Paperback review: In One Person, By John Irving

We are formed by what we desire,” declares Bill Abbott, the bisexual narrator of John Irving’s thirteenth novel.

As a teenager growing up in backwoods New England, Bill has crushes on a variety of figures including the local librarian, Miss Frost.

It’s only when his relationship with the redoubtable Miss Frost is consummated that Bill discovers she is in fact a man.

Warmly embracing the history of American sexuality, we follow Bill’s romantic progress from the 1940s to the present day. An unsentimental read on the importance of “crushes on the wrong people”.