This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic 
 It's hard to write this review because I absolutely adored this book. I truly believe that it's John Irving's best work to date. I've been reading John Irving's books ever since they made us watch Simon Birch in ninth grade, so I feel as thought I'm semi-qualified to make this declaration. Or at least as qualified as the next person. 
 One thing about this kind of novel is that we really get to know the protagonist - Billy Abbot. Though this book tracks Billy's life from childhood to his golden years, the real stand out parts are his time as an adolescent (the 1950s) and his adult years during the early days of AIDS (1980s). In regards to the 1950s, I think Irving does a great job illustrating Billy's "coming of age" and how he learns about himself and begins to understand his own sexuality. It's hard enough for kids/teens now-a-days to come to terms with the huge spectrum of sexual identity there is. I can only imagine (through books like In One Person) how difficult it would have been back then. 
 Thankfully Billy has some great people around him to help him get through this time, and form a healthy attitude about himself. His cross-dressing grandfather, his life long friend Elaine, her mother and the transsexual librarian - Miss. Frost. I think this is a great example of how having the right kind of people around you (a.k.a the supportive kind) when you're coming out/exploring your sexuality doesn't need to be an absolutely terrifying or painful thing. I don't think every "coming out" story needs to be dark and depressing because that's not reality for every person. It's also not very encouraging. That's not to say it was a walk in the park for Billy. He faced a lot of resistance from his mother and others in the town and I think this kept Irving from sugar coating it too much. 
 So while Billy's teen years focus on self identity, the time in the 1980s focuses more on the greater community. From what I understand, previous to the AIDs epidemic, there wasn't a huge LGBTQ community like there is now. There was a lot of stuff going on in secret and behind closed doors* but AIDs really brought everything out into the forefront and the public spotlight. Though Billy escapes infection himself, he see's a lot of his friends and acquaintances die and through his eyes we see how that affects their family and loved ones. We see some people hide from it and some people rally and throw themselves into doing everything they can. One part that really got to me was when an old school mater of Billy dies and the desperate and heart breaking actions of his mother when it happens. This part of In One Person, was haunting and disturbing and really shed a light on a period of recent history we really don't see much about. 
 Above all I like that John Irving does an amazing job exploring how sexuality is fluid and it breaks down a lot of the ridiculous barriers that our society has constructed. He puts sexuality in a larger historical construct and demonstrates that LGBT doesn't even begin to cover the multitude of ways people experience love, attraction and themselves. If there was one thing to take away from this novel I think these ideas would be it. Sexuality doesn't fit into neat little boxes and Billy Abbot proves it doesn't need to. 
 Recommendation: An absolutely brilliant and moving book that touches on a lot of issues and ideas that are important/interesting to me. If you enjoy Irving's other works this one will appeal to you and if you like books that deal with questions of sexuality and identity, In One Person is definitely one you want to check out. 
 *clarification: I'm not saying this was universal but I think this was the case for a lot of people.