John Irving's In One Person scans decades of intolerance

Revered author John Irving's latest novel brings him once again to the subject of sexual minorities and the struggles they've faced
By Doug Sarti, May 23, 2012

http://www.straight.com/article-691456/vancouver/one-person-scans-decades-intolerance

"I was very deliberate in choosing a bisexual man as my main character," Irving says of Billy Abbott, the hero-narrator of his latest work. "I wanted him to be distrusted by everybody and to be sensitive to how much of a sexual minority he was."

Swept along by history, Billy serves as an accidental tour guide to the last half-century of gay (and bi, and lesbian, and transgender) struggle, from the closeted 1950s, through the radical 1960s, right up until today. It's a story of an ongoing fight for equality, seen both through Billy's eyes and through his complex relationships.

As it turns out, many of the themes in Billy's story are mirrored in today's more polarizing political issues: same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and transgenders in beauty pageants. It's a fact that Irving finds amusing.