The Last Lovers on Earth

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, wildly imaginative
Review: Beautifully written, wildly imaginative fables, which puncture a great many sacred balloons, gay and straight. AIDS activists, government "scientists", doctors, suburban Parents of Gays, "Queer Theorists" -- all get their comeuppance. I could only read this book a few paragraphs at a time -- gasping, laughing, and then thinking. And after reflection, some of Ortleb's most shocking and outrageous statements emerged as expressions of common sense and decency in a world going viciously mad. The first story, "The Retraction", has the most brilliantly hilarious satirization of *Schadenfreude* since Mark Train's "Emmeline Grangerford" episode in *Huckleberry Finn*. Two of the stories, "Bruschetta on the Beach" and "Daddy's Little Clown", are masterpieces on a par with the best of Somerset Maugham or Katherine Mansfield.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, wildly imaginative
Review: Beautifully written, wildly imaginative fables, which puncture a great many sacred balloons, gay and straight. AIDS activists, government "scientists", doctors, suburban Parents of Gays, "Queer Theorists" -- all get their comeuppance. I could only read this book a few paragraphs at a time -- gasping, laughing, and then thinking. And after reflection, some of Ortleb's most shocking and outrageous statements emerged as expressions of common sense and decency in a world going viciously mad. The first story, "The Retraction", has the most brilliantly hilarious satirization of *Schadenfreude* since Mark Train's "Emmeline Grangerford" episode in *Huckleberry Finn*. Two of the stories, "Bruschetta on the Beach" and "Daddy's Little Clown", are masterpieces on a par with the best of Somerset Maugham or Katherine Mansfield.

Rating:
Summary: Sharp and On-Target
Review: I have read and read again this poignant collection of short stories - each time laughing a little, crying a bit and always reflecting on how Ortleb's satirical voice should make us all stop and think about the society in which we live. The stories are full of witty one-liners which you remember long after the book is finished - and Ortleb has managed to spin a cast of charaters who are so familiar that you stop to wonder if he knows the same people you do. Underneath it all is a not-so-subtle wake up call to end the ridiculous attitudes our society has about being gay or living with AIDS. This is a book you will read more than once and is a "must" for anyone touched by the horror of AIDS. It is sure to become a benchmark in the search for truth and an eye-opener about a disease we thought we understood.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Lovers on Earth
Review: I recently read Charles Ortleb's book, "The Last Lovers On Earth." This is a group of short stories that trace the fears, joys and sorrows of contemporary gay life. I am a heterosexual woman, still this book spoke to me on many levels. Ortleb's themes are universal: loneliness, the search for love that lasts, the value of true friendship, the huge cost of betrayal.

His work also contains powerful political nuances.

Ortleb writes courageously about how misinformation about AIDS and the so-called virus called HIV has profoundly affected many lives. His stories are about life and death issues. They have both depth and humor. I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Lovers on Earth
Review: I recently read Charles Ortleb's book, "The Last Lovers On Earth." This is a group of short stories that trace the fears, joys and sorrows of contemporary gay life. I am a heterosexual woman, still this book spoke to me on many levels. Ortleb's themes are universal: loneliness, the search for love that lasts, the value of true friendship, the huge cost of betrayal.

His work also contains powerful political nuances.

Ortleb writes courageously about how misinformation about AIDS and the so-called virus called HIV has profoundly affected many lives. His stories are about life and death issues. They have both depth and humor. I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Last Lovers is the best intro to Ortleb's works
Review: Of his two books I've read, the satirical novel Iron Peter and this one, which is a short-story collection, I prefer this and recommend it for a number of reasons. In Last Lovers, Ortleb takes big chances as he tackles topics beyond the usual attacks on HIV/AIDS orthodoxy. The first two stories examine our community response to those who might choose to leave the 'gay lifestyle', skewering those who profess tolerance for all but react with only fear and censorship when faced with 'ex-gays'. In "The Retraction", the parents of a lesbian are upset when she decides she's straight after all, because they have re-invented their own boring lives as Ultra-Proud PFLAG-ers to the extent they fear their own status and identities at risk should the neighbors find out their lesbian daughter isn't so lesbian anymore. Then, in "Banned In Boston", Ortleb questions our community's lock-step rush to add the transgender plank to the leftist queer revolutionary laundry list. When one character says, "I want you all to remember that none of us will be free until every transgender queer in Pocatello, Idaho who wants a free sex-change operation gets one!", another one cries out, "Well, then, Mary, we ain't never gonna be free!", whereupon he is gay-bashed and banned by his own 'community'. The bulk of the stories in Last Lovers however, center on Ortleb's main rallying cry: AIDS dissidence. One of the most moving is "The Swans", a fable in which two gay lovers are magically transformed into swans which are at first worshipped and then victimized by a consumerist, homophobic and AIDS-crazed society.