your faith in this award-winning author. CV