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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1988)
scents of Beauty Flying blind With Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, Paul Monetteproves the point that none of us is prepared or knows what to do. None of us can be counted on to act rationally. B Y J O E L R E D O N Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, by Paul Monette (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. $18.95). The Mysteries o f Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon (Morrow. $16.95). | i orrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, by Paul Monette, shows that AIDS nonfiction material keeps getting better. Monette. who is also infected with the disease, watches his lover slowly die. He records the painful process and at the same time paints a portrait, a biography of his lover and the history of their relationship. Like Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On. Borrowed Time traces the political history of this decade, but in a personal way. Monette observes: “ The fact is, no one knows where to start with AIDS. Now. in the seventh year of the calamity, my friends in L A. can hardly recall what it felt like any longer, the time before the sickness.” He describes the ambiguity of the early stages of the epidemic: “ What is now called safe sex did not used to be so clearly defined. The concept didn’t exist. But it was quickly becoming apparent, even then, that we couldn’t wait for somebody else to define the parameters. Thus every gay man I know has had to come to a point of personal definition by way of avoiding the chaos of sexually transmitted diseases. . . . ” Monette writes of his daily activities in the early '80s and then of his despair, as when he confesses that he no longer wants to live in a world where his friends can be in so much pain. One of the drawbacks I found with Monette's memoir was that the minute-by-minute medical statistics bogged me down. I knew the outcome already — the people would all die — and it was merely a matter of charting their declines. Not that this isn't moving, but at times the physical details overburden the story. Another, as if Monette should be treated specially because of his credentials, was a distasteful slip of snobbism: “ That is one of the shocking things about a hospital: its leveling of you to your body’s weakest link. The Ph D. in Comp Lit, the years in Paris, the wall of books — you do not wear these badges on your johnny gown.’ ’ (I hate it when gay men get too elegant and superior.) Monette also writes of his scheme to cover up his lover’s illness, long after it seems no longer to matter, long after discrimination fears at work are irrelevant. But Monette only proves the point here that none of us is prepared or knows w hat to do. None of us can be counted on to act rationally, to do and say the right things. Eventually the lover goes blind. They read Plato and enjoy whatever moments they have together between medical crises. But the moments shorten as they struggle to face this thing together and try to hold onto life slipping away, until finally Monette’s lover dies. Borrowed Time leaves us with the sensation that the clock is ticking and what we have now is all there is. This book is one without hope, but at least these two men had each other — some thing that a lot of people don't have. For your bath, beauty and health needs. Bubbles, lotion, potions, oils for your Massage, Bath, Body & Soul Tra n sfo rm a tio n a l B o o k s • Music ichael Chabon’s The Mysteries of Scents products Videos • Crystals • Jewelry Pittsburgh is said to be a crossover novel that appeals to heterosexual readers — in First Floor, Yamhill 1338 N .W . 23rd A ve. contrast with Marguerite Duras's latest. Brown Marketplace Hair, Blue Eyes, a crossover from heterosexual P ortland, O R 97210 228-8670 intellectuals that appeals to gays. But Chabon, I 503 224-4929 happen to know, is not gay. None of my busi ness, but he was lumped together recently with M o n.-Sa t. 10-8 S u n . 1-6 Ferro, Leavitt, White and others in a Newsweek article about new up-and-coming gay writers. I don’t know about all this stuff When I began reading The Mysteries o f Pittsburgh, I immediately thought of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Perhaps it was the spoiled frivolous academic youth, a powerful, mysterious but remote father A GENTLE APPROACH TO DENTISTRY (a gangster, in fact), flirting with girls and allowing himself to be flirted with by a boy. The boy is Arthur, a stylish blond. Art, the protagonist, is not a blond — he's Jewish. They do, however, have the same name, which canes removal system reminds me of the cliched situation of the gay The com fortable technique man looking for his opposite and then trying to that removes decay while make into him his twin. Art already has the m inim izing drilling and reducing the need for the needle beginnings, but we are led to believe that men are not what Art normally considers. ’ After they meet in the campus library. Art and Arthur go out for a drink. Art gets smashed quickly, and when they go outside, a guy named Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 8 am-5 pm Abdullah, who has a French accent, picks them up in a Fiat. At a party where no one is Ameri 12200 N. Jantzen Ave., Suite 480 Phone: can but them, Arthur tells Art: “ I don’t see myself as an American: I’m an atom, I bounce all over the place like a mercenary, a free agent P H O E N I X R I S I N G P R E S E N T S — a free atom — isn’t that something in chemistry? I’m always at the outside orbit of all the other, um, molecules?” Eventually there’s a confrontation between the two when Art tells Arthur that he’s straight. Arthur, of course, doesn’t believe him. But it isn’t long before Art admits to himself: “ The reiteration of my straightness began to retreat from its urgent position on the tip of my tongue. . . . ” When he’s alone, he looks down at a baseball game, at the tiny cars on the road below, at a “ miniature housewife,” vowing suddenly never to become small, to get only bigger— the implication being that he wants to expand the restrictions of an ordinary life. He admires Arthur his homosexuality — he thinks it’s daring, glamorous and free. In the end. Art chooses Arthur over Phlox, a weird, attractive girl who’s a friend of Arthur’s. O ctober 28, 29, 3 0 ,1 9 8 8 In an era in which, if there’s any question about Camp Westwind direction, most people would assume it more safe and logical for a man to choose a woman. (near Lincoln City) Art does not. Maybe it’s just me. but I kept Sliding scale $ 7 5 -$125 getting hung up on the sex scenes: no one was employing safe sex. AIDS wasn’t even mentioned, although it seemed just about every thing else was. If Arthur had been exposed to A three-day weekend retreat for gay men at a private facility with a 2-mile private beach, AIDS, then Art would have passed it to Phlox. hiking trails, canoeing, horseback riding and rustic cabins and lodges. We also discover that in the end Art has not thrown heterosexuality over. He seems to be Westwind is a beautiful, wooded camp, located at the mouth of the Salmon River on truly what is called bisexual — although he says the Oregon Coast. The entire facility is reserved for privacy. The retreat is designed to at one point that there is really no such thing. be whatever you want, be it structured time, meeting new people, or being alone. But that is not what the book is about: Mysteries Come join us. o f Pittsburgh is about romance, suspense and the life of crime. It’s easily one of my favorites Fee includes all meals and lodging. Workshops will be available for those who wish to of 1988. Chabon. who wrote the book for his participate. Participants will decide the type of workshops upon arrival at the retreat. doctoral thesis, sold the movie rights before the The weekend is facilitated by Don Posten, M.S.W. book was even published. Get ready for another Brett Easton Ellis, but this time, one who’s sympathetic, at least. to our side. • M featuring Uncommon STEPHEN D. YEW, d . m . d . Qridox 289-1215 PH O EN IX Call (503) 223-8299 to register. Joe! Redon s first novel. Bloodstream, will be published in the fall by Knight's Press. R f ^ G O t f ( .O N S I f SOIAN/GAV S fg V K f C fN T f« ju st out • 19 • August I988