Sleep With the Angels [Paperback]

Mary Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2007

Mother Challenges AIDS. "In Sleep with the Angels Mary Fisher shows why she has become one of the country's most effective advocates on behalf of people with AIDS."There is a radiance in Mary Fisher that brings light, hope, and poetry to all who suffer heartbreak."-Diane Sawyer

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fisher learned she was HIV-positive in July 1991 and began telling her story in public in 1992, adding AIDS spokesperson to her identities as Jewish, Republican, artist, and mother. Presented in chronological order from May 4, 1992 through June 28, 1993, the transcripts of these 24 speeches (drafted by A. James Heynen) include her famous address to the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston. Portraying herself as neither victim to be pitied nor hero, but demanding compassion and grace, Fisher repeatedly invokes her sons Max, 5, and Zachary, 3. Utilizing her position as a privileged heterosexual non-drug using white woman, she forces her audiences to confront the reality of the epidemic: We are all at risk. Recommended for all collections.
- James E. Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

These are the public addresses Fisher made in her role as the middle-aged, blonde, churchgoing Republican-next-door lady-who-happens-to-be-HIV-positive. Embraced by a Bush administration made defensive by criticism of its silence about the AIDS epidemic and named by Bush to the National Commission on AIDS in the wake of Magic Johnson's stinging resignation, Fisher toured the country from May_ 1992 to June_ 1993. In May_ 1992 she addressed the Republican Platform Committee, asking her fellow partisans "to lift our shroud of silence" because "if you believe, as I did, that you and your children are not at risk, then take home this lesson from me: You are." She grew bolder, in April 1993 confronting the mythology of AIDS: "AIDS is really two epidemics: one caused by a virus, the other by mistrust and confusion." In June_ 1993, "it is not the AIDS community itself which is desperate for leadership," she averred, "it's the nation at large. Those who imagine that this is someone else's problem, someone else's disease--these are people who need leaders, or they will surely die." Whitney Scott --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries (July 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559211032
• ISBN-13: 978-1559211031
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,964,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touch your humanity . . ., February 16, 2000

By A Customer

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This review is from: Sleep with the Angels: A Mother Challenges AIDS (Hardcover)

This is the most spiritual book I have ever read. This will touch your soul like no other, and you will be a better person for having invested the time and the tears.