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Just picked it up from the library today. It is hard to find good reads about bisexuals so I'm looking forward to it.

I've read the first two chapters and the style of writing confuses me a bit. I get into the story and then there is a flash forward and he goes off na a tanget and I don't always realize it when he brings it back to the scene before. It just seems scattered. Are all Irving novels like this? And has anyone else found this distracting?

The only novel I've read by Irving is The Cider House Rules. It was quite a while ago, but I remember enjoying it and can't remember any major flaws.

We read this in our local Queer Book Club. I think I've read most of Irving's work. This one is not his best. When he's in top form, I find his work compelling, if sometimes slightly repellent (I still can't get the image of the bitten off penis out of my mind from Garp). Owen Meany is his very best, I think.

This one feels a bit phony. For instance, having sat by the bedsides of several friends dying of AIDS back in the day, I found these sections of the book a little forced, as if he had done his research and now was pulling out a tear-jerker.

I did like his description of the narrator's relationship with his childhood friend, though.

I wondered also about the repetitiousness of it. Being more or less the same age as the narrator (and author), I can appreciate being reminded of facts that I might have forgotten from previous chapters. This was carrying it a little far, though. I found myself muttering, "yeah, I know, I know, already, get on with it!"

I haven't found anything wrong with the plot, just the future tangents (like in one of the first chapters where he talks about Bill's childhood he suddenly talks about Donna and I had a WTF moment and had to re-read that section) and yes, the repetition is getting to be a bit much. But three chapters in I am enjoying the plot so far.

Nina, which one of his books would you recommend the most? I wnat to give that one a try.

I've also only read a few chapters, and as someone who usually prefers a more linear narrative style, the jumping around does annoy me a bit. But more frustrating to me is all the Ibsen and Shakespeare. It's pretty heavy-handed.

That said, I don't dislike the book, it's just not demanding my attention, so I keep getting distracted from reading.

Dana wrote: "That said, I don't dislike the book, it's just not demanding my attention, so I keep getting distracted from reading."

I also get distracted from it easily. I have read a lot of the book between gaming breaks when I wait for the new world to load.

I know what you are saying...it did confuse me a few times too..but I really liked the book.It did a great job showing how things have changed in some areas,such as aids and coming out.Having a transgender child has certainly not been easy for me to get my head around.I appreciate John writing about this topic,as I was able to see inside my 'daughters' head from many perspectives. I preferred his earlier books,but did like this regardless.

Not "grabbing" me like his other books have, but going to hang in there. Trying not to view spoiler - tempted.

I've read a number of Irving's books. I always felt that "Garp" was over-rated, but I found "Cider House Rules" very moving -- and I think "A Prayer for Owen Meany" is one of the very best novels of my lifetime. There was one book, set in India, that I failed to get into and never managed to get through. Since then, I haven't kept up with what he's been doing. It will be interesting to read "In One Person" with the group.

I wish I liked this book better. I admire what Irving was trying to do, but I don't think this works as a cohesive narrative.

And, well, that's an awful lot of cross-dressers and/or transsexuals for one little town....

Giving up on In One Person. Great idea from a writer I admire, but when it gets toward 8p, my reading time, and I think - oh I wish I didn't have to read this, it's time to find another book.

Here here! And let's not forget all the other intolerances out there: the Voting Rights Act was just gutted, for instance. Not to mention gluten is taking over the world.

I'm conflicted about this one. I found the story, though couched in the form of a tell-everything truthfully memoir, to be..well, contrived at times. Too many coincidences, and, really.... a father AND grandfather who are both cross-dressers? Having said that, it does a present a story we don't hear very much.