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The Cider House Rules

by John Irving (Goodreads Author)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 69,447 ratings · 1,981 reviews

Raised from birth in the orphanage at St. Cloud's, Maine, Homer Wells has become the protege of Dr. Wilbur Larch, its physician and director. There Dr. Larch cares for the troubled mothers who seek his help, either by delivering and taking in their unwanted babies or by performing illegal abortions. Meticulously trained by Dr. Larch, Homer assists in the former, but draws...more

Hardcover, Large Print, 973 pages

Published July 1st 2000 by Thorndike Press (first published 1985)

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Mar 01, 2010 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009, favorites, good-fiction, feminism-and-or-gender-related, funny-shit, growing-up, important-message, memorable-characters, romantic-love-and-hate

I shouldn't be throwing semicolons around too often; and yet, after reading Irving, what do I find myself doing? semicolon, semicolon, SEMICOLON ; ; ; ; I'm not winking at you; those are semicolons.. now you know what I mean. Irving affects me in many ways -- the semicolons are just one example. (And yes, I know I'm probably not using them correctly -- you don't have to point that out. You really don't.)

More than a week after finishing, The Cider House Rules, it's still on my mind, still sneakin...more

60 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2008 Dianne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: want-my-own-copy

this may be my favourite john irving book. i like his deceivingly lighthearted style, and the deadpan humour he gives his characters. the cider house rules in particular seems more real than the others, the orphanage and apple orchards seem more tangible, the emotions less idiosyncratic and the characters more human.

the direct issue here is abortion. the medical procedures to, the right to, the choice to...it's enough to make me want to cross my legs to prevent any traffic in or out.

the less dir...more

12 likes · like · see review

Sep 18, 2007 Katie Abbott Harris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished reading this novel, and it is so phenominal that I'm almost speechless, and I'm sad that it is over. The story is engrossing, rich, moving, tragic, and satisfying, and the imagery is extraordinarily powerful. The plot takes place during the first half of the 1900's in rural Maine, and tells of Dr. Larch, an obstetrician, founder of an orphanage, abortionist, and ether addict, and his favorite orphan, and heroic figure, Homer Wells. Irving develops the characters superbly, such th...more

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Jan 23, 2008 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone...

Recommended to Pamela by: Tanja

I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I am VERY Pro-Life and was very skeptical before about picking it up...although I love John Irving as an author. He is excellent at character development and his stories are so multifaceted that you are never disappointed. This is certainly true here in this novel. My surprisingly favorite character was Melony. She was hauntingly creepy, pathetically adorable and demanding of your attention although not a primary character. I loved...more

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Nov 21, 2010 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-and-literature, i-own, 2008-2009, irving-james-melville

November 2009

What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us are wrapped up in parentheses.
(The Cider House Rules, p. 429)

In 19__, when abortion was still illegal (when women who did not want their babies were criminals; when pregnancy was a sentence and a fine), there were still ways to avoid the accident of birth: there were medicines and various chemicals to gamble with, or else there were grim back-room doctors, butchers, and other shady figures with even shadier credentials. From them, the price for an abortion was often your dignity, your freedom, or even (and all-too-occasionally) your life.

Or you could have made the pilgrimage to the orphanage at St. Cloud’s, to see Dr. Larch--who would give you an abortion (or deliver an orphan) free of charge; the only cost was the knowing glare of the stationmaster when you stepped off the train, and the long pre-dawn walk up the hill to the hospital. If you had looked up during your walk (and you wouldn’t have looked up), you may have seen an insomniac orphan or two watching from the windows--but the price of that would be too great.

And if you went to St. Cloud’s for an abortion (or an orphan) in the years leading up to the War--the second one--then you may have met Homer Wells, the orphan no one could keep, the one who always came back to St. Cloud’s, the one who would eventually become “of use” to Dr. Larch. Perhaps Homer helped you: perhaps Homer delivered your orphan (he would not have performed an abortion). You may have wondered what would become of him, after you were long gone from St. Cloud’s (and if you did not get pregnant again). Was he just an assistant? Was he another doctor--was he Dr. Larch’s successor to the orphanage?

Of course, you may not have met Homer at all when you were there: he was only “of use” for a short time. He was just an orphan before that (and you would try not to notice the orphans), and later--shortly before, during, and long after the War--he was not there at all. Unless you caught the nurses in idle gossip (or if Dr. Larch had mentioned him--and he wouldn’t), you would never have heard about him. But if you did, if you overheard how much Homer Wells was missed by the orphanage, and how much Dr. Larch loved him, you may have wondered what became of this orphan who was too old to be adopted. Where was he? What had happened to him? Perhaps he had been adopted--at last. Perhaps Homer Wells had found a family.

...

Too much punctuation?

Yeah, too much punctuation.
(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2008 Logan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Logan by: Jeremy

Shelves: fiction, 1001-list, not-owned

I've always struggled with Irving and Cider House Rules is no exception. It's not that Irving is a poor writer, no one can argue that. His characters are always fully-fleshed and alive on the page and each sentence drips with so much detail that you think you're going to get splinters when Homer and Melony are messing around in the abandoned millworker's dorm. I just think that most of the time when I put the book down I feel like I've read the equivalent of cotton candy: really pretty but not m...more I've always struggled with Irving and Cider House Rules is no exception. It's not that Irving is a poor writer, no one can argue that. His characters are always fully-fleshed and alive on the page and each sentence drips with so much detail that you think you're going to get splinters when Homer and Melony are messing around in the abandoned millworker's dorm. I just think that most of the time when I put the book down I feel like I've read the equivalent of cotton candy: really pretty but not much substance as far as plot is concerned.

Another aspect of Irving's writing is his tendency to deliver sentences in blanket pronunciations (i.e.- "An orphan is a child, forever; an orphan detests change; an orphan hates to move; an orphan loves routine"). Far too often they seem like shallow blanket judgments used to convey a character trait but which instead seem to make Irving's characters seem like cardboard cutouts.

What Cider House Rules does provide is a very even-handed look at the pro-choice vs. "pro-life" debate. Told from the point of view of Dr. Wilbur Larch, who came into his own while working in Boston's South End, abortion seems like a necessary option to those who would seek one from any potential provider, no matter how unqualified or injurious. In Larch's view it's far better that women get an abortion from a trained and caring provider than a backroom butcher with no compassion for the patient.

Contrasting this view is the book's hero, Homer Wells, an orphan who has never experienced the results of a botched abortion and, from his perspective as an orphan, tends to view aborted fetuses as playmates that just never were. Through Homer and Larch's conflict regarding abortion, Irving manages to shine an insightful light on a subject which has pulled hard at America's edges for as long as the nation has been extant.

All in all, I think I enjoyed Cider House Rules. Sure, there were definitely moments when I wondered whether Irving was as lost in the story as Dr. Larch was lost in an ether dream, but the moment I closed the book for the final time it took hold of my imagination and left me thinking for quite a while after. By any measure that should be a sign of a good read.

Finally, I feel the need to mention the following quote which grabbed me early in the novel:
"Dr. Larch pointed out that Melony had taken Jane Eyre with her; he accepted this as a hopeful sign- wherever Melony went, she would not be without guidance, she would not be without love, without faith; she had a good book with her. If only she'll keep reading it, and reading it, Larch thought."(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Sep 01, 2008 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001, irving

John Irving might just be my favorite contemporary author. No current author can move me with their storytelling quite as capably as he.

I picked up this book to read on a recent trip to New England, specifically Maine and New Hampshire. I had previously seen the movie and I knew that the story was set in the land of lobsters and blueberries. Although I had enjoyed the movie version quite a bit, I enjoyed the book infinitely more. Indeed, the character of Melony, who is absent from the movie, may...more

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2008 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love John Irving but stayed away from this work for years because of the "abortion" issue. I didn't want to be preached to, (in principle I am against abortion) and I foolishly underestimated Irving's ability to create a complete work, one in which "abortion" was a small part. This is one of his finest works and I recommend it without reservation. Irving forces the reader to view the world from many angles and does it with his usual excellence in creating characters with depth and a plot that...more

6 likes · like · see review

Oct 25, 2009 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Leah by: Viluna Jennings

Shelves: favorites

I finally finished The Cider House Rules this morning; I've been working on it since mid-August. Usually if I take that long to read a book it's because the book isn't very good, I've gotten bored with it, or the writing is hard to comprehend. None of those things are true of The Cider House Rules. Instead I found the book to be wonderfully written with rich and complex characters (not to mention a moving and controversial storyline). I think the main reason I took so long to finish it (aside fr...more I finally finished The Cider House Rules this morning; I've been working on it since mid-August. Usually if I take that long to read a book it's because the book isn't very good, I've gotten bored with it, or the writing is hard to comprehend. None of those things are true of The Cider House Rules. Instead I found the book to be wonderfully written with rich and complex characters (not to mention a moving and controversial storyline). I think the main reason I took so long to finish it (aside from the usual business of work and school and whatever else), was its grand scale. It's a fairly hefty book that follows one character throughout most of his life, from birth until middle age.

The book centers around St. Cloud's, an orphanage in Maine where the resident obstetrician, Dr. Larch, not only delivers babies but performs abortions as well. Homer Wells, the book's protagonist, is an orphan born at the establishment. Despite three attempts at being adopted, he somehow always ends up back at St. Cloud's, and considers the place to be his true home. Larch, deciding that Homer should be "of use" if he is to stay at the orphanage, begins training Homer in obstetrical procedure. By the time Homer is in his late teens, he is a skilled obstetrician.

I won't detail the rest of the events in the book, but the story follows Homer until middle age, when he eventually replaces Dr. Larch at the orphanage. The book has a definite pro-choice slant, however, I didn't feel as though it had a strong political agenda. That's what I love about good fiction: it tells the story of a few people's unique experiences in life, no matter what those experiences might be. Homer's unique experience, among other things, had to do with the moral problem of abortion. So agree or disagree with the issue as you will; it doesn't change that the book itself was moving and beautiful. I would even venture to say that it was less about abortion and more about one man's journey through life to find out what his purpose is.

In some ways I feel that although reading is a solitary act, it has prepared me to be a worldly person. When we take controversial issues like abortion and put them in a novel; when we read about characters who seem as foreign to us as a martian and yet could live in our same city; when we look through the eyes of someone else as if they were our own, what we are essentially doing is humanizing something. All too often we read about things from an objective, divorced point of view. It's supposed to help us make decisions. It's supposed to help us be rational. But dehumanizing something is how people have made some of the most inhumane and gruesome decisions in history. Fiction is an excellent way to make people not only consider an issue from both sides, but to feel for both sides as well; to create acceptance. To me, that kind of writing is more powerful than anything else will ever be. And that's what I feel like I've found in The Cider House Rules. Is it trying to change anyone's mind? Not necessarily. But through its humanity it just might.(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2007 Belinda rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who is speculative about others

Shelves: contempopop, treasures, revisited

Like "A Prayer For Owen Meany," one to make you reflect on yourself and the world around you, while you laugh, cry and everything in between. Irving's skill with manipulating the English language for effect has never been more in evidence.

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 01, 2008 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I started the Cider House Rules after giving up on 3 novels that just couldn't hold my attention.
John Irving will certainly make you love reading again. The Cider House Rules is once again a novel rich with characters so real you forget this is fiction and you care about what happens to them.
Why can I only say that about a mere handful of writers?

This is a novel about abortion in the 1940s. The dilemmas of abortion are obvious, and this novel does lean towards pro-choice. I think pro-lifers woul...more

6 likes · like · see review

Oct 08, 2007 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Most bookworms

Cider House Rules started fairly slow, but I found myself engrossed in it more and more as I waded through. The novel focuses largely on the issue of abortion and often confronts the main points with such bald truth that it can feel a little harsh. The story itself isn't as predictable as many novels in this sort of genre, and I found myself really wondering how everything would turn out in the end. I found the moral dilemmas very intriguing and it actually made me evaluate my own beliefs in the...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

Loved it like I loved The World According to Garp. Anybody else ever confuse John Updike with John Irving from time to time? Whoops.

Homer Wells is an orphan at St. Clouds, where Wilbur Larch is giving safe, illegal abortions to women and delivering unwanted babies. I still cannot say exactly where I stand on abortion - I waver back and forth. Of course, CHR makes a case for abortion rights based on incest, and an alternative of chemicals and coat hangers. Which is really the only case for it. B...more

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Feb 18, 2008 kristin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Prayer for Owen Meany made me want to read more from John Irving. While I know I have seen pieces of the movie, it was barely enough to be worth mentioning. This book was a little slow at first, but I've discovered this is because he takes extra steps in developing his characters and setting the stage for their intertwined lives (a theme in the other Irving books I've since read). Ultimately I want to see the movie now for comparison because the book was just so damn good. Very raw and dark at...more

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Aug 10, 2007 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of strangeness

After seeing the movie (which I loved), I knew I wanted to read the book. It's still the only Irving book I've read, but it made me want to read all of them. Homer Wells is a character that I could identify with in a strange, but very specific way. (No, I'm not an orphan. But I have felt so many of the same feelings that he did. Haven't we all?)
The book is, first and foremost, about abortion. It's very pro-choice. So, if that bothers you...well, read it anyway. Maybe it will change your mind.
It'...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 22, 2007 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recentlyread

my first irving novel----how late i came to irving! this novel is full of secrets that you only start to see in hindsight as you reflect on what you've read. irving's depictions of relationships are uniquely complex and full of mysteries that draw me in as a reader and force me to take a very close look. irving is a master of gestures and nuances in novels that can feel, if you aren't reading carefully, like simply a series of short, small actions.

what is extraordinary to me in irving is how mu...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any Adult Serious Reader

OK - this is the second book. Can you tell I like John Irving? Many people have seen the movie based - pretty faithfully thanks to the author's involvement - on the book. I must say I prefer to remember Toby Maguire from this role, however much fun I found Spiderman.

Like most John Irving books, this one is inhabited by real people with flaws and amazing humanity. What did I learn? I am reminded with each read that absolutism in any form can only bloom where the existence of real people and lives...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Christopher Green rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really can't stand John Irving's style of writing. This was a six hundred page novel that should have been three hundred. Also, I found it to be a little heavy-handed. He admits that it is deliberately didactic, but I think he pushes it the the point that it starts working against him. Any character opposing his ideals is put up as a two-dimensional straw man that he villainizes and knocks down, which doesn't help convince anyone of his views. I was surprised to learn that he wrote the screenp...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Inge rated it 5 of 5 stars

really liked this book, the film hasn't a tenth of the story, depth, character et all that is in the book. i highly recommend it and not just to you princes of Maine.

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Jan 25, 2008 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a good book with a good story. However, it is not one of my favorite of John Irving's novels. There is a sexual scene with a woman and a horse that set me off guard somewhere near the beginning of the novel. I also had a difficult time with Doctor Larch's ether addiction as well as his unreasonable and almost psycho obsession with Homer Wells. The graphic abortion scenes were also not very pleasant for me. I think that the writing of John Irving is still commendable however the tone of t...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Walter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of clever writing and tolerance for horror

The author has a great talent for writing. I was impressed at the vividness of the writing and the ability he had of adding humor to the horrible. That being said, there was much too much of the horrible for my liking. Death, betrayal, incest, addiction, self annihilation, and no hope for progress...argh! There is quite enough of this in real life (just read the news). I'd rather avoid dealing with these grim topics in a work of art, unless there is some transcendence of the horror. One could ar...more

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Feb 28, 2008 Alyssa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 18, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent and at times very funny

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Aug 06, 2011 Ron added it · review of another edition

There's no doubt about it: John Irving is a genius. I don't know of any other author to whom I've given three of his books five stars, but this is another, and I've yet to read several of his others.

He produces storylines whose twists and turns are crafted carefully to be convincing yet never predictable; a range of characters that stay in the mind for a long time after putting down the book; research on a variety of topics that makes you believe he's an expert on them all, and also the little t...more

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Apr 29, 2009 Kdubs rated it 5 of 5 stars

i am a wee bit grossed out by this book. i get the reason for the blatant abortion details, but i'm a little too much of a pussy to read about it. and the weird (but kinda sweet) interaction on wilber larch's part toward homer wells is disturbing. i get the feeling he's going to turn out to be a pedafile. but, at the same time, i can't put it down and will likely rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

ok, ok. i take back the part about dr. larch maybe being a baby molester. this book was awesome. i loved it.

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Apr 23, 2013 Sarah Horn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Homer Wells grew up in an orphanage. Well...there's a unique story starter. But Wells' roots are about the only stereotypical story grabber in this entire novel. That and his not so subtle name.

The story is told in flashbacks, chronicling Homer's life. The trauma, the subsequent reaction, the ins and outs of falling in love (Charlize Theron in the movie...awesome). Oh and war, terrible injuries, affairs, lost connections, questionable relationships...basically your stereotypical Irving hodgepodg...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Stacey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recently I read The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall, which basically is about how susceptible we are, as humans, to stories. One point he makes in the book is how morality itself is codified in stories... religions are all based on stories, and sacred myths exist both in religious doctrines as well as nation-making myths (such as the story of Columbus, for example).

Anyway, the point is, he doesn't actually cite The Cider House Rules, but this book is all I could think about when the...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

OK, this is my least favorite Irving novel. I think I'll be stopping with this one... I found it long and tedious. And it has one of my pet peeves, which is bizarre and unexplained quirky character development; I just found that more often than not, the characters said or did things which I just did not understand. I didn't "get" them and I couldn't feel what they were feeling a lot of the time, and this limits my liking of a book.

The story: it's about an orphanage, and how the resident doctor d...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Katia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Avec ce roman, John Irving nous plonge dans l'univers de St Cloud's, un orphelinat. Ce dernier se compose d'une partie médicalisée, où les femmes peuvent accoucher ou se faire avorter. C'est là que se trouve la part du Diable. Notre héros est Homer Wells, un orphelin qui ne trouve pas de famille d'accueil. Il va alors trouver un père de substitution en la personne de Wilbur Larch, le médecin. Je ne saurais dire pourquoi, mais j'ai eu du mal à lire ce roman. J'ai retrouvé un auteur que j'aime mai...more Avec ce roman, John Irving nous plonge dans l'univers de St Cloud's, un orphelinat. Ce dernier se compose d'une partie médicalisée, où les femmes peuvent accoucher ou se faire avorter. C'est là que se trouve la part du Diable. Notre héros est Homer Wells, un orphelin qui ne trouve pas de famille d'accueil. Il va alors trouver un père de substitution en la personne de Wilbur Larch, le médecin. Je ne saurais dire pourquoi, mais j'ai eu du mal à lire ce roman. J'ai retrouvé un auteur que j'aime mais c'est un roman dur dans lequel j'ai eu du mal à entrer ! Comme à son habitude, John Irving crée un ensemble de grandes et de petites histoires, façonnant les protagonistes et expliquant leurs actes. Les personnages sont marqués au fer rouge, ils sont tous plus ou moins écorchés et c'est la raison pour laquelle ils nous sont proches, à travers leurs imperfections. Pensons par exemple à Wally, fils de la patronne du lieu, qui reviendra paralysé de la guerre et dont la femme ne saura jamais lequel elle préfère entre lui et Homer (avec qui elle a eut un enfant pendant sa mobilisation). Les personnages de ce roman sont tous meurtris de façon différente. Ce roman est profondément ancré dans un vocabulaire médical, ce qui semble être un hommage au grand-père de l'auteur (médecin). En effet John irving s'est servi des notes de son aîné pour évoquer notamment les césariennes, et rien ne nous est épargné. Beaucoup de belles images traversent ce roman, des femmes qui refusent leur grossesse pour ne pas rendre leur enfant malheureux, aux orphelins qui tentent de se construire sur des bases qui s'effritent, en passant par les médecins, qui se posent des questions sur leur rôle dans l'oeuvre de Dieu.

C'est l'occasion de soulever les thèmes majeurs du roman, à savoir jusqu'à quand peut-on avorter ? Le foetus a t-il une âme ? Ces interrogations sont le fil d'Ariane du roman.

Ce roman est émouvant et complexe. Ici peu de scènes drôles ou cocasses, ce qui expliquent peut-être ma difficulté à en venir à bout.

L'auteur évoque tout au long de son ouvrage trois romans, David Copperfield, Les Grandes espérances, et Jane Eyre. Bien sûr ces livres représentent les orphelins, mais au delà de ça Irving en fait presque une étude philosophique. Ces romans seront lus à plusieurs reprises par les personnages, et on trouvera même plusieurs citations.

Enfin, n'allez pas croire que ce billet est négatif, car j'ai aimé ce roman ! John Irving a une belle plume et sait nous immerger dans des milieux étranges peuplés de gens loufoques, ce qui est aussi le cas ici. La seule ombre au tableau est mon petit coup de mou qui m'a empêché de dévorer ce roman aussi vite que les autres.(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Maduck831 rated it 5 of 5 stars

“In other parts of the world,” Dr. Larch wrote, “delirious happiness is thought to be a state of mind. Here in St. Cloud’s we recognize that delirious happiness is possible only for the totally mindless. I would call it, therefore, that thing most rare: a state of the soul.” (28) “I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and w...more

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The Cider House Rules = Kindle daily deal 2/21/13	4	39	Feb 21, 2013 04:40pm
Who Thinks Tobey Maguire Was the Best Actor for this Character?	26	106	Jan 03, 2013 10:21pm
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About John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty...more John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty-five foreign languages, and he has had nine international bestsellers. Worldwide, the Irving novel most often called “an American classic” is A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)—the portrayal of an enduring friendship at that time when the Vietnam War had its most divisive effect on the United States.

In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, until he was thirty-four, and coached the sport until he was forty-seven.) In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a Lasse Hallström film with seven Academy Award nominations. Tod Williams wrote and directed The Door in the Floor—the 2004 film adapted from Mr. Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year.

In One Person is John Irving’s thirteenth novel, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2012. A compelling 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.

His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s 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.”

Born John Wallace Blunt, Jr., in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, Mr. Irving’s name was changed to John Winslow Irving in 1948, when his mother remarried. (His mother’s maiden name was Winslow.) Mr. Irving named his first son, Colin, after his stepfather, Colin F.N. Irving, who taught in the History Department at Phillips Exeter Academy, where John Irving graduated in 1961; he was captain of the wrestling team at Exeter, and also wrestled at the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Irving later attended the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria. He has a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and a M.F.A. from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where his mentor was Kurt Vonnegut.

Before the success of The World According to Garp enabled John Irving to become a full-time writer, he had several college teaching positions—not only at his alma mater in Iowa City, where he taught for three years, but also at Mt. Holyoke College and Brandeis University.

In the ‘80s, Mr. Irving lived in New York City and on eastern Long Island; since 1990, he has lived in Toronto and in southern Vermont. He has three sons—Colin, Brendan, and Everett—and four grandchildren. John Irving is married to Janet Turnbull Irving—formerly a Canadian publisher, who is now Mr. Irving’s literary agent in the U.S. His agent in Canada, and for the U.K., is Dean Cooke—at the Cooke Agency in Toronto. Mr. Irving is represented internationally by Nicki Kennedy at I.L.A. in London; his film agent is Robert Bookman at C.A.A. in Los Angeles.

In 2001, Mr. Irving was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Irving’s 70th birthday is March 2, 2012.(less)

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