To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life (High Risk Books) [Paperback]

Herve Guibert (Author), Linda Cloverdale (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1993 | Series: High Risk Books

novel, tr L Coverdale, based on Foucault's death

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This witty and absorbing novel details the daily routines and medical condition of a writer diagnosed with AIDS.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Even fictionalized AIDS can rivet, and this novel does not disappoint. The narrator, a bisexual also named Herve Guibert, is friends with the gay intellectual Muzil, based on the French structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault. Guibert realizes that he has AIDS when his symptoms resemble those afflicting the ailing Muzil after his return from the San Francisco bathhouses. Guibert naturally jumps to conclusions when his friend Bill, manager of a pharmaceutical laboratory, expresses hope for a vaccine. When that hope fizzles, Guibert's response recalls the philosophical parallel he has drawn between the mind of the terminally ill and the celestial black holes that paradoxically survive by eating into themselves. Written in the form of a random journal, this work offers both convincing medical descriptions and probing personal analysis. Recommended for a wide range of readers.
- Kenneth Mintz, formerly with Bayonne P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (February 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852423285
• ISBN-13: 978-1852423285
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant narrative of courage and transformation., August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life (High Risk Books) (Paperback)

Guibert's autobiographical novel is in a class of its own in handling the frightening reality of aids in the late 80s from the perspective a young celebrity, himself, who witnesses the loss of his famous friend (Michel Foucault in real life), and then his own sense of being. But along with the suspense there is also disarming honesty, courage, and humor. Despite the praise it received, too many people have missed the experience of this book. And amazingly almost no one has read its sequel, a lesser work technically--understandably because it was written in his last months--a dazzingly farewell called The Compassion Protocol.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reminiscent of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, January 7, 2006

By 

Earl R. Sutton "earlsutton" (Detroit, MI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life (Hardcover)

"In a series of diary-like chapters, reminiscent of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, the narrator, a homosexual writer in his early 30s, records his own first response to AIDS, as well as the way the disease insidiously begins to affect a whole community. He notes how friendships, families, and affections are tested, and sometimes--though rarely--found wanting."--© zebraz