First Person Plural is Andrew Beierle's second novel. His first, The Winter of Our Discotheque, has been described as a book for 'rainbow beach bags', or light, campy gay fiction employing all the tricks of a soap opera. First Person Plural, though written in simple, straight-forward, unpretentious prose, is not light reading. While not devoid of humour, this second novel betrays much serious research and reflection. Indeed, in “Freaks 'R' Us: Inhabiting Alien Characters,” a recent guest blog entry on Bookseller Chick, Beierle talks about something probably on the minds of most readers of his novel. What did he do to allow himself so fully into the world, into the most intimate and private lives, of such 'freaks'? The answer, not surprisingly, is that he not only did a certain amount of research on conjoined twins in particular, and twins generally, but that more importantly perhaps, he spent five years deeply immersed in thinking about all manner of things from his own life, and imagining what those things would be like for his characters.
First Person Plural is an idea novel, a thought experiment. What would it be like if two people, two brothers, different in almost every way, but sharing one body, were faced with working out the heterosexual/homosexual conflict? How would they handle that very real, very serious social issue, because they had to, because they did not have the option of running away, of growing apart? How would they learn to find acceptance? How would they allow, and enable, each other to fully be themselves?
The difficulty of carrying out this thought experiment seems evident in the difficulty with which the novel really takes off. While the idea of the novel grabbed me immediately, it took a long time for the story to draw me in, to insist that I continue reading. It seemed laboured, like a heavy plane straining to take off. In order to control the experiment, Beierle takes a long time to set the scene, to put all the variables in place. Some of these efforts seemed a little too controlled. To mitigate the problems of their 'freakhood', so that the main focus could be on the tension resulting from sexual orientation, Beierle places his protagonists in a professional, well-educated, white, financially secure and well-connected family where the boys are able to grow up in a very sheltered and controlled environment. While understandable, the setup seems a bit forced.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!
2 - Frank Riela
My partner and I recently read "First Person Plural" by Andrew Beierle. We had picked it up in a bookstore on a recent trip to Palm Springs, California, where we were visiting friends. I thought it would be light "airplane reading", perfect for the trip back home (to Italy). What I found in reading it was instead a study on one's sense of identity and and the feeling of "otherness" experienced by many minorities. Beierle never made me feel I was reading about "freaks". I never found myself thinking of Owen (the narrator) and Porter (his brother) as anything other than two young guys in a unique situation finding their way in the world, in life and in love, in the way that we all do. I couldn't help but think that we are all "other" in some sense, and most of us struggle with identity along the way too. Perhaps the only difference between Ownen and Porter and ourselves, is that our "otherness" is beneath, as opposed to on, the surface. I highly recommend this excellent novel.