In this book we follow William "Bill" Abbott and Elaine Hadley, plus many of other side characters but Bill is bisexual male who in the beginning is struggling with what that means and having crushes on all the "wrong people" as he put it. The story follows his life from his early teens thru his life into his early 80s and ALL that entails. I really am finding it difficult to write this review because I really do have SO much to talk about BUT I don't want to write spoiler filled reviews. I will say one of the most difficult relationships to read was between Bill and his mom, She held her relationship with his dad against Bill but it TAKES forever to know why, and the entire family knew and kept it from him. The relationship between Elaine and Bill was one of my favs, they were childhood friends and remained "friends" thru out life and went through thick and thin with one another. Bill's relationship with his grandfather was beautiful. One other relationship that I think made Bill the person he was with Miss Frost, the librarian. Their relationship I think was used to gauge all others in his life. This is not my favorite of John Irving for sure but I did enjoy it. It was difficult to follow at times because of the timeline switch to present/past but it fit the story so I get it. I would recommend the book to others for sure, I really have to dislike a book not to, but this one I feel is important because of there was so much discussed that I feel lots of people don't understand what the LGBTQ have gone through over the years. Overall a great read!