White Nights and Ascending Shadows

Wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. I love oral histories, and I think that that format is perfect for conveying the horror of the AIDS crisis as it swept through an entire community. Actually, one of the interesting parts of this book was that it included people from outside the gay white male community, giving voices and respect to others who generally are invisible when the conversation turns to AIDS.

To me, as a transplant San Franciscan born when AIDS was just starting to spread, it is very important to get a sense of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. To understand is probably stretching it - can I really understand what it's like to lose everyone I love, to get sick, to be disrespected by health workers, to be ignored by the government at my time of greatest need? - but the stories shared in this book certainly got me close.

If you are interested in this book, or have already read and liked it, then I recommend watching the movie “We Were Here: Voices from the AIDS Years in San Francisco.”