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Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited: AIDS and Its Aftermath

Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited: AIDS and Its Aftermath
By Andrew Holleran

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Product Description

Andrew Holleran’s Ground Zero, first published in 1988 and consisting of 23 Christopher Street essays from the earliest years of the AIDS crisis, was hailed by the Washington Post as “one of the best dispatches from the epidemic’s height.” Twenty years later, with HIV/AIDS long recognized as a global health challenge, Holleran both reiterates and freshly illuminates the devastation wreaked by AIDS, which has claimed the lives of 450,000 gay men as well as 22 million others. Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited features ten pieces never previously republished outside Christopher Street, as well as a new introduction keenly describing and evaluating a historical moment that still informs and defines today’s world-particularly its community of homosexuals, which, arguably, is still recovering from the devastation of AIDS.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #130832 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-05-12
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 304 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Andrew Holleran is also the author of a short story collection and four acclaimed novels, Dancer from the Dance, Nights in Aruba, The Beauty of Men, and Grief. He lives in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Customer Reviews

Holleran's words are still a vivid truth now 20 years later...5
Andrew Holleran's book, Dancer From the Dance, was the first piece of gay fiction I ever read back in college. After reading it twice, I immediately sought out his other books. He still remains my all time favorite writer to this day.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a used copy of Ground Zero here on Amazon many years ago. In the introduction of his new book, Chronicle of a Plague, Holleran mentions that he had to find a copy of the out of print book at the library. Over the course of 20 years, it had only been checked out about 12 times, a strange metaphor for how society sometimes views AIDS. It's a subject which comes and goes from our attention sporadically, but is still there and still is a harsh truth we have to face.

When I found out about this new book being an updated version of Ground Zero with new stories, a refocus on the "plague," I decided to go back and reread the original. Holleran's bath house conversations and tales of the "ole days" on Fire Island were like reading history for me, a history I didn't experience because I was too young then or not even born. The AIDS I know is very different from the one Holleran writes about. And yet, it is still the same. Some of us have just forgotten about it, or have chosen to forget.

And so, Holleran demands that we refocus on it here in this revamped collection. He has removed some of the stories which were more about the sexual freedom that quickly became a thing of the past, and turned our eyes more toward the personal effects the disease had, and still has, on his friends and acquaintances. How has it changed us in twenty years, how has it changed gay culture, and how has it changed America?

Whether this is your first time reading these stories, or if you had the pleasure of reading the original from 1988, those who know Holleran's writing will be pleased. His dreamy methodic style of writing is captivating and definitely holds your attention. It's something you can relate to and will want to question and ponder. The new additions to the book are a fresh look at how things have changed in twenty years for the writer, for all of us.