Chronicling the 1997 foundation of the AIDS Coalition through the 1996 emergence of the first successful combination of drug treatment therapies, a period the author dubs "the second half of the first half of the AIDS epidemic," novelist, columnist, and AIDS activist Peck (Hatchet Jobs; Sprout) examines this transformative and polarizing time in American history. The memoir is a compilation of a handful of previously published essays and straddles the line between literary narrative and journalistic exposition. Peck offers a humanistic albeit outspoken analysis of events during the rise of HIV diagnoses, public defamation and violence toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community; and the humanitarian obstacles American social revolutionists endured around the stigma of AIDS. The text is difficult to follow at times, frequently jumping from the author's personal reflection to larger societal AIDS-related events occurring in real time. -VERDICT A powerful, gritty social commentary complemented by the author's coming-of-age story as a young adult during this tumultuous time. Recommended for progressive biography and memoir readers, human rights activists, and contemporary American history enthusiasts.-Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Lib., Macon, GA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Novelist (The Garden of Lost and Found, 2007) and infamous literary critic Peck presents a scholarly mix of memoir and a long-form essay about every facet of AIDS and its consequences during the 1990s. Moving personal recollections about his coming out and first loves segue into literary discussions of such writers as Gide, Proust, Genet, and his keen critique of media coverage of the AIDS epidemic. Death is present throughout this intense narrative, but it appears as a theme with particularly dark power in Peck's gutsy paralleling of the devastating impact of AIDS on the gay community with the horrors of gay serial killers of the era, namely John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Peck digs into the causes for social and governmental disinterest in, even disdain for, the entire AIDS disaster, and profiles seminal AIDS activists. Peck contrasts his findings about this tragic and frightening time of ignorance, discrimination, fear, suffering, and lack of compassion and support with today's far more enlightened attitudes toward illness, health care, and LGBT people.--Scott, Whitney Copyright 2015 Booklist