Best Book I've Ever Read

Rog should have anticipated that I would make a post about Randy Shilts' treatise on AIDS, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic in this blog. I've been telling him for years he must read it. It's simply one of, if not the, best book I have ever read. Add to that his career in public health, and it is a must read.

Below is a review by a friend of mine who I gave it to. She also declared it would have a permanent spot on her "best of" lists.

It is not always an easy read, especially when you know what is coming. This book is credited with forcing the acknowledgment of AIDS.

Sadly, Shilts' life was cut short by the disease. He refused to be tested while writing the book, thinking it may bias him. The last chapters he wrote from the hospital. It is a loss I feel, not knowing where else his life may take him. Shilts was also the author of Mayor Castro Street about Harvey Milk, and Conduct Unbecoming, about gays in the military.

If you do read this (or have read it) please post and let me know what you think.

Lisa

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This book shot to the top of my nonfiction reads for 2005, an amazing feat because I also read Lindbergh this year and expected it to hold the top position.

And the Band Played On is an act of phenomenal research and writing, and a very frightening book on many levels because of the political wrangling, political bumbling, and political disregard for a medical crisis which cost the lives of so many, the scientific in-fighting which slowed medical break throughs and sacrificed lives, and the insanity of national agencies which were supposed to be saving lives, but which in this case knowingly risked the lives of many either because they didn’t want to do the work, didn’t want to spend the money, or didn’t want to anger certain political groups. Gay men were deemed to be utterly dispensable by so many.

It’s the sign of a good book when it brings out strong emotions. This book provoked in me anger, rage, confusion, compassion, sadness, and tears. I wish I could thank all those, like Don Francis, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Selma Dritz, Marc Conant, Dr. Dale Lawrence, Paul Volberding, and Dr. Arye Rubenstein, who tried so hard, against such overwhelming odds, to save lives quickly. I would also chastise President Ronald Reagan and Merve Silverman and give Margaret Heckler and Bob Gallo a piece of my mind — the skunks!

I am thankful that there are politicians like Orrin Hatch and people behind the scenes like Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones. Though he was woefully slow in responding I’m grateful for the response of C. Everett Koop and that once he made his stand he never wavered and took it to the media wherever he could.

Randy Shilts did an excellent job of showing the culture in the United States and France and the politics in the medical and scientific communities and the political posture and arena during the 1980s. He also humanized the crisis by following many of the patients from onset of medical problems to death (Enno Poersch, Gary Walsh, Frances Borchelt, Bill Kraus, and Gaetan Dugas) and by following the doctors and scientists in their fight to discover the properties of this terrible disease and conquer it. It was enlightening and helpful to have the book structured as a time line.

The amount and variety of research done for this book is astounding, requiring Shilts to conduct hundreds of interviews and read millions of pages of articles and medical material.

It is a great tragedy that AIDS killed Randy Shilts as it had killed so many other innocents, and that as I write this there is still no cure for AIDS. As far as I can tell, it is again being largely ignored by governments and the medical community. Where will the next Bill Kraus, Dr. Gottlieb, and the other saviors come from and will they come soon enough?

I cannot thank PokPok enough for lending me this book. My education has been enhanced and my life is more full and forever changed as a result of reading it. I'll return it to her on the 15th at our meetup.