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jackieeh's review against another edition
5.0
Hell yes. An unapologetic, frequently taboo-abutting epic of the AIDS crisis. Sad and fantastic and so, so gloriously written. I love these characters and their gentlenesses and also how gross they can be and how funny.
jainabee's review against another edition
4.0
Like his "Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon" novel, it took me a long time to get into this, but once I did, it threw me around like a good mosh pit. Spanbauer is a patient writer, as at ease with brutality and blasphemy as he is with the most tender and discreet emotions.
But like many a good mosh pit, it seemed more like a tribute to that urge than the urge itself. Even the most harrowing or passionate scenes were so classically constructed that the emotional impact fell short of what the scene called for. Perhaps I am a poor reader, because I know that this is great writing.
Where the emotions and images resonated the strongest and purest were in the delicate, internal moments of our moustachioed protagonist. Sexy Einstein.
Speaking of which, Spanbauer is the master of unusual and tenacious catch phrases. Every time he wrote "Another New Yorker gone to Hell," I heard a car alarm, right on cue. The writing is vivid, sensual, and almost musical. Plus, this would make an excellent film.
But like many a good mosh pit, it seemed more like a tribute to that urge than the urge itself. Even the most harrowing or passionate scenes were so classically constructed that the emotional impact fell short of what the scene called for. Perhaps I am a poor reader, because I know that this is great writing.
Where the emotions and images resonated the strongest and purest were in the delicate, internal moments of our moustachioed protagonist. Sexy Einstein.
Speaking of which, Spanbauer is the master of unusual and tenacious catch phrases. Every time he wrote "Another New Yorker gone to Hell," I heard a car alarm, right on cue. The writing is vivid, sensual, and almost musical. Plus, this would make an excellent film.
matthew_p's review against another edition
3.0
I should probably give this book four stars, but I can't.
I started volunteering with people living with HIV/AIDS when I got to college. It seemed like the right thing to do. It was a show a gratitude to those who'd come before to make my gay life easier. It was a promise that my generation would learn our lessons; keep ourselves healthy.
In the five years I volunteered, I watched young men grow horribly old and die. I discovered how strong the will to live can be. I learned to smile in the face of death; to pretend it wasn't waiting on the couch to take someone else away. And I learned how to say goodbye to beautiful people who didn't get a chance to fulfill their potential. The specter was always close.
After college, I volunteered elsewhere, and learned different things. That the drugs were getting better. People were dying at a more reasonable rate. That life didn't have to end, and that healthy was an option. And I got to stop saying so many goodbyes. And there was talk of a vaccine; a hope that maybe this would end.
And then it didn't. People are still healthy, the drugs work, and sometimes they don't. People get sick, and sometimes they get better. Sometimes they die and I have to remember to say goodbye.
But it's worse now. Now, those young men (and women) are my friends. I knew them before, and now I have to know them after. Watch the struggle. Count the pills. Know about the medical appointments; the tests. Know the counts and the stats and the treatments and the services and the struggle.
And I still can smile. And offer support and advice. I still know which support groups meet when, and I make referrals to service providers. And I make a mean chicken soup.
But I'm tired, and I don't want to do it anymore. I want it to be over, and it's not. It keeps going on. And every time I read "AIDS" in this book, a tiny part of me wanted to hide and never come back. And that's why I had to give it three stars.
But it really deserved four.
I started volunteering with people living with HIV/AIDS when I got to college. It seemed like the right thing to do. It was a show a gratitude to those who'd come before to make my gay life easier. It was a promise that my generation would learn our lessons; keep ourselves healthy.
In the five years I volunteered, I watched young men grow horribly old and die. I discovered how strong the will to live can be. I learned to smile in the face of death; to pretend it wasn't waiting on the couch to take someone else away. And I learned how to say goodbye to beautiful people who didn't get a chance to fulfill their potential. The specter was always close.
After college, I volunteered elsewhere, and learned different things. That the drugs were getting better. People were dying at a more reasonable rate. That life didn't have to end, and that healthy was an option. And I got to stop saying so many goodbyes. And there was talk of a vaccine; a hope that maybe this would end.
And then it didn't. People are still healthy, the drugs work, and sometimes they don't. People get sick, and sometimes they get better. Sometimes they die and I have to remember to say goodbye.
But it's worse now. Now, those young men (and women) are my friends. I knew them before, and now I have to know them after. Watch the struggle. Count the pills. Know about the medical appointments; the tests. Know the counts and the stats and the treatments and the services and the struggle.
And I still can smile. And offer support and advice. I still know which support groups meet when, and I make referrals to service providers. And I make a mean chicken soup.
But I'm tired, and I don't want to do it anymore. I want it to be over, and it's not. It keeps going on. And every time I read "AIDS" in this book, a tiny part of me wanted to hide and never come back. And that's why I had to give it three stars.
But it really deserved four.
zebglendower's review against another edition
5.0
Exceptionally beautiful, raw, and real. One of the best novels I've read in a long time. It's not in the least realistic, and yet, it manages to capture Reality perfectly. As one of the characters says, once AIDS has started killing off so many many many people, "Goddmmit, I know I'm fucking crazy. But the grief and the rage are real! And the disease is real and the war is real!" The novel itself is like that--crazy in a way that makes it entirely lucid.
laninaimantada's review against another edition
5.0
Magnífic. A poc de declarar-me incondicional de Tom Spanbauer. Aquest home és una delícia de llegir.
starnosedmole's review against another edition
4.0
Spanbauer writes raw, aching stories of physical and emotional intimacy. He writes the kind of stories most people would hesitate to share. And his writing is always heart-breaking and beautiful.
emeraldberkowitz's review against another edition
5.0
I was completely entranced by this book and sobbed my way through the end, especially in love with Rose. This book is magical realism about queers dealing with AIDS and performance art in the 1980s in NYC - the Tompkins Sq Park riot is a central moment, and the book is dedicated to Ethyl Eichelberger, among others. On first reading, I felt nervous about the many characters that are mystical people of color... I think TS is a white guy (?) so it raised flags for me, but in the end I think TS's writing is insightful and illuminating about racism (among many other things). I just read this book a second time and was completely swept away all over again. the writing craft was even more moving this time, seeing the well-woven subtle introductions of information that becomes important later in the story. SO GOOD!
lydiaemilyy's review against another edition
3.0
(Sorry, Bert. I hope you can forgive me and that we can move on from this average rating.)
We'll disregard the first 150 pages of this book because I wasn't into the beginning of this book. I don't know what it was I was just kind of bored.
Tom Spanbauer still has the ability to write some really fucking incredible lines that punch you in the gut. And scenes of this book were freaking incredible and intimate and raw. It was brutal, especially towards the end of the book when he really, really started focusing in on the AIDs crisis.
But I wasn't that attached to the characters in this? Which is really weird because normally Spanbauer can get me really emotionally involved with his characters, but I felt kind of detached from them in this one. Which is maybe why I didn't enjoy it as much as his others? Who knows tbh.
We'll disregard the first 150 pages of this book because I wasn't into the beginning of this book. I don't know what it was I was just kind of bored.
Tom Spanbauer still has the ability to write some really fucking incredible lines that punch you in the gut. And scenes of this book were freaking incredible and intimate and raw. It was brutal, especially towards the end of the book when he really, really started focusing in on the AIDs crisis.
But I wasn't that attached to the characters in this? Which is really weird because normally Spanbauer can get me really emotionally involved with his characters, but I felt kind of detached from them in this one. Which is maybe why I didn't enjoy it as much as his others? Who knows tbh.
gerhard's review
5.0
"You're going this way and then shit happens and then you're going that way." This is the story of William of Heaven, how he was wounded by a blow of love, and his search for Charlie2Moons, redemption and enlightenment in New York in the dark days of the AIDS epidemic.
What an extraordinary novel this is, brimming with pain and joy, life and death, heartache and grace, anger and pathos. It is the sort of larger-than-life canvas of a novel that you live in rather than read, that tears at your heart, messes with your head and makes you feel sexy, often all at the same time.
Spanbauer's writing style is not for the faint of heart: he uses phrases, sentences and words like musical motifs, repeating them in various patterns and refrains. This makes for an often choppy, yet densely coded, reading experience that you just have to surrender yourself to, in order to gain the full effect. Magnificent.
What an extraordinary novel this is, brimming with pain and joy, life and death, heartache and grace, anger and pathos. It is the sort of larger-than-life canvas of a novel that you live in rather than read, that tears at your heart, messes with your head and makes you feel sexy, often all at the same time.
Spanbauer's writing style is not for the faint of heart: he uses phrases, sentences and words like musical motifs, repeating them in various patterns and refrains. This makes for an often choppy, yet densely coded, reading experience that you just have to surrender yourself to, in order to gain the full effect. Magnificent.
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