Check Out These Great HIV Reads of 2019
| 10/18/19
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith
The award-winning author of Hild, is a fascinatingly intense, semi-autobiographical novel about a woman facing down her demons. The profoundly personal narrative reads much like a memoir, and readers can’t help but empathize with protagonist Mara Tagarelli. In the space of a single week, her wife leaves her and she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In the professional world, Mara is the head of a multi-million-dollar AIDS foundation (a career inspired by someone very close to her living with HIV) and in her personal life, she is a committed martial artist. But when her life is turned upside down overnight, Mara finds herself feeling completely lost and alone. She can’t rely on family, her body is letting her down, and friends and colleagues are distancing themselves, treating her like a victim. Just when all seems lost, she finds an inner strength to fight back against a system that often savagely mistreats the disabled and chronically ill—though her actions unleash new enemies. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
In the Shadow of the Bridge, a memoir by novelist Joseph Caldwell
At its core a love story. But this is a love story that is bittersweet as it comes to fruition in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic. Much of the memoir focuses on the young bohemian’s life in 1950s-’60s New York, a place he migrated to in order to live freely as an out gay man. Living on a street and neighborhood under the Brooklyn Bridge that would soon cease to exist, Caldwell rubs elbows with greats like James Baldwin, finds moderate success as a playwright, and ends up writing for TV soap operas like Dark Shadows and The Secret Storm. Amid it all, he also falls madly in love. However, the fiery affair quickly fizzles and Gale, the man he loves, leaves Caldwell heartbroken and longing. Years later, through a serendipitous twist of fate, the author is reunited with Gale in the darkness of the AIDS epidemic, where Caldwell has become a caretaker for the dying. (Delphinium Books)
Bloodflowers by W. Ian Bourland
examines the photography of Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–1989), an artist whose work created a cultural touchstone for conversation around gender and queerness, race and diaspora, and the enduring legacy of slavery and colonialism. Born in Nigeria, Fani-Kayode migrated through the art and culture scenes of Washington, D.C., New York, and London, where he produced much of his overall body of work—the majority of which consisted of his provocative, often surrealist, homoerotic photographs of Black men. Bourland brilliantly describes Fani-Kayode’s work in a period of global transition, and how it created and responded to profound social, cultural, and political change. In addition to his expert analysis of Fani-Kayode’s portraits, Bourland ties together the unique intersecting elements that made the art of this era incredibly original: surrealism, neo-Romanticism, Yoruban religion, the AIDS crisis, experimental film, loft culture, and house and punk music. (Duke University Press)
Illuminations on Market Street by Benjamin Heim Shepard
covers the AIDS epidemic, nothing new for the author. As the writer and editor of six books, including White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic and From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization, Shepard is well-versed on the topic. But what is new to the Ph.D.-holder and former social worker is writing fiction—which he does brilliantly with his first novel, Illuminations on Market Street, “a story about sex and estrangement, AIDS and loss, and other preoccupations in San Francisco.” Shepard expertly uses his real-life experience to fuel this exciting tale of a recent college grad and budding activist in early ’90s San Francisco. Between punk shows and protests, protagonist Cab learns how to navigate life, love—and loss. (Ibidem Press)
The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts by Andrew E. Stoner
is the new biography of one of the most iconic—and controversial—figures of the AIDS epidemic. After Shilts penned the best-selling exposé And the Band Played On, which revealed uncomfortable truths on why HIV was allowed to spread unchecked during the early ’80s, he was considered the voice of the movement. But his success was not without controversy. It was later discovered that the idea of a “Patient Zero” was bunk. The book focused on a promiscuous Dutch flight attendant who supposedly brought AIDS to the U.S. and infected thousands—a theory now thoroughly discredited via scientific analysis. Behind the scenes, Shilts struggled with alcohol and substance abuse—partly in order to cope with the secret HIV diagnosis that had begun to take his own life. (University of Illinois Press)
I’ve Seen the Future and I’m Not Going: The Art Scene and Downtown New York in the 1980s by Peter McGough
is a must-read for the modern art lover—or anyone who wants to learn more about the fascinating, and often tragic, life experiences of queer Baby Boomers. From growing up gay in the rigid and sexually repressed American 1950s, to the frolicking freedom of the Studio 54 1970s, and finally, to the heartbreak and loss of the ’80s AIDS epidemic, McGough vividly takes you on a journey through time. The author is half of McDermott & McGough, a talented art duo known for their paintings, photography, sculpture, and film work—as well as for choosing to live, right down to their clothes, as though they were in the Victorian era (even living without electricity and other modern conveniences). I’ve Seen the Future and I’m Not Going is also a poignant peek into the wondrous lives of many queer artists, including Keith Haring, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons, whose lives were cut short. (Pantheon Books)
Viral by Ann Bausum
The award-winning author of Stonewall: Breaking Out for Gay Rights, is the first history of the AIDS pandemic created just for teen readers. Bausum beautifully captivates this demographic with her exciting narrative style—while never insulting the politically savvy generation’s intelligence. Viral is told with compassion yet unflinching honesty through the stories of the activists, allies, loved ones, long-term survivors, and even those who lost their lives during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. But offering more than a history of that particular era, the book brings readers through the ’90s, 2000s, today, and beyond in efforts to share the message that the fight against HIV continues. Already adopted as a vital history text in classrooms across the country, Viral is a must-read for anyone, especially teens, wanting to educate themselves on a crisis that affects us all. (Viking)
