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Summary: Not another AIDS book, a true diary of our times.
Review: Mark Doty, the award winning poet and teacher, has captured the agony and beauty of life and death in his novel Heaven's Coast. A memoir comprised of journal entries, poems and new text written over the year following the death of his partner of 12 years, Wally, from AIDS, Heaven's Coast is a tribute to love and the human spirit. This is not another "Aids Book," this is not Paul Monette (in all due respect) lamenting on lost love and bathhouses, this is an original feeling portrait of Doty at grips with the universal questions of life we all face-- Doty answers them with grace. His command of the language is truly humbling
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Summary: A beautiful, touching novel that can't be missed!!
Review: Mr Doty expresses his emotions and views of life/death in a way that no other author (or poet) possibly could. His language is beautiful and yet still remains strikingly honest. A must-read for anyone with AIDS, anyone who knows them, or anyone with a heart.
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Summary: Completely misses the mark
Review: One of the worst descriptions of a relationship enduring the AIDS epidemic that I've come across. Incredibly self-absorbed, whining depiction of the obvious horror of dealing with a life-ending illness. I couldn't even finish the book.
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Summary: Incredibly moving account of love in the age of AIDS
Review: Poet Mark Doty, writes a dazzling memoir of love, life, and passion, in Heaven's Coast.
His flowing prose and sense of timing, make this book hard to put down.
A must read for anyone, and gay men in particular.
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Summary: Incredibly moving account of love in the age of AIDS
Review: Poet Mark Doty, writes a dazzling memoir of love, life, and passion, in Heaven's Coast.
His flowing prose and sense of timing, make this book hard to put down.
A must read for anyone, and gay men in particular.
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Summary: Overall Repetative View of a Gay Relationship
Review: The book Heaven's Coast was written by a great poet. That poet should have kept it more to the point, his loss of attention to what he is trying to convey tends to lose meaning and substantial growth. I can't deny that Mark Doty has mastered the art of writing and manipulating the English language, but he is overwhelmingly repetative.
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Summary: Heaven's Coast : A Memoir
Review: The book is moving. The mundane details of daily life are given profound and touching meaning. You may or may not cry. But rest assured you will be moved. You will be changed. And you will find new ways of appreciating the simple beauty that surrounds us all. Even in the midst of terror and darkness, there can be moments of dulcet serenity. Read the book and discover the humanity that binds us all together. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Heaven's Coast : A Memoir
Review: The book is moving. The mundane details of daily life are given profound and touching meaning. You may or may not cry. But rest assured you will be moved. You will be changed. And you will find new ways of appreciating the simple beauty that surrounds us all. Even in the midst of terror and darkness, there can be moments of dulcet serenity. Read the book and discover the humanity that binds us all together. Enjoy!
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Summary: A beautifully written memoir.
Review: There are many kinds of ears in this world... it will take every kind of voice to make them listen. In Heaven's Coast, Mark Doty's is a poetic, memorable voice. While writers like Paul Monette and Larry Kramer explore the personal as political, Doty seeks and finds spiritual affirmation in nature, thereby placing him among many of his literary predecessors. For critics who take Doty to task for not writing a book that encompasses all those populations affected by AIDS, this is not a political, medical, or moral treatise, but a memoir. It is an account not so much of AIDS but of love, and how HIV/AIDS impacted that love in life and death. As a writer, a widow, a survivor, Doty eloquently articulates his experience of relationship, illness, and grief. Just as the virus respects no boundaries of race, gender, orientation, income, or age, neither does grief. There may be gleaned from any person's history some meaningful wisdom, emotion, comfort, or inspiration. As a caregiver and survivor of friends lost to AIDS, I found that Doty's words gave me renewed vision and new strength.
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Summary: An unexplained intamacy
Review: This book transcends the meaning, in that Mark writes with such vulnerability and intamacy that one feels they are immersed in conversation rather than literature. He writes so that everyone, no matter if the situation is familiar or not, can relate on some level to a sense of joy, togetherness or the chaotic feeling of loss. He describes rather obvious feelings in such a reflective poetic manner. He wrote his book for himself, which as a result is a gift to others. Thank you Mark for putting your life and AIDS on a personal level.
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