Reports from the Holocaust: The Story of an AIDS Activist (Stonewall Inn editions) [Paperback]

Larry Kramer (Author), Simon Watney (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994 | Series: Stonewall Inn editions

Without a doubt the most important gay political writer of our time, Kramer's passionate essays have mobilized the gay community for more than a decade. A cofounder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), and author of the controversial novel Faggots, Kramer has shown how mighty the pen can be.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Writer and ACT UP cofounder Kramer's updated edition of this essay collection includes nearly 100 pages of new material.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The controversial author of the novel Faggots and the play The Normal Heart has collected his letters, speeches, and essays chronicling his frustrations as cofounder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Arranged in chronological order from 1978 to the present, they are a call to the gay community to mobilize against the inept bureaucrats who let "an epidemic that could have been contained" go unfettered. The pieces are passionately angry and, because his warnings have gone largely unheeded, use increasingly scathing language. The long essay "Report from the Holocaust" seems less vitriolic but no less powerful than the shorter selections, some of which are undated, a flaw in this important historical document.
- James E. Van Buskirk, Acad. of Art Coll. Lib., San Francisco
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 454 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; Revised edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312114192
• ISBN-13: 978-0312114190
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,271,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !, July 18, 2000

By 

Holly Landry (Austin, Tx USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reports from the Holocaust: The Story of an AIDS Activist (Stonewall Inn editions) (Paperback)

Although his message may seem harsh, when someone has watched an entire population dwindle, when your best friends and lovers are dead, intensity becomes a way of life, this book contains a passionate and clear voice of someone struggling against a society and culture that wants the message tempered so as not to offend, I say offend away, get their attention....

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for any gay thinker, February 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Reports from the Holocaust: The Story of an AIDS Activist (Stonewall Inn editions) (Paperback)

Larry Kramer is so central to the formation of contemporary gay activism in the United States (and in particular the response to the first years of the AIDS crisis) that this book is absolutely indispensable to anyone who cares about gay politics and gay identity. His commitment to activism is unquestionable, and his ability to become furious (on the political level) with any kind of quietism or acquiescence should be inspiring to every gay man who has been affected by homophobia or the AIDS/HIV epidemic. The portrait of the private Kramer that emerges from this book in such great detail (there is no distinction between private and public for Kramer in this collection) is often a hard one to take: uncompromising and demanding in private life as he is in public life, he comes across as berserkly egocentric and impossible (you keep feeling sorry for his poor relatives who have to deal regularly with his explosive furies and tantrums). And his unwillingness to be reasonable often causes him to overstate his cases (his regular practive of comparing the AIDS crisis to the Nazi Holocaust--and to the Koch and Adminstrations and the NYTimes as the moral equivalent of the Nazis--has been repeatedly and justly criticized). Still, for all of that you're glad you've read him, and you're glad that someone like him has been around to lead the gay response to the AIDS crisis.