In One Person: A Novel

by John Irving Narrated by John Benjamin Hickey

Overview

From the author of A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp comes "his most daringly political, sexually transgressive, and moving novel in well over a decade" (Vanity Fair).

A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love-tormented, funny, and affecting-and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of "terminal cases," The World According to Garp.

In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy's friends and lovers-a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself "worthwhile."

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2012 - AudioFile

Bestselling novelist John Irving posits that exploring the spectrum of human desire is one way of revealing the identity of his bisexual main character, Billy Dean. Narrator John Benjamin Hickey juggles numerous characters and plot twists as Billy, who becomes a novelist, deals with love affairs, the AIDS epidemic, and the search for his absent father. Billy experiences the sting of prejudice and societal rejection as he ages through the 1960s to 2010. Hickey weaves this funny and heartbreaking story at a calm and deliberate pace. While Billy’s experiences are explicitly recounted, his many loves exemplify different chapters of America’s perception of love and sex. While the journey is long, Irving and Hickey make the destination well worth the trip. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

In what has been called his most political novel since The Cider House Rules, John Irving invites us into the lives of Billy, a secretive bisexual man, and his numerous friends and lovers. Rendered in its main character's voice, In One Person offers a poignant view of men and women who spend their lives in half-concealed subcultures. A moving novel by a major American author; now in trade paperback and NOOK Book.

The New York Times Book Review

In One Person gives a lot. It’s funny, as you would expect. It’s risky in what it exposes.…Tolerance, in a John Irving novel, is not about anything goes. It’s what happens when we face our own desires honestly, whether we act on them or not.
— Jeanette Winterson

The Washington Post

There’s a talent at work in this brave new novel that — as Prospero said — ‘frees all faults.’

MAY 2012 - AudioFile

Bestselling novelist John Irving posits that exploring the spectrum of human desire is one way of revealing the identity of his bisexual main character, Billy Dean. Narrator John Benjamin Hickey juggles numerous characters and plot twists as Billy, who becomes a novelist, deals with love affairs, the AIDS epidemic, and the search for his absent father. Billy experiences the sting of prejudice and societal rejection as he ages through the 1960s to 2010. Hickey weaves this funny and heartbreaking story at a calm and deliberate pace. While Billy’s experiences are explicitly recounted, his many loves exemplify different chapters of America’s perception of love and sex. While the journey is long, Irving and Hickey make the destination well worth the trip. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170767557
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/08/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged

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