Borrowed Time: AIDS Memo

This book is at once beautiful in its execution, and horrifying in its subject matter. Anyone who wants to understand what the beginning of this epidemic was like, and how much was lost in those first years must read this book. Long after AIDS is but a memory, "Borrowed Time" will stand as a monument to what nameless and faceless gay men and their families faced early in the epidemic, as well as a sobering reminder that in the face of such a horror as AIDS, apathy costs human lives.

Paul Monette in this book describes in harrowing detail the final months in the life of his lover Roger, and how Roger's deterioration affected both men and their relationship. The depth of feeling Monette conveys is remarkable; he writes with a candor and a beauty that bring tears to your eyes. We share Monette's sense of pain and loss. If you've ever known anyone with a terminal illness, this book is devastating, and even if you haven't, there's no way you can remain unmoved.People sometimes ask how it felt to be a gay man in the 1980s while the spread of AIDS was running unchecked. This powerful book gives the best answer I can imagine.

Paul Monette is a hero for so manny people and this book, Borrowed Time is an ever lasting monument for love and relief. It's written with so much love, why does so less people know Paul Monette. It's a shame! I love him and his books, they are all great altough I'm a girl from the Netherlands! more good books? read Adam Mars-Jones. He is also a grat writer, But Paul is the best!

I sat down reading this book, not knowing much about the AIDS epidemic or who was affected. What I learned in Monette's book is not just about suffering and losing a "friend", but also the battles and stuggles that we must carry on after. His prose was very fluid and he never lacked for words or descriptions to describe his feelings and what was going on in his life. It's not just another, poor me my lover died. Instead it's a tribute not only to his life, but allows the reader to glimpe the compassion and depth of his love. It also gets down to the nitty gritty and tells things like they are. And I cried my eyes out at the end, not wanting to turn that last page...

I can add nothing original to the wave of praises about this book from the other reviewers. I really appreciated the honesty of his narration, even down to the minute and unpleasant thoughts of what could have happened (or who gave the virus to whom). Though his opinions on his lover may be biased, both of them you felt intensely likeable. It's very hard not to--both of them are obviously intelligent and talented, led interesting lives and have friends just as colourful.As gutwrenching as the AIDS shadowed over Roger's deterioration, the book read like a love story to me. Not just the love between Roger and Paul, which doesn't remind me of them being gay in particular, but two people with a long term relationship who struggle to be together till death do them apart, as cliche as it may sound.As a Chinese gay man living in Hong Kong, I find the notion of my parents/relatives knowing about my identity, let alone my lover or even 'worse', a sickness, impossible. Yet, the book also showed poignantly the unconditional love and care any parents are willing to give to their children, no matter how grown up or far apart they have become.Paul Monette has certainly spoken for a lot of HIV+ people in his era, people who never had a chance to speak for themselves. Most people would not have time or the nerve to write about something as horrible as their own illnesses.