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bethany6788's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I don’t have words that can express how incredible this memoir is so I’ll let David’s words speak for themselves in the quotes below. If you can get your hands on this memoir - read it. The chills I have. What he discusses is still just as relevant in 2024.
“Hell is a place on earth. Heaven is a place in your head.“
“Americans can’t deal with death unless they own it.”
“I am a bundle of contradictions that shift constantly.“
“A camera in some hands can preserve an alternate history.“
“BOTTOM LINE, IF PEOPLE DON’T SAY WHAT THEY BELIEVE, THOSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS GET LOST. IF THEY ARE LOST OFTEN ENOUGH, THOSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS NEVER RETURN.”
“I always considered myself either anonymous or odd looking and there is an unspoken bond between people in the world that don’t fit in or are not attractive in the general societal sense.”
“We set a standard that we can’t even live up to. We expect too much of a society that is probably going to reject us—it’s probably not even thinking of us.”
“Hell is a place on earth. Heaven is a place in your head.“
“Americans can’t deal with death unless they own it.”
“I am a bundle of contradictions that shift constantly.“
“A camera in some hands can preserve an alternate history.“
“BOTTOM LINE, IF PEOPLE DON’T SAY WHAT THEY BELIEVE, THOSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS GET LOST. IF THEY ARE LOST OFTEN ENOUGH, THOSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS NEVER RETURN.”
“I always considered myself either anonymous or odd looking and there is an unspoken bond between people in the world that don’t fit in or are not attractive in the general societal sense.”
“We set a standard that we can’t even live up to. We expect too much of a society that is probably going to reject us—it’s probably not even thinking of us.”
sarahern29's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Gutting, messy, but a reflection of the peak of the AIDS epidemic.
savaging's review
4.0
A hard and heavy and playful and cutting memoir. The hardest for me: sitting with the drive to violence that leaks out as the last resistance to perpetual state-sanctioned murder. The most rewarding for me: reading this during the COVID pandemic, letting the history of the AIDS epidemic enrich and challenge the way I think about societal and political responses to contagious diseases. Wojnarowicz is credited as inspiring Act Up activists to spread the ashes of their dead loved ones on the White House lawn. His own ashes were spread there.
I don’t want to witness the silencing of my own body. I don’t want to be polite and crawl into the media grave of “AIDS” and disappear quietly. I don’t want my death to have the pressured earmarks of courage or strength, which are usually catchphrases for the idea of politeness. I also cannot scream continuously without losing my voice, [. . .] I also marvel at how death can be so relentless and constant and how such enormous sections of the social landscape can be viciously exploded by a handful of rich white people, with an entire population’s approval and participation.
samuelachillese's review against another edition
4.5
David Wojnarowicz had an excellent, cutting, clear-eyed and sensitive perspective on society, the media, the AIDS crisis and art. Wish he was alive today and we could see what he’d have to say about COVID.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Rape, Drug use, and Suicide
tscott907's review against another edition
4.0
Strange, off-putting, and hard to get through but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
cebolla's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.5
I heard a quote the other day, and I don't remember it word for word, but it was something like “good art makes you feel at least two emotions.” If that's the case, Close to the Knives must be good art. The overwhelming feeling I got from this book was boredom. Much of the 275 pages was written very stream of consciousness about Wojnarowicz's drug using, sex having escapades, and travel. Normally I'm all about this kind of story, but this writing just didn't grab me. I don't know if I've outgrown it or if he just didn't do a very good job at presenting it. Wojnarowicz was a controversial artist from New Jersey who I was completely unfamiliar with before reading this book. He lived a very interesting, albeit short, life. I wish someone else would write about it and make it more readable.
The essays where he wrote about the AIDS epidemic (he was around during those years where AIDS swept through the world and took out so many people, including, eventually, him) and his thoughts on the government, the church, and rich people were fantastic. He was an angry dude, and had every right to be, and he expressed it with clarity and emotion. If I had a time machine, I'd go back to 1989 (when this was published), make sure it was two separate books, and only read good one.