First Comes Love

This is one of my all-time favorite books by my favorite writer. I used to read Marion Winik's cloumns in the local newspaper when I lived in Austin and have always been a fan of her writing style. I recommend this book to everyone and they all can't believe how much they enjoy it. When you first read the book synopsis on the back cover it sounds as if the story was pulled from one of those cheesy tv-movie-of-the-weeks. But Winik's story and the voice with which she tells it is so engaging and inspirational. Her words never reflect any kind of self-pity, as is often seen in many of the memoirs published recently. Instead her writing is wry, clever and very witty. This book will honestly make you laugh and cry. After reading this book you'll feel like Marion Winik is one of your close friends or wish she was.

This book was amazing, I truely enjoyed this book, for 2 days I couldnt put it down. It for sure had me captivated. I cant wait to read the others.

This may be the only book I have ever read where I wanted to contact the author and let her know how much her story had moved me. A genuine love story . . . one that left me awash in tears by the time I finished (which was uncomfortable because I was sitting on a beach surrounded by people)! I have recommended this book time and time again to my friends, who wind up thanking me for the loan (and, to date, I've always gotten the book back -- which makes me quite happy)! Marion Winik has a wonderful "voice," a sincere ability to convey emotions without concern that others will sit in judgment . . . I have become quite a fan.

Marion Winik's funny, honest, and ultimately gut-wrenching memoir First Comes Love answers, in the end, what true love is. In clear, unwavering prose, Winik tells of her meeting, marrying, having two children with Tony Heubach, a gay ice-skater. Given their differing sexual orientations -- Winik is straight -- sex never was a big part of their relationship. Drugs, however, were, and it is the drugs which first brought the two together and drove them apart as Tony desperately sought any respite from the AIDS that killed him (neither Winik nor their two children ever tested positive). The most accurate phrase I can come up for Winik and Tony is that they were "soul mates", and this compatibility on levels more intimate than intercourse made their relationship work. Involving as it does drug addiction and AIDS, many parts of this book are sad. Winik and Tony, however, shared many good times together, including a number of years when they were off drugs, were happily married with young children, and before Tony became symptomatic. This book deserves a wide audience both for its honesty and for Winik's marvelous writing.

This true story of the author's nearly obsessive love for a handsome, homosexual ice skater is at once tragic and hilarious. Ms. Winik is a manic, heroin-abusing rascal who writes with total candor of the relationship between herself and her beautiful, gay husband. Through sexual confusion, the death of a child, and the ultimate finality of AIDS, the reader is taken on a wild ride through the ups and inevitable downs of a most unusual partnership. A real page turner