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josieruby1's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
caiacassiopeia's review against another edition
emotional
informative
5.0
If I turned around everytime somebody called me a f*ggot - he would say - I‘ll be walking backwards, and I don’t wanna walk backwards.
Biography
Narrator: Joel Froomkin
elspethm's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this biography of former SF Supervisor Harvey Milk and what led him to his office. I hadn't realized how he ended up in SF and his rise to popularity in the area. There was also an interesting discussion of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, which was in the news at that time and Milk and Mayor Moscone had had a connection with Jones before the tragedy. It was nice hearing about the history of SF politics as well as Milk's life in general.
veleda_k's review against another edition
4.0
(I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
This is an engaging, accessible biography that offers some new angles from which to examine the life of Harvey Milk. Faderman places Milk's Jewish identity at the forefront of his story, showing how Milk's Jewishness influenced his activism and life. It's not an aspect that I've seen scholarship on Milk examine much before, so I liked the fresh angle.
There's a frank examination of Milk's flaws and foibles. Faderman looks at the little tragedies of Milk's life that were of his own making, such as his eternally doomed romantic life, with Milk always coming back to broken young men, hoping he could save them. And it's clear that things like Milk's love of the spotlight did both good and ill.
Looking at the notes, this book seems to correct a few errors present in Randy Shilts' "The Mayor of Castro Street.
All in all, I enjoyed this biography very much and I think it's useful work of queer scholarship.
This is an engaging, accessible biography that offers some new angles from which to examine the life of Harvey Milk. Faderman places Milk's Jewish identity at the forefront of his story, showing how Milk's Jewishness influenced his activism and life. It's not an aspect that I've seen scholarship on Milk examine much before, so I liked the fresh angle.
There's a frank examination of Milk's flaws and foibles. Faderman looks at the little tragedies of Milk's life that were of his own making, such as his eternally doomed romantic life, with Milk always coming back to broken young men, hoping he could save them. And it's clear that things like Milk's love of the spotlight did both good and ill.
Looking at the notes, this book seems to correct a few errors present in Randy Shilts' "The Mayor of Castro Street.
All in all, I enjoyed this biography very much and I think it's useful work of queer scholarship.
provenance's review against another edition
4.0
I received this as a ARC from NetGalley.
I didn't feel like this added much that was not already covered in Randy Shilts' The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, but I appreciated how readable Lillian Faderman's books always are. Her books are always very well researched and cited and she makes it read like popular nonfiction.
I also appreciated the full story of Galen McKinley being told. I stumbled upon the story of his life while processing the Tom O'Horgan Papers and it's a story that has never left me. He's mentioned like twice in Shilts' book but in Faderman's book you get a more complete story of Galen and his importance in both O'Horgan and Harvey's lives.
I didn't feel like this added much that was not already covered in Randy Shilts' The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, but I appreciated how readable Lillian Faderman's books always are. Her books are always very well researched and cited and she makes it read like popular nonfiction.
I also appreciated the full story of Galen McKinley being told. I stumbled upon the story of his life while processing the Tom O'Horgan Papers and it's a story that has never left me. He's mentioned like twice in Shilts' book but in Faderman's book you get a more complete story of Galen and his importance in both O'Horgan and Harvey's lives.