Customer Reviews

Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America

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

 

 

We have waited for a voice within the gay community to relate what AIDS has done and continues to do to our souls. Andiote bares that soul to the scrutiny of a verteran journalist and writer. He descibes the gay community's response to the AIDS epidemic. He outlines the growth the community made in the process. He isn't afraid to criticize where appropriate.

He tells the stories of the heroes of and the commentators on the epidemic. He delves, for example, into the internal machinations of a community trying to deal with safer sex and outlines both successes and failures. He indentifies the ongoing crisis and politics of promoting behavior change in the most intimate aspect of our lives. Through this type of no holds barred reporting that Andriote conveys the impact of AIDS on a community struggling to free itself from past and present disease related definitions.

Andriote's research is thorough, interviewing two hundred activitist and paritcipants. These individuals tell the story of a gay movement catapulted to the forefront of America's consciousness. He starts well before rhe empidemic and couches it in the context of a liberation stuggle. He tells the insider's story.

Victory Deferred will supplant Randy Shilt's And the Band Played On as the dinifitive story of one community heroically responding to the health crisis of the century.

This book was suggested for a selected reading in my 300 level sociology class and I thought I would stop by Amazon and reflect a bit on how I (as a student) feel about it.

First off, I have been in college 3 years now, so I am certiantly not oblivious to the fact that about 90% of social science professors are complete and utter flakes that are about as deep as a mud puddle. That said, our reading from this book was about on par with any other discussion I have ever had on the subject of HIV/AIDS or homosexuality in school. Quite frankly, they look at the world with blinders on, and this work is very much a case in point.

As opposed to giving any kind of objective overview of the subject at hand, it prefaces everything based upon this whimsical notion of gay victim-hood, as if that alone is supposed to alleviate any sort of responsibility by the author to fairly and objectively cover material? I think not.

Having to do readings like this makes me very happy that I decided upon biology as a major, as opposed to the folks in social science dept who view the scientific method and the rules of evidence as only a rough guide for scholarly pursuits. 90% Supposition and conjecture is not what I pay over 200 dollars a credit hour for.

Since I only read small portions of this book, I still thought it correct to give the book 4 stars since it would be unfair of me to downgrade a work I have not completed. However, based upon what I did read, It is likely a safe assumption that the remainder is filled with more of the same.

Mr. Andriote's excellent book is a must read for anyone interested in the major events that have shaped the last three decades of the 20th century. It is an excellent and thoughtful overview of the tragic social, political and economic events that shaped the response to the AIDS epidemic. This book should be mandatory reading in colleges, medical schools and schools of public health.

This book is very well written. It's obvious that a lot of hard work and time were put into it. The author is a truly gifted writer. I hope he continues his efforts and we see a lot more his work here.

John-Manuel Andriote has accomplished a momumental task in this historical and moving account of the AIDS epidemic. He has done an exhaustive study of the progression of this disease and has intervied people from the trenches to the board rooms.

As a journalist he has kept a focus on reporting the facts, as a gay man he has infused each chapter with the passion that comes from loosing so many friends and loved ones.

He has a keen eye to connect so many different facets and factions and does not hold back in speaking the truth as he has discovered it. AIDS has certainly not only just changed gay life in America, it has changed life in America.

I give this book five stars and know that it will be a work that I will refer to over and over in the years ahead.