The Body and Its Dangers, and Other Stories

There have been many talented gay writers who we have lost in the AIDS epidemic...or pandemic, really. If I had to choose one, Allen Barnett would be that man. His stories are just incredibly beautiful, and painful, to read. What might he have produced had he lived? A question that could be asked of so many others as well. Read this book; see how it was almost twenty years ago.

I was very impressed with the quality of writing in this book, and the extraordinary compassion of the author that is evident even in the less likeable characters.The metaphors in the book are richly woven into the stories, especially the two dealing with the friends from the Jesuit college whose lives are profoundly affected by their relationships. I hope this book gets a wider reading public than gay men as several themes explored in the book- illness, breast cancer, finding the father figure, sexuality and sensuality, loss of traditional spirituality- are issues facing many men and women in society. I was distressed to learn that Mr Barnett himself had died of AIDS shortly after the book was published. He was a very gifted writer of perception and depth, and I mourn this loss to the literary world.

A most sensitive and yet powerful collection of short stories with 'The Body...' being the best of the lot. With this expressive power how come we didn't hear more from (and on) this VERY talented writer ???

Put simply, Barnett's "The Body and Its Dangers" is the best work of American fiction to come out of the AIDS pandemic--its beautiful prose, its rich and fierce vision. The long story "The 'Times' As It Knows Us" alludes to and is finally equal to Joyce's "The Dead": it's a story as large as the complexities and sorrows it describes.

Allen Barnett won a Lambda Literary Award for these six short stories that convey the human experience of love, loss, and our ability to cope -- with spare, emotional and intelligent writing.