Rating: 
Summary: An AIDS memoir, but also a love story
Review: I can add nothing original to the wave of praises about this book from the other reviewers. I really appreciated the honesty of his narration, even down to the minute and unpleasant thoughts of what could have happened (or who gave the virus to whom). Though his opinions on his lover may be biased, both of them you felt intensely likeable. It's very hard not to--both of them are obviously intelligent and talented, led interesting lives and have friends just as colourful.As gutwrenching as the AIDS shadowed over Roger's deterioration, the book read like a love story to me. Not just the love between Roger and Paul, which doesn't remind me of them being gay in particular, but two people with a long term relationship who struggle to be together till death do them apart, as cliche as it may sound. As a Chinese gay man living in Hong Kong, I find the notion of my parents/relatives knowing about my identity, let alone my lover or even 'worse', a sickness, impossible. Yet, the book also showed poignantly the unconditional love and care any parents are willing to give to their children, no matter how grown up or far apart they have become. Paul Monette has certainly spoken for a lot of HIV+ people in his era, people who never had a chance to speak for themselves. Most people would not have time or the nerve to write about something as horrible as their own illnesses.
Rating: 
Summary: A real eye-opener
Review: I don't live under a rock but even still, being a gay male in the 90s, I can honestly say I don't know anyone with AIDS. Consequently, I have never had to endure the loss of losing someone I love to the disease without a cure. Yet I still found myself drawn to Paul's story about his struggle with the deterioration of his partner, Roger. After reading Becoming a Man, I progressed to this part of Paul's autobiography, expecting it to be much like the other part of the story. However, it wasn't. Not at all. The book introduced the tragedy of what occurs when good people experience horrid things. I couldn't believe Roger was actually dying throughout the book. He and Paul seemed so happy together; they had finally proven to the world that they, a gay couple, could survive in American society. Then the disease hit. What a loss, even with the AZT treatment, even with the constant barrage of doctor's appointments. I suppose this book made me aware that life, like I had heard so many times before, is not fair. If it were Roger would not have died and Paul would not have followed him seven years later.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: I had to take two days off from work when I started this book because I just couldnt make myself put it down. Paul (I write in Frankness because by the end of the book all the charecters become like Family) writes with such simplicity and command that one feels like sitting by a campside listening to a wise man tell a heart wrenching tale. Moreover, one thing i really admired about monette was that he doesnt try to gain sympathy by cashing in on his life. He doesnt use over dramatization as tools of deploying tears! I really loved the ending because it brought such a fatal blow and with so little effort that the readers themselves had to grieve. Furthermore, I learnt a wealth of information about HIV and AIDS from this book. Plus I just couldnt believe the red-tapism in the USA medical system. It really made me angry. Read this book , Pronto!!
May Paul and his lover rest in peace!!
Rating:
Summary: If you want to know what love is
Review: I listened to Paul Monette read from his memoir on a recorded book; and the experience was unforgettable, profound, wholly human, and perhaps the best meditation on love I've ever read. Without going into the details of the 1980's AIDS "scene," which this book also authentically and accurately portrays, this "love story" depicts and explored and revealed so tenderly and so poetically that it should be placed on all the bookstores in the relatinship section of the major chains--and recommended for straight and gay couples. And while the booksellers are at it, they should remainder all the John Gray, Dr. Phil and every other "author" who address relationships in a vapid, moronic, demeaning way. This book may be the best argument for "gay marriage," although I hesitate in recommending this in fear that such a beautiful relationship as portrayed in this work could be subsumed under such a shaky institution. It would also be a d_mn good book for heterosexual, especially "conservative Christian" couples, men and women to read together: Not necessarily to change minds about the law, but at least to change misconceived perceptions about their fellow humans. And a note to women, if you would like your guy to be a better "listener" and a better "lover," read this book--not those goofball "women's magazines." This book might also make some right-wing ideologues re-think some of their kneeejerk definitions of "values" and realize that perhaps it is THEIR values that need some looking into. N.B. I am not gay. I am a straight male.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Reading
Review: I picked this book up at a used book store years ago and found it utterly heart-wrenching. It is a story of true love under the most tragic of circumstances. Bravery in the face of death, and how love anchors all and gives meaning to life. The book is a microcosm of the titanic battle that the gay community is so courageously waging against the modern day scourge of AIDS.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, tragic
Review: I picked this book up in a thrift store last week and have just suffered with Paul and Roger as I read. Immediately I searched Amazon.com looking for other writings by Paul Monette and learned of his death in 1995. Now I'm really depressed. I'm straight, white, female, a wife and a mother of a 2 year old. Probably not Paul's expected audience yet he reached me deeply. I feel tremendous compassion for anyone dying of AIDS and for those that love them. I will look for an opportunity to demonstrate love to someone with AIDS.
Rating:
Summary: Crying my eyes out
Review: I sat down reading this book, not knowing much about the AIDS epidemic or who was affected. What I learned in Monette's book is not just about suffering and losing a "friend", but also the battles and stuggles that we must carry on after. His prose was very fluid and he never lacked for words or descriptions to describe his feelings and what was going on in his life. It's not just another, poor me my lover died. Instead it's a tribute not only to his life, but allows the reader to glimpe the compassion and depth of his love. It also gets down to the nitty gritty and tells things like they are. And I cried my eyes out at the end, not wanting to turn that last page...
Rating:
Summary: Crying my eyes out
Review: I sat down reading this book, not knowing much about the AIDS epidemic or who was affected. What I learned in Monette's book is not just about suffering and losing a "friend", but also the battles and stuggles that we must carry on after. His prose was very fluid and he never lacked for words or descriptions to describe his feelings and what was going on in his life. It's not just another, poor me my lover died. Instead it's a tribute not only to his life, but allows the reader to glimpe the compassion and depth of his love. It also gets down to the nitty gritty and tells things like they are. And I cried my eyes out at the end, not wanting to turn that last page...
Rating:
Summary: Once in a Lifetime
Review: It is difficult for me to express in words the effect this book has had on my life. It is so multi-faceted; an amazingly beautiful love story, a definitive historical account of the politics and science surrounding the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, and an exemplary showcase of one man's very unique grasp of the English language. This book was the major driving factor for my recently increased involvement in AIDS prevention.
Rating:
Summary: Once in a Lifetime
Review: It is difficult for me to express in words the effect this book has had on my life. It is so multi-faceted; an amazingly beautiful love story, a definitive historical account of the politics and science surrounding the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, and an exemplary showcase of one man's very unique grasp of the English language. This book was the major driving factor for my recently increased involvement in AIDS prevention.
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