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This memoir from Marion Winik, a commentator for National Public Radio and the author of
Telling, a collection of autobiographical essays, begins in 1983 with Winik, just 24, anesthetizing herself after a break-up via vodka and a mixture of hard drugs. Though strong-willed, she seems to lack strength of character. She flounders from one mistake to the next, offering wise observations, but never attempting to thwart her streak of self-destruction. Her marriage to a gay man with HIV sets the course for change--she kicks her addictions and ultimately assists in her ravaged husband's suicide. Through an HIV wives support group, as well as through altercations with her in-laws, she comes to learn how strong she really is.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
National Public Radio commentator Winik's memoir will appeal primarily to romantics who believe in the primacy of love and who can empathize with a woman whose husband in a rocky marriage committed suicide. More realistic types will wonder why Winik, although a heavy drug user at the time, allowed herself to be courted by a flamboyant homosexual junkie; she was subsequently to learn that he had been HIV-positive for two or three years before they met. They married in 1986 in Manhattan. Tony Heubach, a former ice-dancer, was a considerate person, although after the couple had two sons, his interest in heterosexual relations waned and the marriage began to unravel. His drug use increased sharply and, as his HIV turned into AIDS, his addiction became alarming: periods of catatonia alternated with prolonged sessions of weeping and, on a few occasions, assaults on his wife. With pain so acute and constant that even morphine was minimally effective, he requested her help to end his life. She prepared the bowl of strawberry-banana yogurt with 60 capsules of Nembutal that killed him in 1994.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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