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52nd out of 361 books
—
347 voters
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Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir
by
Paul Monette
This "tender and lyrical" memoir (New York Times Book Review) remains one of the most compelling documents of the AIDS era-"searing, shattering, ultimately hope inspiring account of a great love story" (San Francisco Examiner). A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and the winner of the PEN Center West literary award.
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
June 1st 1998
by A Harvest Book/Harcourt, Inc.
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Perhaps the most poignant, soul-stirring, achingly beautiful piece of writing I have read. It is so humbling to realize that if I had been born twenty years earlier, I would probably have had to watch many friends and lovers pass away -- if, that is, I had survived myself. Monette's depiction of the ravages of HIV cuts straight to the soul. And more than a polemic account of the Reagan administration's criminal, abhorrent neglect (for that, of course, it would be hard if not impossible to out...more
Unsung the noblest deed will die
-Pindar
This is the quotation at the beginning of the book, and it reflect its intent with crystal clarity.
Monette was born in a period where being gay was something that had caused him incredible pain, because he had to hide it for years. He was finally able to embrace everything about himself when he met, in 1974, Roger Horwitz.
To quote him: Alone is hard to want to face the barrage of clichés, and the closet is so m...more
-Pindar
This is the quotation at the beginning of the book, and it reflect its intent with crystal clarity.
Monette was born in a period where being gay was something that had caused him incredible pain, because he had to hide it for years. He was finally able to embrace everything about himself when he met, in 1974, Roger Horwitz.
To quote him: Alone is hard to want to face the barrage of clichés, and the closet is so m...more
This is a hard read. It's about a tough subject matter, and it's also now a book that is of a somewhat historical nature.
I loved it and found it touching and it was enlightening in that it really gives an accurate and detailed portrayal of a gay relationship, the begining of the AIDS crisis and what it was like then to try and survive the disease.
The author is now himself passed in 1995- it is amazing to have this account of one couple's fight at a time when social ser...more
I loved it and found it touching and it was enlightening in that it really gives an accurate and detailed portrayal of a gay relationship, the begining of the AIDS crisis and what it was like then to try and survive the disease.
The author is now himself passed in 1995- it is amazing to have this account of one couple's fight at a time when social ser...more
Not a book for the faint of heart. This is a lyrical, heartbreaking and powerful look at one couple's battle and one half's eventual demise from AIDS as it was just coming into the national conscious. The amount of suffering and loss Paul and Roger experienced both personally and among friends and family during the early-mid 80s is astounding, especially when it's remembered that at the time, this was still a disease that was not acknowledged by the government.
My office was heavily ...more
My office was heavily ...more
this book was incredibly sad and powerful. Paul Monette is an incredible writer – he has a way with words and writes with such sensitivity and power. In Borrowed Time we read the story of a man who watches his partner die slowly from AIDS. All the while knowing that he himself has tested positive for the virus and his own days are numbered. The story captures what it was like to be gay man in the early 80s – watching so many of your friends and loved ones die and suffer. it also captured the fru...more
This was on a friend's list, and since I love memoirs, I picked it up at the library. I haven't read anything like this before. The context couldn't be more foreign to me- Gay intellectuals of 1980's West Hollywood. The writing is superb though. Paul Monette was obviously a gifted poet, narrator and archivist. Despite what your views are on gays, (and I'm certainly , as one reviewer stated, "not a worshiper of the gay couple") this book is worth reading. It's a very good picture of the...more
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I don't know how this book didn't win every award the publishing world has to offer. Quite simply, this one volume is the most emotionally devastating work I've ever read. I've read about hate crimes, political assassination and Nazi persecution, but none touch this. Several times I had to set the book down because I was no longer able to read through great, racking sobs and eyes nearly swollen shut. I grieved.
Paul Monette, author of the the award winning memoir "Becoming a Man...more
Paul Monette, author of the the award winning memoir "Becoming a Man...more
I bought this from a search I ran on Amazon.com for memiors concerning AIDS.
Wow. The writing was poignant and full of raw truth. It was not over indulgent in the writing, which is so easy for a talented author to do in a memior. As one would expect, it was loaded with sadness, but there were so many instances of light moments and memories that balanced the emotional tone of the work. It didn't push away heterosexual readers or people who haven't faced AIDS head on. I know it's hoke...more
Wow. The writing was poignant and full of raw truth. It was not over indulgent in the writing, which is so easy for a talented author to do in a memior. As one would expect, it was loaded with sadness, but there were so many instances of light moments and memories that balanced the emotional tone of the work. It didn't push away heterosexual readers or people who haven't faced AIDS head on. I know it's hoke...more
For being written by the man who wrote the novelization of Predator (the movie), I was not expecting such touching prose about life, love, struggle and eventual death. The writing was honest, painful, and indescribably touching.
Moreover, I see this book as a primary document for the annals of AIDS history. AZT was a secret super special compound, the NIH and government did everything possible to impede help to a stricken community, and everyone was fumbling in the dark. The sent...more
Moreover, I see this book as a primary document for the annals of AIDS history. AZT was a secret super special compound, the NIH and government did everything possible to impede help to a stricken community, and everyone was fumbling in the dark. The sent...more
One of the best memoirs I've ever read.
It seems to be an easy thing for memoirists to descend into either whining, boasting, or self-righteousness. Paul Monette avoids any of these traps, and simply tells the truth with devestating clarity. He does not spare himself; his human frailty is on full view here, but he shows how his love for his friend redeems him, and makes it possible for him to rise above their difficulties.
Their personal story helps put the emergent AIDS ...more
It seems to be an easy thing for memoirists to descend into either whining, boasting, or self-righteousness. Paul Monette avoids any of these traps, and simply tells the truth with devestating clarity. He does not spare himself; his human frailty is on full view here, but he shows how his love for his friend redeems him, and makes it possible for him to rise above their difficulties.
Their personal story helps put the emergent AIDS ...more
I couldn’t believe this was the very first memoir about living with (and in this case, dying from) AIDS. It is also the definitive memoir on the subject. I truly believe this should be mandatory reading for high schoolers, as any sexuality is only implicit and the perspective is invaluable. Monette eloquently pinpoints the effects of homophobia on the out-of-control AIDS crisis in the 1980s, showing how ignoring the problem and pretending it is restricted to an underclass of society can damage e...more
A tragedy, beautifully written. Two gay men who have a great love for each other, who succumb to aids in the 80s - he helps you empathize with what it felt like, to be a gay man and lose your great love to a disease that is only being discovered and understood. The heroic efforts they take, as we all would take, to save the person who means the most to them. Amazing piece that captures that space in time - puts a human face on it. Also shows their families - how they grow to adore the one who lo...more
I had mixed feeling about this book.
On the one hand, I was deeply moved by the love and tragedy. It made me aware of the early days of the epidemic, where all the drama of being outcasted was re-enacted in another variation.
On the other hand, there is the melo-dramatic side, some sort of over-emphasis on the painful side. It has a bad effect on me because I have the tendency to be like that and it's something I want to move away from.
Still, I'm happy I read it.
On the one hand, I was deeply moved by the love and tragedy. It made me aware of the early days of the epidemic, where all the drama of being outcasted was re-enacted in another variation.
On the other hand, there is the melo-dramatic side, some sort of over-emphasis on the painful side. It has a bad effect on me because I have the tendency to be like that and it's something I want to move away from.
Still, I'm happy I read it.
To say this was a good book almost seems inappropriate, because to judge it as a literary piece given the fact that it tells a true and devastating sorry just seems….tangential. Monette is an amazing write (this is his first work I’ve read) and he left me hungering for each page to find out what happened to his beloved Roger in his battle with AIDS. To travel their journey with them during the early days of AIDS where so much was unknown and so much was trial & error…it was horrifying.
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What a painful, heartbreaking, beautiful book. Monette's poetic description of his partner's death from AIDS is a life changing read. Once you've finished weeping, check out his book of poetry called "Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog" which will give you more perspective on their relationship.
This is the true story of the author's lover who died of AIDS. This was a true love story. A heartbreaking story. AIDS is the most horrible disease. This was one of the first books on AIDS. Aids started in 1982. The government did nothing in the beginning.
Timothy
rated it
"Grief is a sword, or it is nothing."
A furious, sharp and heartbreaking memoir of the early days of the U.S. AIDS epidemic, and Monette's partner's diagnosis, illness and death. Fiercely sorrowful, unsparingly angry. This book has substantial gaps in its political insight; it is primarily a story of the ravages AIDS wreaked on white rich gay men's community in Los Angeles in the mid-80s. But it is still one of the best political memoirs I've ever read, for its sheer determi...more
A furious, sharp and heartbreaking memoir of the early days of the U.S. AIDS epidemic, and Monette's partner's diagnosis, illness and death. Fiercely sorrowful, unsparingly angry. This book has substantial gaps in its political insight; it is primarily a story of the ravages AIDS wreaked on white rich gay men's community in Los Angeles in the mid-80s. But it is still one of the best political memoirs I've ever read, for its sheer determi...more
A complex book-- and document. I applaud Monette's courage, particularly his willingness to lay things (mainly himself) bare. Any faults the memoir has contribute to it as document, a mode of understanding the work which, in my interpretation at least, Monette as author grants.
Paul Monette is an amazing writer and this is beautifully told story of his life with his lover while the lover was dying of AIDS. You won't be able to put it down.
Claudia Scala
is currently reading it
One of the most amazing stories of love and survival. I hope that when I die, I die with the same feel of love that Roger died with.
Sad, nostalgic, made me miss him even before Paul passed on. His legacy is his lovely soul imbued in these pages.
1989 PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction
Elizabeth
added it
Frightening...full of vitriol
Very touching, if a little long-winded at times.
Any gay man today who has any shred of honesty or happiness in their life today, owes it to themselves and those before them to read this book. We are extremely fortunate to be who we are WHEN we are - because if we had randomly been born 20 years prior, our lives as gay men would have been a terrifying, defeating nightmare. This book is hopeful, delicate, human. Filled with rage and with grace - it is an important reminder to me, in my life, how lucky I am.
incredibly sad
For so many, the AIDS crisis and epidemic has become a footnote in gay history. Thank God, folks are living mostly normal lives today.
But what Monette's writing so eloquently reveals is the way the community fought, struggled and in the end – suffered.
What was also so beautiful was that this was as much a story about the incredible love between Paul and Roger....In fact, that may have been – at the core – its most central message.
But what Monette's writing so eloquently reveals is the way the community fought, struggled and in the end – suffered.
What was also so beautiful was that this was as much a story about the incredible love between Paul and Roger....In fact, that may have been – at the core – its most central message.
One important use of this uncomfortable and heartbreaking book is to reminds us of how callous and unconscionable Reagan's/his administration's reaction to the burgeoning AIDS crisis was.
That said, this book is a difficult read and hard to judge purely on literary/enjoyment grounds. It's a bit maudlin in spots, but what would you expect.
Sometimes I daydream about what Paul Monette's blog would be like.
That said, this book is a difficult read and hard to judge purely on literary/enjoyment grounds. It's a bit maudlin in spots, but what would you expect.
Sometimes I daydream about what Paul Monette's blog would be like.
What a marvelous book this was in its day. I am sure that if one looked they could find a better one. He was so brave to let us all look at his life and illness. I have lost so many friends and this book helped me in so many ways to help adjust to all the death around me. I would recommend this book to anyone who has lost/losing a love one to this disease even if it isnt immenent.
How can I not give this book 5 stars? This is probably the most well-written memoir I have ever encountered. It reads like the most painful of poems, and I was entranced and horrified and saddened all at the same time.
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In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS.
Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1967. He began his prolific writing career so...more
More about Paul Monette...
Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1967. He began his prolific writing career so...more
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