In One Person

Like Gee, that
girl
, or whatever she is—or what she’s
becoming
. You create these characters who are so sexually ‘different,’ as
you
might call them—or ‘fucked up,’ which is what
I
would call them—and then you expect us to
sympathize
with them, or feel sorry for them, or something.”
    “Yes, that’s more or less what I do,” I told him.
    “But so much of what you describe is not
natural
!” Kittredge’s son cried . “I mean, I know what you
are
—not only from your writing. I’ve read what you say about yourself, in interviews. What you are isn’t
natural
—you aren’t
normal
!”
    He’d held his voice down when he was talking about Gee—I’ll give him credit for that—but now Kittredge’s son had raised his voice again. I knew that my stage manager—not to mention the entire cast for
Romeo and Juliet
—could hear every word. It was suddenly so quiet in our little black-box theater; I swear you could have heard a stage mouse fart.
    “You’re
bisexual
, aren’t you?” Kittredge’s son then asked me. “Do you think
that’s
normal, or natural—or
sympathetic
? You’re a
switch-hitter
!” he said, opening the exit door; thank goodness, everyone could see he was finally leaving.
    “My dear boy,” I said sharply to young Kittredge, in what has become my lifelong imitation of the way Miss Frost so pointedly and thrillingly spoke to me.
    “My dear boy, please don’t put a
label
on me—don’t make me a
category
before you get to know me!” Miss Frost had said to me; I’ve never forgotten it. Is it any wonder that this was what I said to young Kittredge, the cocksure son of my old nemesis and forbidden love?

Acknowledgments
    Jamey Bradbury
    Rob Buyea
    David Calicchio
    Dean Cooke
    Emily Copeland
    Peter Delacorte
    David Ebershoff
    Amy Edelman
    Marie-Anne Esquivié
    Paul Fedorko
    Vicente Molina Foix
    Rodrigo Fresán
    Ruth Geiger
    Ron Hansen
    Sheila Heffernon
    Alan Hergott
    Everett Irving
    Janet Turnbull Irving
    Josée Kamoun
    Jonathan Karp
    Katie Kelley
    Rick Kelley
    Kate Medina
    Jan Morris
    Anna von Planta
    David Rowland
    Marty Schwartz
    Nick Spengler
    Helga Stephenson
    Abraham Verghese
    Edmund White

About the Author
    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 langauges, 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, 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 Irving’s ninth novel,
A Widow for One Year
.
    In One Person
is John Irving’s thirteenth novel.

Also by John Irving
    Setting Free the Bears
    The Water-Method Man
    The 158-Pound Marriage
    The World According to Garp
    The Hotel New Hampshire
    The Cider House Rules
    A Prayer For Owen Meany
    A Son of the Circus
    The Imaginary Girlfriend
    Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
    A Widow For One Year
    My Movie Business
    The Fourth Hand
    Until I Find You
    Last Night in Twisted River
    For more information on John Irving and his books, see his website at www.john-irving.com

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
A Random House Group Company
www.transworldbooks.co.uk
    First published in Great Britain
in 2012 by Doubleday
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
    Copyright © 2012 by Garp Enterprises, Ltd.
    John Irving has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
    This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
    Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448125104
ISBN