Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited: AIDS and Its Aftermath

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780786720392
• Inure: New
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Description

One of the most harrowing, insightful books ever written about the AIDS epidemic--now considerably expanded and revised 20 years after its original publication.

Andrew Holleran's Ground Zero, first published in 1988 and consisting of 23 Christopher Street essays from the earliest years of the AIDS crisis, was hailed by the Washington Post as "one of the best dispatches from the epidemic's height." Twenty years later, with HIV/AIDS long recognized as a global health challenge, Holleran both reiterates and freshly illuminates the devastation wreaked by AIDS, which has claimed the lives of 450,000 gay men as well as 22 million others.

Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited features ten pieces never previously republished outside Christopher Street, as well as a new introduction keenly describing and evaluating a historical moment that still informs and defines today's world--particularly its community of homosexuals, which, arguably, is still recovering from the devastation of AIDS.

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Customer Reviews

THE BEST AUTHOR WRITING ON GAY LIFE
CHRONICLE OF A PLAGUE, REVISITED is a collection of essays that shows how the AIDS epidemic devastated the gay community in New York during the 1980s. A gifted stylist, Holleran's writing is deeply felt, honest, and witty. I not only read this new edition in one sitting, but I went back to my old copy of GROUND ZERO and read the essays that he edited out, including the historically important "The Absence of Anger." When I lived in New York, the one time that I used the New York Public Library's Research Library on Fifth Avenue is when I went to read Holleran's column in the back issues of the now gone magazine CHRISTOPHER STREET. So, I was delighted that he added to this new edition ten of those excellent essays that were not in the original GROUND ZERO. This freshly edited book is more focused and powerful than the original and should be essential reading for any gay man.

2009-01-15 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Very happy to find this back in print
The majority (but not all) of these essays were initially published as GROUND ZERO, a collection published in the mid-1980s, chronicling the sudden changes in gay life brought about by AIDS (as well as other subjects, such a beautifully lucid essay on Henry James). This is an important book, with essays that are as imagistically rich as they are contemplative, and I'm VERY glad to see it back in print in this new edition!

2008-11-08 (Washington, DC USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Andrew Holleran At His Best
When Andrew Holleran burst on the gay literary scene with DANCER FROM THE DANCE we knew we had never read anything quite this wonderful before that was about us. He has consistently written fine novels since that time and continues to fill a needed niche in gay literature, whatever that term means. I have read and own every book he has written, and always looked forward to reading his columns in the gay literary magazine "Christopher Street." Now twenty years after the collection of essays dealing with AIDS was published as GROUND ZERO, he has revisited that volume, make some deletions, some additions and has written a thoughtful new introduction. These essays are still painful to reread, calling to mind things I had forgotten: the four hour buzzer to remind patients to take AZT, the friends who would not drink from the same glass as another, the treatment that Rock Hudson went to France for, the euphemistic use of the word "exposure" rather than saying someone had been exposed to AIDS, Patient Zero. The list goes on and on.

In his introduction Mr. Holleran says that he wrote these essays out of a great feeling of fear and impotence-- when writing fiction seemed useless-- something he captures with awful eloquence in what perhaps is his very best writing. Although he lived in the center of the storm in New York, his experiences were mirrored, sad to say, in every major city in this country during the awful 1980's. His Emmanuels, Eddies and Cosmos et al were my Pierces and Ralphs and Kens and Judds. AIDS in large cities with ACT-UP and support groups and creative funerals was very different than what people experienced in small towns, a dilemma that Abraham Verghesse, a brilliant and most humane physician, captures so poignantly in MY OWN COUNTRY, an account of his experience in caring for people with AIDS in Johnson City, Tennessee in the 1980's. Holleran reminds us that some of us acted badly-- he tells of the man who infected someone he knew but denied that he had AIDS-- but that many of us rose to the occasion and took care of the dying when our government for the most part in those awful Reagan years looked the other way.

By far the best essay in this collection is "Bobby's Grave" which is not about AIDS in New York but about the death, funeral and burial of a friend of Holleran's from Florida, so beautifully written but so sadly familiar.

I am not sure who will read these essays. Many of those who lived through this dreadful time and are still standing probably will not want to revisit the 1980's. Our address books with names crossed out or every time we pass the apartment building that housed people with AIDS where a friend lived and died are sober reminders that our friends are forever gone. On the other hand, nothing captures better than these essays the utter horror of that time. We can only hope that a day will come when the events of CHRONICLE OF A PLAGUE REVISITED will be just a part of ancient history.

2008-07-11 | Foster Corbin (ATLANTA, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Remembering
Holleran, Andrew. "Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited", De Capo Press, 2008.

Remembering

Amos Lassen

It is always an important day for me when a new Andrew Holleran book comes out. Holleran was the author who introduced me to the world of gay literature and last year I finally had the chance to meet him when my reading group invited him to participate in the Arkansas Literary Festival. He is a wonderful writer and a prince of a man.
"Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited" is a look back at the AIDS epidemic and what it has done and still is doing to our community. It is a collection of twenty-four essays that appeared in "Christopher Street" magazine during the epidemic. Holleran assesses what we lost and looks at the era and the literature it produced. In "Ground Zero" published in 1988, Holleran published twenty-three essays which he wrote during the early years of the AIDS crisis and had been published in "Christopher Street". When he found out the book was out of print, he decided that we could not, as a community, forget what had been our holocaust. Holleran took the essays and reframed them with a new introduction and issued "Chronicles of a Plague, Revisited". When "Ground Zero" was published it was hailed by many as a review in "The Washington Post" stated, "one of the best dispatches from the epidemic's height". Looking backwards, we
learn that AIDS took the lives of almost half a million gay men and twenty-two million others. Can we allow ourselves to forget? Dare we do so?
AIDS seems to have become a historical moment in time, an epidemic that defines an age. Many today do know what is was like back then; when we were afraid to read the obituaries in the morning paper because we did not want to see the name of someone we knew. My generation is almost gone and those that are no longer here left this world with lives half finished. They will never be replaced and although we have made great strides of late, they could have been so much greater. We lost so many of our heroes and our leaders, so many beautiful men in the prime of life. We still live in the shadow of the disease that tried to erase us from the world.
Andrew Holleran tells us about it and he does not mince his words. I lived through the period and I know he says the truth--eloquently and intellectually and with a gift for using the right words. Many of you did not experience AIDS and some of you have forgotten that it ever was around. The AIDS of today is very different from what was and in a way it is still the same. It decimated us and it brought us together.
Holleran says we mist refocus in it. He has chosen to delete the stories from "Ground Zero" that were about sexual freedom and instead we get a more personal look at the effects of the disease and the way it still affects us today. We know that AIDS has changed our lives, our culture, our America. Let Holleran tell you how.
Personally, I have a hard time reading about AIDS. I was living in Israel when the epidemic hit and during the peak of it. Whenever I came back to visit America, I would learn that more and more of my friends were either ill or gone. For me, it is too real and when I do read, I cry. I cried through "Ground Zero" and I cried through "Chronicle" and I will probably cry again and again. But crying is a release and it is necessary for me to do in order to get on with my life.
Holleran writes in a lyrical and melodic style which is methodic and captivating, He has always been a hero to me and meeting him right after having survived Katrina and relocating to Little Rock will always be one of the highlights of my life. I will never forget how pleased he was when we talked about how I dealt with change and I know he saw the glow on my face as he autographed his books for me. "Ground Zero" was lost to Katrina but "Chronicle" is now here to replace it.
If you read no other non-fiction book of gay literature, make sure this is the one you choose. And let Holleran know how much we appreciate all that he has done for us.

2008-05-20 (Little Rock, Arkansas) | Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 5

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Holleran's words are still a vivid truth now 20 years later...
Andrew Holleran's book, Dancer From the Dance, was the first piece of gay fiction I ever read back in college. After reading it twice, I immediately sought out his other books. He still remains my all time favorite writer to this day.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a used copy of Ground Zero here on Amazon many years ago. In the introduction of his new book, Chronicle of a Plague, Holleran mentions that he had to find a copy of the out of print book at the library. Over the course of 20 years, it had only been checked out about 12 times, a strange metaphor for how society sometimes views AIDS. It's a subject which comes and goes from our attention sporadically, but is still there and still is a harsh truth we have to face.

When I found out about this new book being an updated version of Ground Zero with new stories, a refocus on the "plague," I decided to go back and reread the original. Holleran's bath house conversations and tales of the "ole days" on Fire Island were like reading history for me, a history I didn't experience because I was too young then or not even born. The AIDS I know is very different from the one Holleran writes about. And yet, it is still the same. Some of us have just forgotten about it, or have chosen to forget.

And so, Holleran demands that we refocus on it here in this revamped collection. He has removed some of the stories which were more about the sexual freedom that quickly became a thing of the past, and turned our eyes more toward the personal effects the disease had, and still has, on his friends and acquaintances. How has it changed us in twenty years, how has it changed gay culture, and how has it changed America?

Whether this is your first time reading these stories, or if you had the pleasure of reading the original from 1988, those who know Holleran's writing will be pleased. His dreamy methodic style of writing is captivating and definitely holds your attention. It's something you can relate to and will want to question and ponder. The new additions to the book are a fresh look at how things have changed in twenty years for the writer, for all of us.

2008-05-08 | Shannon L. Yarbrough (St. Louis, MO USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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In September, the Light Changes: The Stories of Andrew Holleran

Description

Andrew Holleran's first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is recognized as a classic portrait of gay life in New York in the 1970s. His subsequent works, from Nights in Aruba and The Beauty of Men to the essays in Ground Zero, established Holleran as the preeminent voice in the contemporary gay literary canon. His fiction has earned comparisons to that of Guy de Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and now Holleran returns with a collection of sixteen powerful short stories. Exploring the lives and times of those who have lived past the exuberance of youth, these tales make for a moving journey across landscapes of regret and loss, shame and pride, loneliness and love. With a surprising yet sensitive comic touch, Andrew Holleran has written his most mature work to date--a poignant, polished collection.

"Like John Cheever's work, these stories are suffused with a sense of magic and the possibility of grace." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

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"Who cares what straight people think about us?" complains one of the characters in Andrew Holleran's first collection of short stories. "I don't care if they understand what I do in bed. I don't even understand what I do in bed, I could care less what they think about it." And just as many of the gay men in these 16 stories (only three of which have been previously published) refuse--or simply feel no need--to explain themselves, so too does Holleran explore his characters' lives with no effort to justify them. His witty, urbane characters who vacation in Key West or Fire Island are not the only types of gay men, of course, just those Holleran has chosen to write about. He writes on his own terms, and his characters--even when they are struggling to navigate through desire or loss--live on their own terms, not as stereotypes but as people with complex emotional lives.

Holleran's stories are crafted with such polished prose--slyly humorous and achingly poignant in turn--that one is immediately struck by their beauty. Every story seems to have its share of brilliant dialogue or descriptive passages, like the storyteller in "The Hamburger Man" who "didn't have the very best gossip--but ... belonged to that class of people who know one or two people who do." And in the final story, which gives the book its title, Holleran shows that he's equally adept at capturing the fleeting beauty of nature, in a setting "annealed by a delicate silver light, the most beautiful light of the whole year, a light that was both warm (if one lay in the sun, as he did now) and cool (if one stood in the shade)."

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Customer Reviews

Fun and Good Reading
I don't care what anyone else says, Andrew Holleran's book are the best in gay fiction!!!! I have every one of them and love to read him! I have a habit of keeping a red pencil near me when reading his books, as every so often I come across a statement or comment he uses that reminds me totally...of my own experiences when younger. He knows gay men and gay life, pre AIDS. Probably post AIDS too, but I less like to read stories from this era. His books are a blast from the past for me and they are so enjoyable and his style is SO wonderful. When my best friend was alive, we would discuss passages from his books and identify with his stories-and when I reread his books, I relive all of it. This collection of short stories is very good reading and Holleran's books are some of my most favorites which I will always keep. He couldn't write enough for me.

2007-07-26 | readalot (Los Angeles, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Beautiful Stories
Holleran, Andrew. "In September, the Light Changes: The Stories of Andrew Holleran", Plume Reprint, 2001.

Beautiful Stories

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

When I first read Andrew Holleran's "In September, the Light Changes" found it to be a beautifully written collection of short stories. I reread it last night and now I think that by saying the stories are beautiful is an understatement. I have always admired Holleran's writing because of his keen sense of observation and his wonderful prose. He draws his characters sharply and he writes with a sense of immediate reality and in doing so shows a world where gay sex is plentiful and love and romance do not seem to exist. This is a theme of Holleran's and can be found in most of his work but this does not mean his work is pessimistic or depressing; what is does say is that he writes of things as they are--in many cases. It is Holleran's ability to describe that brings gay literature to a new level and his extraordinary style pervades his writings.
I love Holleran's novels but these short stories really spoke to me. He writes about the lives of gay men in the 1970's in New York. The grit of the real world is there and he deals with issues that are true such as loneliness and abandonment as well as self-recognition and friendship.
My rereading of the book renewed the initial feeling I had when I first read it. The stories are small and even though all of the stories in some way return to the idea of New York of 30 yeas ago, Holleran varies the locales and themes. His stories are part of a larger whole like movements of a symphony. When he writes about love and lust and friends, he touches emotions that have been hidden or sublimated.
These stories were written over a period of twenty years and they are original and funny as well as tragic. Holleran writes from the heart and you will easily feel this as you read through the sixteen stories that make up this wonderful book. His polished prose coupled with his command of the English language make even the sad stories a pleasure t read. In fact the author's voice is so well felt that you question whether you are reading or listening to him tell the stories.
The collection is strong and powerful, it is the sense of place that makes the stories so wonderful. I think however that Holleran has the potential to be a great crossover author because of the beauty of the way he writes. I do not feel that he has been given the credit he deserves and this is because he has been classified and marginalized as a gay author. I am truly thankful that we can call him our own but I certainly wish society at large would have a look at his writings. Since they don't, they are missing a great deal.

2007-03-23 (Little Rock, Arkansas) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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beautiful
beautiful simply because holleran's observations are keen and well-written. deeply satisfying and true.

2006-01-10 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Light and Dark
I am just as impressed with this book on my second reading as on my first, years earlier: the beauty of the prose, the sharply drawn characters and the sense of reality that the writing imparts. On my second perusal, however, I noticed more strongly, the loneliness and restrained sadness that suffuses nearly all the stories. Andrew re-creates on paper, a homosexual world wherein sex is abundant, love a rarity and romance non-existent. This book might have sunk into pessimism and gloom but Andrew lifts it up to rarified layers with his sheer talent for description. Whether it's a graduate house or a lifeless station platform, a small town or a big city, the precision and economy of his style is extraordinary.

(...)

2004-03-27 (Melbourne, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5

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Running short
I'm alittle torn on this one:

Ok, first off I have to say that I loved the book because Andrew Holleran's writing shines marvelously in short story form. Seriously I think I enjoyed his WRITING more in this than in any of his novels.

Also, "The Penthouse" (one of the stories) was DIVINE! I give "The Penthouse" like 100 stars! I read it twice!

HOWEVER, I cannot give this book more than 3 stars because...with only a few exceptions...all the stories are the same. They are all about gay men in New York in the 70's. All of them. Even ones that are technically set later on or in a different place INEVITABLY end up about gay men in New York in the 70's. And I'm sorry there's too many stories to justify the lack of diversity in subject. When place names, events, and pretty much characters themselves are repeating from story to story it gets old.

I really wish this book was shorter and included a cross-section of the stories in there. Heck, if it was just "The Penthouse" I would of been supremely happy. Even Andrew Holleran's fabulous writing can't save the stale subjects he ruminates on endlessly.

However if you love Holleran as I do, and are in the mood to search for the diamond in the rough (did I mention "The Penthouse" yet?) then I recommend!

2003-08-30 (Newbury Park, CA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 3

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Ground Zero

Description

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Customer Reviews

Great essays/stories on AIDS
This was a great collection from Holleran. I think it's first printing was limited as it was even a little hard to get a first edition when it was published. Anyway, this collection is both funny and heartbreaking. Similar to Feinberg's collection, but I think he says more with laughter and tears than Feinberg did with anger. Highly recommended.

2003-01-21 | butchm (Lynn, MA United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Evocative essays on AIDS
This book is at times stunning, at times difficult to read, always worthwhile. It can be compared to David Feinberg's brilliant, scathing "Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone," especially in the hard-hitting gallows humor of the essay "Fashion 1985."

These essays are similar to Holleran's effort in the late John Preston's anthology "Personal Dispatches." Although Holleran is most famous for his short stories, and the novels "Dancer from the Dance" and "The Beauty of Men," this may turn out as his most enduring work -- witty, angry, heartbreaking.

1999-01-23 | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 4

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Dancer from the Dance: A Novel

Description

One of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene. From Manhattan's Everard Baths and after-hours discos to Fire Island's deserted parks and lavish orgies, Malone looks high and low for meaningful companionship. The person he finds is Sutherland, a campy quintessential queen -- and one of the most memorable literary creations of contemporary fiction. Hilarious, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking, Dancer from the Dance is truthful, provocative, outrageous fiction told in a voice as close to laughter as to tears.

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Customer Reviews

Hauntingly Lyrical Prose
So well written, it will make your heart ache. It's an ode to our inhuman infatuation with beauty. Holleran has a passion for prose that makes the story jump off the page. This is story telling at its finest.

2009-04-21 (formerly New Orleans, LA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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"Indifference is the great Aphrodisiac." says the queen.
Holleran is 'old school' gay writer. He can write an excellent gay novel without any graphic sex! The story he tells is everything!
Touching sensitive novel of a man called Malone, who comes from wealth and privilege and carves out a niche for himself as a successful, hardworking lawyer. His work is everything but leaves him empty and alone.
Then one summer, our lonely virgin, Malone, helps a gardener every day after work...and enjoys it. Why then is Malone tearful and mournful when the gardener leaves?
He has an epiphany!! He is gay! This beautiful untouched man decides to experience gay life and gay men. He quits everything and moves to New York.
Malone, (the man who doesn't know how beautiful he is), is an enigma in New York...polite,gay, beautiful,sweet,hot and nice to everyone.

Holleran has a wonderful literary gift of putting out phrases that can sum up the feelings of gay men in terms that are easy to understand.

eg."Remember that the vast majority of homosexuals are looking for a superman to love and find it very difficult to love anyone merely human, which we unfortunately happen to be."

"The point is that we are not doomed because we are homosexual, we are doomed only if we live in despair because of it.."

He describes the life of gays in New York and their favorites haunts where they were happiest..Fire Island in the summer, the Everard Baths, the discoteques before they were discovered, the endless round of parties that you could never go to until at least 2am!

Holleran depends upon his words and turns of phrases to appeal to not only the homosexual but hetero females like me and makes an excellent well-developed story.

I love Holleran's writing! They draw the reader into the enigmatic world of gays...their codes,their lifestlye,their mantra and even their cruelty toward each other.

Sensitive,stunning,cruel,loving..the world of the gay man in 70's New York is not easy..but Malone makes it look easy.

2008-10-01 (Canada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Beautiful and grim
Holleran is a masterful writer with some beautiful writing, but his work here and later often seems relentlessly grim. This book is a bit self-consciously Fitzgeraldesque, with a few mentions of "Dutch sailors" seeming like a riff on the last passages of "The Great Gatbsy." A lot of the prose is interior, not much plot.

This isn't a book to read if you're disenchanted with contemporary urban gay life and want to see how things were better "back then." If drug- and booze-addled, hyper-promiscuous adults irritate you in real life, if adults whose every other word is "darling" or "fabulous" annoy you, if you don't like adults who refer to each other by camp pseudonyms, or if references to feces on someone's lips aren't your bag, you probably won't enjoy this book.

Like all lasting fiction, however, the book was ahead of its time in foreshadowing the destructiveness of much of the behavior chronicled here, and its lessons are relevant more than ever, 30 years later.

2007-11-12 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Dated but still engaging and relevant
Written in the window between the Stonewall uprising and the discovery of HIV, the book brings to life a gay-ghettoed crew of colorful, fascinating characters, doing this better in my opinion than the Boys in the Band.

2007-08-14 (Silver Spring, MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Lived to tell the tale
I lived through the era that AH writes of, it was an astonishing time, and he wrote an astonishing book. If you haven't read it, do yourself a big favor and do so immediately.

2007-03-15 (Portland) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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The Beauty of Men: A Novel

Description

Lark struggles with his loneliless, his aging, the loss of so many of his friends to AIDS and the obsessive feelings he experiences toward one young man, Becker, who has taken over his dreams. Reprint."

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Lake doesn't work and doesn't have friends, a job, or even a first name. All he really has is an abundance of memories of the unsatisfied life of a middle-aged gay man. "I've been a flop as a homosexual," says Lake. The book revolves around Lake's recollection of a time spent lost and hopeless and takes place in Gainesville, Florida, a place as unspectacular as his existence. In this examination of a life given to thinking about worry and lust, Andrew Holleran raises disturbing questions for people of every sexual preference.

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Customer Reviews

Thoughtfully provocative
FL to attend to his widowed mother who had a fall that paralyzed her from the neck down. He leaves NY as the AIDS epidemic slows down after devastating the lives of most of the people he knows.

The sexual lifestyle that preceded AIDS is gone now. He finds Gainesville equally subdued. He frequents a boat ramp where men can find sex in the wash room. He goes to a gay bar, where men his age are ignored. He occasionally goes to a bath house in Jacksonville where he can have little sexual solace.

His friends in Florida, few that there are, and he review their lives. He thinks back to his friend Joshua from NY who committed suicide and Sutcliffe who succumbs to AIDS. The devastation of that disease did not merely kill people; it frightened them into living solitary lives.

Lark reflects on his life and his reveries are marked with pathos. His thoughts of this time in MY reveal not only the desolation of a disease, but a futility of a life lead for pleasure. Youth ends and so does desirability, but the need for touch remains.

These reflections are parallel to the condition of his mother, for 12 years can do nothing for herself. He feels imprisoned by her needs and appalled by the vulnerability she must endure. At the end of her life, Lark castigates himself for all the times he didn't see her or felt unable to help her. He admires her ability to live through this infirmity with grace and patience.

The novel is not so much story than meditations on being gay and its pleasures and isolation. The novel reflects on how people try to live through dullness and fear. Not religious, Lark frequently turns to issues life prayer, death and God. He does not practice a religion, but he finds he needs to consider questions.

There are many passages concerning life issues and Holleran's insights are challenging. While not depressing, these thoughts demand and provoke the reader to consider sex, like death, touch, need, desire. The young are gods, but only for a time. What follows youth is far more difficult. In one sense those who died of AIDS before their middle years did not have to face the rejection of their gay brothers. They did not have to face a life that could no longer be lived for pleasure. They did not have to experience years of rejection or pretensions that it did not matter.

Reading this novel requires one to reflect on what is truly meaningful in one's life. That is all it offers. There is no lover at the end of the book. There is only the challenge to find the value in one's own life in something - something hardly defensible, but sensible. This is a demanding book, but worth the struggle to read.

2010-07-05 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Eloquent, poetic and thought provoking
"The Beauty of Men" is a poignant story of loss and loneliness told from the perspective of Lark, 47 years old,residing in Florida to take care of his invalid mother. Lark was young in the heyday of the 70's when beautiful men enjoyed a carefree hedonism yet unaffected by the AIDS epidemic. It is a sad story filled with pathos and angst, as Lark recounts his friends from his glory days (all of whom have died), while he is aging alone without love, yet continually seeking it in the places he feels reduced to haunting for brief encounters - a secluded boat ramp as an example. There is a sense of melancholy pervasive from beginning to end in this story, but Holleran writes so elegantly, capturing the character's sense of diminishment so precisely, you appreciate the writer rather than the mood evoked. Lark is a healthy middle-aged man. He is experiencing the natural aging process yet cannot seem to reconcile himself to it. Instead of acceptance and appreciation (he's alive, he made it through the plague - his friend's did not), he mourns the loss of youth and beauty - searching it out like the Holy Grail - an acolyte at the altar of younger men rather than the priest. As I read the story of Lark, I kept remembering Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, "When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state...And look upon myself and curse my fate." "The Beauty of Men" is eloquent and poetic although I found it somewhat heartbreaking at times. It is not necessarily a "must" read, but it certainly a worthwhile one.

2010-06-11 (Benicia, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Beauty of Feelings
Holleran, Andrew. "The Beauty of Men", Plume Reprint. 1997.

The Beauty of Feelings

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

I read "The Beauty of Men" when it first came out and I was then reviewing for a paper in New Orleans. I was "wowed" by it and after conducting a phone interview with Andrew Holleran, the author, I found that the book spoke to me even more, Holleran knows how to touch a reader, how to use feeling in a book that makes the reader identify with what is going on in his books. When I read his new book "Grief" I was so stunned by it that I had to sit back and contemplate my life and re-evaluate what I was doing. Both "Grief" and "The Beauty of Men" caused me to accept the fact that even though I am no longer young, there is still a lot of me to give and there is still a lot to be done.
Holleran manages to capture feelings beautifully. The angst that we as older gay men feel has never seemed so real as it is when I read Holleran. The same can be said for the way he deals with hopelessness and sadness. In "The Beauty of Men', we have the painful story of Lark who is a survivor. He is alive after AIDS has decimated the gay population and more importantly, his group of friends. It is a dark and brooding book on what being an aging gay man is all about. All of us are aware that today's culture is youth oriented and good looks play an important role in all that we do. The eloquence of Holleran's prose as he relates the loneliness and the feelings of emptiness of gay middle-aged men who have survived their friends is so beautiful and so real that it is hard to read him without a tear. Even more interesting is the realization of Lark that it is not only AIDS that has changed gay America but also the fact that his generation is due to be replaced by a more vibrant one; a generation of beautiful young men. Yet it is important to note that this is only one view of the future for gays in the world--one that, as beautifully written about as it is, I do not really want to be a part of.
The story is painful and as we read of the emptiness of Lark's life and read of his self exploration, we feel the limbo that he feels he has reached. Because he is lonely, he looks for relief at a restroom on a local boat ramp and in fantasizing of a relationship with a guy he once had a one night stand with. As easily read as this book is, it is compelling and important and it is not all drab. There are moments of comic genius that often temper Lark's profound sense of loss.
Personally, as much as I identified with Lark, I did not like him very much. His self imposed existence in a nether world where he feels he can never again feel comfort or solace by the touch of another human is something I do not want to identify with. He leads a life that is less than idealistic. As he looks back on his life, Lark finds that it isn't what he wanted it to be and when he realizes that each person he has known is just another part of society who draws his own self-esteem from it, he condemns himself to a life of misery based on unhappy memories. He finds it hard to accept the reality of life but he understands that it is society which determines happiness. Lark finds himself becoming invisible because he feels that he is lacking in beauty and youth and he feels the benefits of being straight and old as opposed to being gay and old. He becomes bitter and in that he seals his own future.
What the book does is provide an insight into growing old alone--the road to which most of us are going and the picture he paints is not a pretty one--but it is honest and realistic.
Some feel the book takes itself too seriously--I disagree. Because Holleran wrote it does not mean that you have to accept it. I am not planning on being alone all of my life and I don't think that any of us will choose that. As depressing as the book is, it is real. Lark was unfortunate but we do not all have to be that way. The worst thing about being gay is getting old and Holleran gives us a picture of that. Most authors would not touch the subject so for that alone he is to be commended. Much of what he has to say about aging is right on the button. In mixing the reality of life with the truth, he gives us what many will feel--as unpleasant as it is. Some of us need to face reality and if we do so early enough perhaps we will not have the same situation that Lark faces. The writing alone is worth the price of the book--it is POWERFUL and it is HONEST." The Beauty of Man" deals with something we really don't want to hear--but if we must hear it, let us hear it with beautiful words.

2007-03-21 (Little Rock, Arkansas) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Beautiful Pathos! Eloquent! Sad!
Holleran's unusual way of describing feelings seemed to capture the angst,sadness,hopelessness of the main character. He is an aging gay who keeps himself in good shape but cannot find love anymore. Except from one who doesn't want him. The only time he feels young is when he visits his mother in the nursing home. When he walks in he gets the same 'rush' he used to get as a young gay man entering a bar. Thus Lark becomes obsessed with this younger man he met once. He feeds us fragments of their one-night stand until he finally gives us entire story. He is very masterful with his uses of similes and metaphors to delve deep into the feelings of Lark and pull them out for the reader. A great example is how Lark describes himself as "a car and [...]" after so many years of cruising the boat ramp. I loved that this book was so filled with wonderful phrases to show us how Lark feels about his life past and present. It was such a sad story - but so wonderful in it's sadness!

2006-10-13 (Canada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Bleak but beautifully written look at "one" gay man's life.
"The Beauty of Men" is a dark and brooding meditation on what it means to be an aging homosexual in a culture consumed with youth and beauty. With a surety and eloquence hitherto absent from his writing, Mr. Holleran conveys the emptiness and loneliness of a middle-aged man dealing not only with the impact of the plague, but with the mind numbing realization that "...even without AIDS their world would have come to an end...their nightclubs would have filled up with another generation."

It was important for me to remind myself while reading this dark gem from the author of "Dancer from the Dance" and "Nights in Aruba," that this is but one future available to gay men, NOT the only one.

2005-05-29 | I. Sondel - lover of the arts (Tallahassee, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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The Man I Might Become: Gay Men Write About Their Fathers

Description

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Customer Reviews

Made me cry
I am not an emotional person, but this book really hit me hard. Some of the writing is incredible heartbreaking while at other times you will laugh out loud. I bought the Kindle version for my Ipod touch, but now want the hard copy to read again.

2009-08-28 | rural (Houston, TX) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Father's Place
Holleran, Andrew (foreword) and Bruce Shenitz (editor). "The Man I Might Become: Gay Men Write About Their Fathers", Da Capo Press, 2008.

A Father's Place

Amos Lassen

Over 24 gay men write about their fathers in "The Man I Might Become". Relationships between fathers and sons are often very complicated and we see here that fathers who were distant had no idea how much they influenced their male children. In this anthology some of the best gay writers personally discuss the father/son dynamic. There are 28 selections that show the emotions that come into play in the relations between father and son.
The book can easily be broken into three different sections--fathers who died without knowing that their sons were gay, fathers who would not accept the fact that their sons were gay and father who were totally accepting. This is
a wonderful resource for those who are just coming to terms with their sexuality. We see that the gay community is maturing. Gay men are now beginning to accept and understand themselves and, in some cases, are able to forgive their fathers for whatever reason they might have about the lack of a relationship if that is what happened. Many have risen above poor father/son relationships.
The book is both affirming and sad as we read about shame and forgiveness and conflict and acceptance. This is not a book that preaches nor is it self-righteous. I think that it is because the stories are so honest and personal that this book is so good. Some of the stories are shocking, some are tender and sweet and there are several that give us something to think about. The most important thing that the book shows us is that the words and actions of parents have an impact on children's lives.

2009-03-19 (Little Rock, Arkansas) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Landmark Collection
"The Man I Might Become" is a landmark collection that shows a welcome maturation of the gay community - an acknowledgement that to understand and accept the self, we must understand and forgive others. And for many gay men, there is no figure more "other" than one's own father. Yet, as the title suggests, coming to terms with one's father is also a way to truly see oneself. The best essays in the book (notably those of Joseph Hansen and Bernard Cooper) are superbly written evocations of the knot of father-son love, scary and deep with feeling.

2003-09-30 (California) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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Add this to your library
I'm not a fan of compilations since they tend to be uneven and often predictable but this one is an exception to the rule. It is by turns affirming and profoundly sad. The themes of conflict and acceptance, shame and forgiveness have rarely been touched upon in such a sensitive way. I found it terribly affecting and emotionally honest without it being sentimental. The sort of confessional, self-revelatory writing sometimes runs the risk of sounding preachy or self-rightous; this book succeeds precisely because it does neither. I'd recommend it to parents, gay or straight, as well as to their children.

2003-01-27 (NYC) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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Very cool
This book book is great. Over the holidays I had a chance to read it (some of it twice). I have to say i didn't expect it to be such a captivating read. As it turned out it was the kind of thing where you cant just read one story - you have to get the next one in and then the next - staying up way past bedtime!! It was fun - in places dark, in other very funny. I am always amazed at how many different points of view there are on the topic of parents. It is amazing what some parents are capable of. It was fascinating to see how people had come to terms with their lot in life and managed to rise above, forgive, and so on. I also think it is a treasure in the sense that things are changing quickly and that in 20 years, folks might write quite differently. A must for every library. Enjoy!

2003-01-15 (Canada) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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