Vertical Intercourse

Rating:
Summary: Moving and close to home
Review: A very intimate book about a gay man living with AIDS. I found it realistic and close to home in a way much gay fiction is not. And a certain unresolvedness made it all the more realistic.

Rating:
Summary: San Francisco Survivors
Review: Paul Reed novels always have an intimate feeling of San Francisco and a keen sense of time, and this latest captures familiar issues and emotions of the past decade. The narrator is no great hero and he knows it, but there is a quiet, understated, real-world heroism in his compassion and sense of duty toward others in his life. It's the sort of quality we often find in ourselves when things go wrong and our superficial concerns automatically give way to what counts. The characters in Verticle Intercourse are as vivid as friends and acquaintances passing on today's Castro Street, or in the neighborhood you know. Though entertaining, this novel is ambitious, and the real story is not the everyday drama but a community surviving after two decades of AIDS, and still putting trust in friendships and love. The ease of Reed's narrative fools you, the pace is quicker than you realize, and by the end you don't want to let go of these lives and their stories.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and close to home
Review: This is an amazing novel dealing with a subject that few can imagine who haven't actually experienced the loss of most or all of their friends to AIDS. For those of us who have, it illuminates the resulting social disorders and anxieties that insidiously creep in following those losses and gives us hope for a resumption of a normal life however "not-normal" that life may have seemed to begin with. This book is populated with characters that I feel are people I actually know. I took comfort from and felt dignified by the optimism, courage and tenacity of the narrator. This is a must read for everyone who's ever lost their friends but moreso for anyone with a functioning heart and an open mind.

Rating:
Summary: Vertical Intercourse
Review: This is the best book by Paul Reed so far. I was truly blown away by the humanity, insight, and pure honesty of the characters and their lives. Rarely does a book in the "gay" genre delve into themes of aging in the community, or looks-ism, or the uncertainty of dating and all the pleasures and conflicts that brings. But not only are the characters intriguing, their stories are fascinating, and we can't wait to turn the page to see what happens next. Beyond this, the writing is exquisite. Reed is known already for his elegant prose, but in Vertical Intercourse, he has managed to grow beyond the elegiac poetry of his novel Longing and achieve something stylistically polished but that reads like a breeze, effortless. I don't know how he does it. This book should be a permanent part of every gay man's library. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: Vertical Intercourse
Review: This is the best book by Paul Reed so far. I was truly blown away by the humanity, insight, and pure honesty of the characters and their lives. Rarely does a book in the "gay" genre delve into themes of aging in the community, or looks-ism, or the uncertainty of dating and all the pleasures and conflicts that brings. But not only are the characters intriguing, their stories are fascinating, and we can't wait to turn the page to see what happens next. Beyond this, the writing is exquisite. Reed is known already for his elegant prose, but in Vertical Intercourse, he has managed to grow beyond the elegiac poetry of his novel Longing and achieve something stylistically polished but that reads like a breeze, effortless. I don't know how he does it. This book should be a permanent part of every gay man's library. I can't recommend it highly enough.