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As If Death Summoned
In 1936, a man was caught in a blizzard on Australia’s Bogong High Plains. Found unconscious by a search party, he was taken to the nearest township where an old aborigine woman made the cryptic comment, “They brought back only his body.” He died soon after. In the decades since, there have been reports of a lone figure seen wandering in the region. When approached, the man vanishes and no trace of him can be found.
Almost 60 years later, a young American returns from Australia, exhausted after ten years on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic and haunted by dreams of the Bogong High Plains. He, too, is lost in a kind of blizzard, struggling to remember a time when life was about more than death. Plunging back into the heart of the epidemic by working at an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, he will eventually come to understand the old woman’s words and his mystic connection to the Bogong High Plains: When he returned to the States, he brought back only his body.
The historical event known as the Mt. Bogong Tragedy is the seed for this fictional story about profound loss and profound healing. With expected pathos and unexpected humor, As If Death Summoned testifies to the power of grief to erode a life, and—for those who can find a way through their grief—the power to rebuild and renew it.
Almost 60 years later, a young American returns from Australia, exhausted after ten years on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic and haunted by dreams of the Bogong High Plains. He, too, is lost in a kind of blizzard, struggling to remember a time when life was about more than death. Plunging back into the heart of the epidemic by working at an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, he will eventually come to understand the old woman’s words and his mystic connection to the Bogong High Plains: When he returned to the States, he brought back only his body.
The historical event known as the Mt. Bogong Tragedy is the seed for this fictional story about profound loss and profound healing. With expected pathos and unexpected humor, As If Death Summoned testifies to the power of grief to erode a life, and—for those who can find a way through their grief—the power to rebuild and renew it.
400 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 13, 2020
A sensitive comparison of epidemics for our time – a luminous novel!
Washington author Alan E Rose courageously brings to our attention the effect of illness on all of us, comparing the epidemic of AIDS and than manner in which it was confronted with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Alan worked as a volunteer with the Victorian AIDS Council (Thorne Harbour Health) in Melbourne, Australia, then with Cascade AIDS Project in Portland, Oregon from 1993 to 1999, and now lives in rural Washington State writing novels and reviewing for Columbia River Reader as well as other significant artistic activities.
In a deeply moving Author’s Note, Alan shares “I find a peculiar symmetry that, just as I am bringing one defining epidemic of my life to a close with this book, another epidemic begins. There are similarities between them beyond both being caused by viruses – a retrovirus earlier, a coronavirus now.’ And after listing the similarities of the two epidemics, he points out the very significant differences – ‘This time it is not happening to Those People, but to all of us. This time our government swung into quick(er) action, its delay measured in months not years. This time people care. Resources and funding for research were readily available…For much of the first tow years of the AIDS epidemic, it was a mystery why gay men were getting sick and dying…There were benefits and lessons learned from the AIDS epidemic, gained at a terrible cost: medical advances, advanced in public health policy and strategies for tracking and combating an epidemic…’ This message alone is reason to own this book!
With eloquence and exceptional skill Alan relates his story, and summarizes it as follows: ‘In 1936, a man was caught in a blizzard on Australia’s Bogong High Plains. Found unconscious by a search party, he was taken to the nearest township where an old aborigine woman made the cryptic comment, “They brought back only his body.” He died soon after. In the decades since, there have been reports of a lone figure seen wandering in the region. When approached, the man vanishes and no trace of him can be found. Almost 60 years later, a young American returns from Australia, exhausted after ten years on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic and haunted by dreams of the Bogong High Plains. He, too, is lost in a kind of blizzard, struggling to remember a time when life was about more than death. Plunging back into the heart of the epidemic by working at an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, he will eventually come to understand the old woman’s words and his mystic connection to the Bogong High Plains: When he returned to the States, he brought back only his body. The historical event known as the Mt. Bogong Tragedy is the seed for this fictional story about profound loss and profound healing. With expected pathos and unexpected humor, As If Death Summoned testifies to the power of grief to erode a life, and- for those who can find a way through their grief- the power to rebuild and renew it.’
An involving, beautifully offered novel, Alan Rose makes a significant impact with this excellent book. Very highly recommended.
Washington author Alan E Rose courageously brings to our attention the effect of illness on all of us, comparing the epidemic of AIDS and than manner in which it was confronted with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Alan worked as a volunteer with the Victorian AIDS Council (Thorne Harbour Health) in Melbourne, Australia, then with Cascade AIDS Project in Portland, Oregon from 1993 to 1999, and now lives in rural Washington State writing novels and reviewing for Columbia River Reader as well as other significant artistic activities.
In a deeply moving Author’s Note, Alan shares “I find a peculiar symmetry that, just as I am bringing one defining epidemic of my life to a close with this book, another epidemic begins. There are similarities between them beyond both being caused by viruses – a retrovirus earlier, a coronavirus now.’ And after listing the similarities of the two epidemics, he points out the very significant differences – ‘This time it is not happening to Those People, but to all of us. This time our government swung into quick(er) action, its delay measured in months not years. This time people care. Resources and funding for research were readily available…For much of the first tow years of the AIDS epidemic, it was a mystery why gay men were getting sick and dying…There were benefits and lessons learned from the AIDS epidemic, gained at a terrible cost: medical advances, advanced in public health policy and strategies for tracking and combating an epidemic…’ This message alone is reason to own this book!
With eloquence and exceptional skill Alan relates his story, and summarizes it as follows: ‘In 1936, a man was caught in a blizzard on Australia’s Bogong High Plains. Found unconscious by a search party, he was taken to the nearest township where an old aborigine woman made the cryptic comment, “They brought back only his body.” He died soon after. In the decades since, there have been reports of a lone figure seen wandering in the region. When approached, the man vanishes and no trace of him can be found. Almost 60 years later, a young American returns from Australia, exhausted after ten years on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic and haunted by dreams of the Bogong High Plains. He, too, is lost in a kind of blizzard, struggling to remember a time when life was about more than death. Plunging back into the heart of the epidemic by working at an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, he will eventually come to understand the old woman’s words and his mystic connection to the Bogong High Plains: When he returned to the States, he brought back only his body. The historical event known as the Mt. Bogong Tragedy is the seed for this fictional story about profound loss and profound healing. With expected pathos and unexpected humor, As If Death Summoned testifies to the power of grief to erode a life, and- for those who can find a way through their grief- the power to rebuild and renew it.’
An involving, beautifully offered novel, Alan Rose makes a significant impact with this excellent book. Very highly recommended.
December 1, 2020
An unnamed narrator heads up the cast of characters in this remarkable book. He is living in a time when AIDS was decimating the gay population. the narrator is struggling to come to terms with the loss of his partner, Gray when he ends up working at an HIV/AIDS organization.
The story encompasses a few timelines. In 1994, the narrator is setting up a new and innovative program in Portland. He and an eclectic team of men will be testing gay men for HIV. As the men get to know one another, uncovering their weaknesses, challenges and strengths, they become a strong team of advocates.
In the recent past, the narrator is spending time with his deceased partner, Gray. The two men lived in Australia for many years and had a great life. Gray shares a very integral story with the narrator one day - he speaks about a time when he was lost and was shown the way back to his family by an unknown man.
Gray and the narrator talk about the story of a tragedy in the past at Bogong High Plains. Three men set off on a skiing adventure and were caught in terrible weather. Desperate, one man goes for help ...but by the time that help comes, it's too late for one of them. An indigenous woman sees the two live men who have been rescued but remarks that they have brought back "only the body".
There is another timeline ... not far in the future - set in 1995 when the narrator is in a hospital waiting room. Rose captures the knot of emotions that are faced in that waiting room. There is a fear that something will happen and there's the fear that nothing will happen. It's such a strange in-between world that waiting room.
There's an interesting exploration in this book of death and the effect it has on others. As someone who worked at an AIDS organization - I have to say that this book captures the grief, the numbness and the sorrow of multiple losses. Losing many people consecutively, loss upon loss, can make it feel as though you're simply waiting for death yourself.
As I mentioned, the narrator in the book is still processing his partner's death when he begins to meet and forge strong relationships with other who are living with and dying from AIDS. He sees in those around him, the way that people process death, life and all the messiness that happens in between. He sees strength, and he creates friendships with people he might not have otherwise found time for.
Without a doubt, this is an exploration of grief and how it slowly picks away at someone over time. Too much grief... is something humans simply weren't intended to face. HIV/AIDS took the lives of so many... and the ones who were left behind were scarred by it.
There is a lot of dialogue in this story, but that works well. There's a lot of information and history in this book. It is an authentic view of the times - including some language that some may find outdated. But! It was accurate for the time and simply reflects the growth and change that has happened.
This is a beautiful, intriguing, and authentic novel about living, dying and the battle to grieve or carry on.
The story encompasses a few timelines. In 1994, the narrator is setting up a new and innovative program in Portland. He and an eclectic team of men will be testing gay men for HIV. As the men get to know one another, uncovering their weaknesses, challenges and strengths, they become a strong team of advocates.
In the recent past, the narrator is spending time with his deceased partner, Gray. The two men lived in Australia for many years and had a great life. Gray shares a very integral story with the narrator one day - he speaks about a time when he was lost and was shown the way back to his family by an unknown man.
Gray and the narrator talk about the story of a tragedy in the past at Bogong High Plains. Three men set off on a skiing adventure and were caught in terrible weather. Desperate, one man goes for help ...but by the time that help comes, it's too late for one of them. An indigenous woman sees the two live men who have been rescued but remarks that they have brought back "only the body".
There is another timeline ... not far in the future - set in 1995 when the narrator is in a hospital waiting room. Rose captures the knot of emotions that are faced in that waiting room. There is a fear that something will happen and there's the fear that nothing will happen. It's such a strange in-between world that waiting room.
There's an interesting exploration in this book of death and the effect it has on others. As someone who worked at an AIDS organization - I have to say that this book captures the grief, the numbness and the sorrow of multiple losses. Losing many people consecutively, loss upon loss, can make it feel as though you're simply waiting for death yourself.
As I mentioned, the narrator in the book is still processing his partner's death when he begins to meet and forge strong relationships with other who are living with and dying from AIDS. He sees in those around him, the way that people process death, life and all the messiness that happens in between. He sees strength, and he creates friendships with people he might not have otherwise found time for.
Without a doubt, this is an exploration of grief and how it slowly picks away at someone over time. Too much grief... is something humans simply weren't intended to face. HIV/AIDS took the lives of so many... and the ones who were left behind were scarred by it.
There is a lot of dialogue in this story, but that works well. There's a lot of information and history in this book. It is an authentic view of the times - including some language that some may find outdated. But! It was accurate for the time and simply reflects the growth and change that has happened.
This is a beautiful, intriguing, and authentic novel about living, dying and the battle to grieve or carry on.
December 19, 2020
I spent much of this novel fighting back tears. In many other instances, I was chuckling at the first person character’s wry, snarky humor. I suspect the reason this book tore at my heart so is because my partner and I lived through the early days of the AIDS epidemic (1980s), assisting in household chores for people with AIDS. And I am sure that reading about gay men and their relationships, as well as their fraught family connections, struck at my emotions. Alan Rose also lived through this period, but in a more deeply personal way, far closer to the front lines, so I trust his observations and his truths.
This book is, in a way, a catalogue of the many different types of people who were caught up in the tragedy of those years: many you will admire, some you will not, and some will call forth a mixture of feelings. In that sense this book is full of surprises, as we watch these many characters unfold against the backdrop of anxiety, diagnosis, and death.
Not least among them is the main character, first person, who as a mental health professional, provides his clients and the reader with valuable advice about grieving and healing, while he himself learns much about his own grieving process along the way.
But going even deeper, the novel grapples with moral ambiguities and philosophical mysteries concerning the nature of life and death and reality. In our current era of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), Rose’s book is a valuable contribution to this ongoing human conversation.
This book is, in a way, a catalogue of the many different types of people who were caught up in the tragedy of those years: many you will admire, some you will not, and some will call forth a mixture of feelings. In that sense this book is full of surprises, as we watch these many characters unfold against the backdrop of anxiety, diagnosis, and death.
Not least among them is the main character, first person, who as a mental health professional, provides his clients and the reader with valuable advice about grieving and healing, while he himself learns much about his own grieving process along the way.
But going even deeper, the novel grapples with moral ambiguities and philosophical mysteries concerning the nature of life and death and reality. In our current era of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), Rose’s book is a valuable contribution to this ongoing human conversation.
April 16, 2026
Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read. Wonderfully descriptive and emotionally devastating. 10/10.
November 13, 2021
Auguries of Immanence
When I finished reading Alan E. Rose's latest novel, As If Death Summoned, and closed the back cover, I discovered two things: One, I had just been taken on a fascinating, emotional time-and space-shifting journey in which the unnamed narrator weaves the fifteen worst years of the AIDS crisis and his own story of redemption through an eight-hour dark night of the soul in a hospital waiting room. Also, I had done something I almost never do to novels: I had dog-eared many pages.
Confession: I am a book mangler. In non-fiction works I dog-ear, underline, highlight, margin-note and generally bend, fold, spindle and mutilate the pages. My second-grade teacher, Mrs. McCartney, rolls in her grave every time I open a book. But the number of times I have purposely bent a page of fiction over decades of reading can be counted on my fingers and toes. Only the most heart-opening of ideas or soul-moving turn of phrase forces me to break the taboo.
After reading this story, I need more fingers and toes.
I first turned down the corner of page 17. The narrator, a long-time AIDS counselor and veteran of dozens of death-vigils, sits in yet another hospital waiting room, wishing to visit a man in ICU who is dear to him. Denied that wish, he waits for news of the man's fate. More than the life or death of a single man, however, the narrator has seen enough death and suffering to deeply feel the mortality of all human beings:
There’s this sense that much more than a life is ending. An entire world is coming to an end, a multitude of experiences, millions of moments and memories, hopes and goals and desires and dreams, all reduced to this: a biological organism slowly releasing its hold on life, a vast network of physiological processes gradually shutting down. Seems like someone should be here to witness it. You sense the presence that was this person has already departed, a presence no longer present, and not for the first time wonder who or what is actually dying.
And thus begins the journey of the narrator to discover "who or what is actually dying". An odyssey that takes us from starry nights in the high desert of Australia to rainy days in the seedy hotels of Portland, Oregon. We are shunted back-and-forth through time, from the first mention of a "gay cancer" in 1981 to the establishment of volunteer cadres who fight on every front of the crisis in 1995, just before the first effective treatments were discovered. We meet men and women, gay and straight, from every walk of life who find themselves in a battle that is common to all, but in this case, falls entirely on the shoulders of a few. That battle had claimed 300 thousand American lives by 1995, and the narrator has sat with over thirty, including his partner of a decade, as they release their hold on life. We learn as his tale unfolds that he is carrying every one of those souls on his heart.
As If Death Summoned is one of those rare novels that defies category or genre while telling a gripping tale. It is literary fiction and fictionalized memoir - the author was a front-line AIDS volunteer in Portland and Australia during the time of the story. The authenticity in his depiction of that time and place and challenge are undeniable in every paragraph and page. It is a love story, one that seeks to answer the age-old question about of whether lost love is better than no love. It is also a philosophical inquiry, with hints of The Dialogues of Plato, as the narrator meets and engages with characters of high and low status, of keen intellect and spirited libido, of optimistic and pessimistic inclinations. As the Socrates of this dialogue, the narrator confesses his lack of understanding and seeks knowledge from others to give him the ability to understand, if not alleviate, his soul-deep grief.
In the last third of the book, I dog-eared this page, as the narrator reached what he thought was the worst of his sorrow:
The snow began falling again. I remained at the wooden rail, wrapped in the moment’s soft snow-glow, gazing out over the dark river. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so low. But the mind has a short memory. Along with a short memory, it’s also prone to hyperbole: This is the lowest, the saddest, the worst you’ve ever felt. Face it, the mind’s a drama queen. At such times, I fall back on my professional training, counseling myself, trying to put me in contact with my rational, wiser mind to bring some perspective to the drama queen.
“You’re just having a bad day,” I say.
Yes, but it’s been a bad day for a very long time.
I gripped the railing through my gloves, closing my eyes, and whispered, “Bear it, Heart. You have borne worse.”
When we arrive at the ending, back in that hospital waiting room, we discover we've also been treated to a spirited and intricate mystery story, one that ties up all the loose ends we didn't know were left untied and redeems both the narrator and ourselves. Having felt the weight of sorrow in the narrator's heart for chapter after chapter, we rejoice in the hint of redemption, one that is promised to come to him in the world beyond the back cover of the book.
Though a dark story of a dark time, the pages are well marbled with humor. More than simple graveyard-whistling, the characters often face the worst with the strength that comes from laughter, and the narrator deflects pain with a dry wit. "Humor is just another defense against the universe" said Mel Brooks, and the people represented by Rose's characters were in desperate need of defense against the universe, in the form of the virus, and against the indifference and antipathy of their fellow citizens. Another dog-eared page marks one of these defensive actions, where the narrator is sitting vigil for yet another friend, at his bedside as the dying man wakes:
Then around 4:00 a.m., I was dozing when I heard a stirring and jerked awake, opening my eyes just as Jerald was opening his, both of us groggy. He looked around the dimly lit room, appearing confused. Seeing me, he asked, “Am I in heaven?”
“No. Providence Hospital.”
“Thank God. I would have been seriously disappointed if this were heaven.”
The author's choice to leave his protagonist nameless - a nickname of "Hobbes" is the closest he comes to a moniker - is telling of his philosophy, if I read him right. The novel is a gripping portrayal of a horror visited on a subset of our citizens, and of the heroism that rose from that subset to proclaim their rights and demand their humanity be affirmed by all. In telling that story, the author points to our common, shared frailty and strength, setting the challenge we all face in sharp relief. The unnamed "everyman" narrator of As If Death Summoned represents the immanence of the divine within each of us if we are brave enough to look into the mirror of his struggle and see ourselves. The story Alan E. Rose tells is an explication of the last lines from William Blake's poem, "Auguries of Innocence":
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day
Through that long, dark night spent waiting, Rose's narrator invites us to "dwell in realms of day".
-=|C|=-
When I finished reading Alan E. Rose's latest novel, As If Death Summoned, and closed the back cover, I discovered two things: One, I had just been taken on a fascinating, emotional time-and space-shifting journey in which the unnamed narrator weaves the fifteen worst years of the AIDS crisis and his own story of redemption through an eight-hour dark night of the soul in a hospital waiting room. Also, I had done something I almost never do to novels: I had dog-eared many pages.
Confession: I am a book mangler. In non-fiction works I dog-ear, underline, highlight, margin-note and generally bend, fold, spindle and mutilate the pages. My second-grade teacher, Mrs. McCartney, rolls in her grave every time I open a book. But the number of times I have purposely bent a page of fiction over decades of reading can be counted on my fingers and toes. Only the most heart-opening of ideas or soul-moving turn of phrase forces me to break the taboo.
After reading this story, I need more fingers and toes.
I first turned down the corner of page 17. The narrator, a long-time AIDS counselor and veteran of dozens of death-vigils, sits in yet another hospital waiting room, wishing to visit a man in ICU who is dear to him. Denied that wish, he waits for news of the man's fate. More than the life or death of a single man, however, the narrator has seen enough death and suffering to deeply feel the mortality of all human beings:
There’s this sense that much more than a life is ending. An entire world is coming to an end, a multitude of experiences, millions of moments and memories, hopes and goals and desires and dreams, all reduced to this: a biological organism slowly releasing its hold on life, a vast network of physiological processes gradually shutting down. Seems like someone should be here to witness it. You sense the presence that was this person has already departed, a presence no longer present, and not for the first time wonder who or what is actually dying.
And thus begins the journey of the narrator to discover "who or what is actually dying". An odyssey that takes us from starry nights in the high desert of Australia to rainy days in the seedy hotels of Portland, Oregon. We are shunted back-and-forth through time, from the first mention of a "gay cancer" in 1981 to the establishment of volunteer cadres who fight on every front of the crisis in 1995, just before the first effective treatments were discovered. We meet men and women, gay and straight, from every walk of life who find themselves in a battle that is common to all, but in this case, falls entirely on the shoulders of a few. That battle had claimed 300 thousand American lives by 1995, and the narrator has sat with over thirty, including his partner of a decade, as they release their hold on life. We learn as his tale unfolds that he is carrying every one of those souls on his heart.
As If Death Summoned is one of those rare novels that defies category or genre while telling a gripping tale. It is literary fiction and fictionalized memoir - the author was a front-line AIDS volunteer in Portland and Australia during the time of the story. The authenticity in his depiction of that time and place and challenge are undeniable in every paragraph and page. It is a love story, one that seeks to answer the age-old question about of whether lost love is better than no love. It is also a philosophical inquiry, with hints of The Dialogues of Plato, as the narrator meets and engages with characters of high and low status, of keen intellect and spirited libido, of optimistic and pessimistic inclinations. As the Socrates of this dialogue, the narrator confesses his lack of understanding and seeks knowledge from others to give him the ability to understand, if not alleviate, his soul-deep grief.
In the last third of the book, I dog-eared this page, as the narrator reached what he thought was the worst of his sorrow:
The snow began falling again. I remained at the wooden rail, wrapped in the moment’s soft snow-glow, gazing out over the dark river. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so low. But the mind has a short memory. Along with a short memory, it’s also prone to hyperbole: This is the lowest, the saddest, the worst you’ve ever felt. Face it, the mind’s a drama queen. At such times, I fall back on my professional training, counseling myself, trying to put me in contact with my rational, wiser mind to bring some perspective to the drama queen.
“You’re just having a bad day,” I say.
Yes, but it’s been a bad day for a very long time.
I gripped the railing through my gloves, closing my eyes, and whispered, “Bear it, Heart. You have borne worse.”
When we arrive at the ending, back in that hospital waiting room, we discover we've also been treated to a spirited and intricate mystery story, one that ties up all the loose ends we didn't know were left untied and redeems both the narrator and ourselves. Having felt the weight of sorrow in the narrator's heart for chapter after chapter, we rejoice in the hint of redemption, one that is promised to come to him in the world beyond the back cover of the book.
Though a dark story of a dark time, the pages are well marbled with humor. More than simple graveyard-whistling, the characters often face the worst with the strength that comes from laughter, and the narrator deflects pain with a dry wit. "Humor is just another defense against the universe" said Mel Brooks, and the people represented by Rose's characters were in desperate need of defense against the universe, in the form of the virus, and against the indifference and antipathy of their fellow citizens. Another dog-eared page marks one of these defensive actions, where the narrator is sitting vigil for yet another friend, at his bedside as the dying man wakes:
Then around 4:00 a.m., I was dozing when I heard a stirring and jerked awake, opening my eyes just as Jerald was opening his, both of us groggy. He looked around the dimly lit room, appearing confused. Seeing me, he asked, “Am I in heaven?”
“No. Providence Hospital.”
“Thank God. I would have been seriously disappointed if this were heaven.”
The author's choice to leave his protagonist nameless - a nickname of "Hobbes" is the closest he comes to a moniker - is telling of his philosophy, if I read him right. The novel is a gripping portrayal of a horror visited on a subset of our citizens, and of the heroism that rose from that subset to proclaim their rights and demand their humanity be affirmed by all. In telling that story, the author points to our common, shared frailty and strength, setting the challenge we all face in sharp relief. The unnamed "everyman" narrator of As If Death Summoned represents the immanence of the divine within each of us if we are brave enough to look into the mirror of his struggle and see ourselves. The story Alan E. Rose tells is an explication of the last lines from William Blake's poem, "Auguries of Innocence":
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day
Through that long, dark night spent waiting, Rose's narrator invites us to "dwell in realms of day".
-=|C|=-
December 19, 2020
I spent much of this novel fighting back tears. In many other instances, I was chuckling at the first person character’s wry, snarky humor. I suspect the reason this book tore at my heart so is because my partner and I lived through the early days of the AIDS epidemic (1980s), assisting in household chores for people with AIDS. And I am sure that reading about gay men and their relationships, as well as their fraught family connections, struck at my emotions. Alan Rose also lived through this period, but in a more deeply personal way, far closer to the front lines, so I trust his observations and his truths.
This book is, in a way, a catalogue of the many different types of people who were caught up in the tragedy of those years: many you will admire, some you will not, and some will call forth a mixture of feelings. In that sense this book is full of surprises, as we watch these many characters unfold against the backdrop of anxiety, diagnosis, and death.
Not least among them is the main character, first person, who as a mental health professional, provides his clients and the reader with valuable advice about grieving and healing, while he himself learns much about his own grieving process along the way.
But going even deeper, the novel grapples with moral ambiguities and philosophical mysteries concerning the nature of life and death and reality. In our current era of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), Rose’s book is a valuable contribution to this ongoing human conversation.
Also found under the name "Alan Rose," who also wrote The Legacy of Emily Hargraves, 2007, and Tales of Tokyo, 2010.
This book is, in a way, a catalogue of the many different types of people who were caught up in the tragedy of those years: many you will admire, some you will not, and some will call forth a mixture of feelings. In that sense this book is full of surprises, as we watch these many characters unfold against the backdrop of anxiety, diagnosis, and death.
Not least among them is the main character, first person, who as a mental health professional, provides his clients and the reader with valuable advice about grieving and healing, while he himself learns much about his own grieving process along the way.
But going even deeper, the novel grapples with moral ambiguities and philosophical mysteries concerning the nature of life and death and reality. In our current era of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), Rose’s book is a valuable contribution to this ongoing human conversation.
Also found under the name "Alan Rose," who also wrote The Legacy of Emily Hargraves, 2007, and Tales of Tokyo, 2010.
March 4, 2021
I learned much from reading As If Death Summoned, while at the same time the story pulled me into a deep sense of caring for all the characters. The narrative centers on an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-1990s, a time when a positive HIV test was tantamount to a death sentence. In order to convince men to be tested and to practice safe sex, a diverse group of volunteers venture everywhere the gay community congregates. At the same time, through the eyes of the protagonist, who’s the lead counselor for this project, we learn what these volunteers are dealing with in their own lives—finding and losing love, craving the acceptance of their families, staying healthy, dealing with rogue cops and sexual predators.
The prose itself is excellent. The dialogue is authentic, gritty, funny, compelling. While these men share their triumphs and pain with the protagonist counselor, he struggles with his own crisis. After spending ten years in Australia with his Aussie partner and watching him slowly deteriorate and finally succumb to the disease—the same fate of so many others whom he has counseled—he has grown numb. Surrounded by so much death, can he ever allow himself to experience love again?
I strongly recommend this book.
The prose itself is excellent. The dialogue is authentic, gritty, funny, compelling. While these men share their triumphs and pain with the protagonist counselor, he struggles with his own crisis. After spending ten years in Australia with his Aussie partner and watching him slowly deteriorate and finally succumb to the disease—the same fate of so many others whom he has counseled—he has grown numb. Surrounded by so much death, can he ever allow himself to experience love again?
I strongly recommend this book.
November 10, 2020
Perhaps one of the best works I have read in a long time. I will reflect on the characters for weeks to come. This tale grips the reader as it tenderly draws them on a journey that champions rebuilding life out of grief, loss, and suffering during an epidemic that swept away a generation.
This is a narrative for our generation and our times that demonstrates how to separate myths from headlines with striking humanity!
If you read only one novel at this moment, it should be this one. Vivid and heartbreaking, laced with character that advances the reader to linger long enough to see the renewal of hope.
This is a narrative for our generation and our times that demonstrates how to separate myths from headlines with striking humanity!
If you read only one novel at this moment, it should be this one. Vivid and heartbreaking, laced with character that advances the reader to linger long enough to see the renewal of hope.
September 10, 2021
Fabulous book. A must read. So well written and important.
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