Afterlife

Description

Afterlife is a haunting and unforgettable story of men facing loss and seeking love, movingly capturing the moment in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was completely devastating the American gay community. Here, National Book Award winner Paul Monette depicts three men of various economic and social backgrounds, all with one thing in common: They are widowers, in a way, and all of their lovers died of AIDS in an LA hospital within a week of one another. Steven, Sonny, and Dell meet weekly to discuss how to go on with their lives despite the hanging sword of being HIV positive. One tries to find a semblance of normalcy; one rebels openly against the disease, choosing to treat his body as a temple that he can consecrate and desecrate at will; and one throws himself into fierce political activism. No matter what path each one takes, they are all searching for one thing: a way to live and love again. Afterlife finds Paul Monette at his most autobiographical, portraying men in a situation that he himself experienced, and one that he described to critical acclaim in the award-winning Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir.

Description

A ground-breaking novel by the author of the celebrated AIDS memoirs Borrowed Time, Afterlife is the story of a new kind of widower--those survivors of AIDS who must try to learn to live and love again after great loss. Though they are very difference Steven, Dell, and Sonny have shared one wrenching experience: All three kept vigil together in the corridors of a Los Angeles hospital as, within days of one another, their lovers died. Now, after a year of gathering as a kind of mourners' club every Saturday night, each man must embark on a life after AIDS--the afterlife. Steven Shaw owns a travel agency on Sunset Strip which he ceded to Margaret Kirkham, his second-in-command, so that he can sit around his canyon house and fall apart full-time. Armored against desire, Steven nonetheless grows engaged against his will with Mark. Threatened with AIDS, Mark walks out of his job as head of a television production company and begins the process of furiously revising his life. Even as he enters into a touchy and uneasy relationship with Mark, Steven must confront the raging grief of fellow vigil-keeper Dell Espinoza. Dell resorts to petty sabotage and threats to get an indifferent Southern California to care about the crisis that has cost him his lover. In spite of the entreaties of his sister, Linda, he grows increasingly obsessed with hate-mongering evangelist Mother Evangeline. Dell's fury could turn to violence. Sonny Cevathas, the third widower, does whatever he can to deny grief, to avoid even thinking. A West Hollywood waiter, he more or less live in the gray Mercedes he managed to appropriate from the greedy family of his late lover. Relying on the gym and New Age platitudes, Sonny is determined to escape death by finding himself a rich new boyfriend. Instead he finds himself speeding headlong toward disaster. Just as Paul Monette's Borrowed Time defined AIDS for a generation, Afterlife is a vivid and startling novel about pain, survival, love, and unexpected joy.

Subjects

Other Editions

• AfterlifeCrown Publishers1990-01-01
• AfterlifeAvon Books1991-01-01
• AfterlifePaperbackAbacus1996-01-01
• AfterlifePaperbackKensington2002-07-01