Customer Reviews

Borrowed Light: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At the age of twenty-five, David Baum was diagnosed with AIDS. Now he's a Washington, D.C. architect, he has a lover named Rich, he is acrid and honest and painfully blunt ... and he is dying. This is his story, the chronicle of his last four years on earth and his struggle to survive his work, his relationships, and his life.

By the time I reached the end of BORROWED LIGHT (which I did unfortunately far into the night), I was sobbing. Seldom have I encountered a book more emotionally devastating. Forget THE LOVELY BONES -- BORROWED LIGHT is neither sappy nor weak, the details are incredibly real, the prose is sheer poetry, and the result is amazing. In fact, by the time I reached the middle sections I had forgotten it was a novel; I read every word with the understanding it really happened. Although initially I found I had to take the story in small doses -- over a period of two days as opposed to my usual book-a-night orgy -- by the time I reached the end I was both shattered and incredibly impressed.

BORROWED LIGHT delivers everything it promises. I could not recommend it more highly.

Utterly brilliant--If Virginia Woolf had lived to write novels in the post-modern age of AIDS, this is the novel she might have written. Highly recommended.

This moving, never maudlin chronicle of a young man's journey from diagnosis to death from AIDS lets you into David Baum's mind and personality. With all the pettiness and greatness of soul that defines humankind, he takes us with him as his health deteriorates and his relationships change. A great priviledge. Movingly, beautifully written.

Lisa Schamess' first novel draws the reader in with lucid prose that verges on the poetic--and avoids that pretentious mush of self-conscious stream-of-consciousness from which many books suffer. In other words, it's both a good read and art. The book will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Readers who liked The Lovely Bones will enjoy it, and anyone who lived in a big city in the mid-1980s will appreciate the social milieu Schamess describes.

Read This Book! I was so happy to discover this book. Lisa Schamess's writing is haunting, imaginative and always lush. She comes at her first novel with a firmly established, clear voice. Thank you! At first I wasn't sure I would be interested in the subject: Dying, AIDS, gay male architect. I check the "none-of-the-above" box when it comes to describing MY life. But a great author, as Schamess surely is, takes A life and makes it THE universal life. I can't wait for her next book!

BORROWED LIGHT itself possesses a great luminosity, particularly in its prose style, which is at once hard-edged and lyrical, exactly in the right proportion. A wonderful debut novel!