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janey's review against another edition
5.0
It is so frustrating to be reminded of the politization of AIDS, especially during the current pandemic
lizziaha's review against another edition
I’m planning to come back to this at some point; I just lost motivation to finish. It’s a lot of information, and because it’s history and I know the general shape of the story, there’s a kind of dread rising through the entire experience of reading. I wish there was an audiobook so I could just power through!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Sexual content
katiescho741's review against another edition
5.0
Heartbreaking, fascinating, and frustrating in equal measures. I found this book after watching the TV show Pose.
We often think of epidemics as things that happen in the 3rd World or in fiction, but there was an epidemic in modern times and this is the book to read if you want to know more about it. Shilts did so much research and investigation for this book but it also reads quite informally and it's not the dense tome you might imagine. I found out that Shilts was tested for HIV while writing this book and he refused to be told the result until he completed it for fear of being labelled as biased...this added an extra dimension to my reading. I wondered why my edition hadn't had any 21st century updates added, but then I found out that it was because Randy Shilts died in 1994.
The book traces the virus from the first time it surfaced in the western world, to the gay clubs and bath houses of San Francisco, and from there we delve into the stories of the people who found out they had it, the people who pushed for more government spending, and the scientists who researched this strange new illness. I had no idea that there was so much fault - I knew the government pretended it didn't exist, but to read about the scientists bickering over who discovered it first and who should take credit, and the greedy managers of the bath houses who refused to be open with their customers about the spread of the disease, was shocking and frustrating. "The Lost Generation" is usually a name given to the men who died in WWI, but there is a generation of gay men who had no chance against this disease who also get that title.
Shilts is very straight up with his language and descriptions, but it never feels vulgar because being straightforward was something severely lacking during the AIDS epidemic. When "AIDspeak" surfaces we get to see how no one official wanted to say "bodily fluids" or "anal intercourse" because of offending sensibilities, and how much of the fault lay with the people who didn't want to upset or offend anyone by telling them what sexual acts to avoid to save their lives.
An excellent book with so much detail and heart.
We often think of epidemics as things that happen in the 3rd World or in fiction, but there was an epidemic in modern times and this is the book to read if you want to know more about it. Shilts did so much research and investigation for this book but it also reads quite informally and it's not the dense tome you might imagine. I found out that Shilts was tested for HIV while writing this book and he refused to be told the result until he completed it for fear of being labelled as biased...this added an extra dimension to my reading. I wondered why my edition hadn't had any 21st century updates added, but then I found out that it was because Randy Shilts died in 1994.
The book traces the virus from the first time it surfaced in the western world, to the gay clubs and bath houses of San Francisco, and from there we delve into the stories of the people who found out they had it, the people who pushed for more government spending, and the scientists who researched this strange new illness. I had no idea that there was so much fault - I knew the government pretended it didn't exist, but to read about the scientists bickering over who discovered it first and who should take credit, and the greedy managers of the bath houses who refused to be open with their customers about the spread of the disease, was shocking and frustrating. "The Lost Generation" is usually a name given to the men who died in WWI, but there is a generation of gay men who had no chance against this disease who also get that title.
Shilts is very straight up with his language and descriptions, but it never feels vulgar because being straightforward was something severely lacking during the AIDS epidemic. When "AIDspeak" surfaces we get to see how no one official wanted to say "bodily fluids" or "anal intercourse" because of offending sensibilities, and how much of the fault lay with the people who didn't want to upset or offend anyone by telling them what sexual acts to avoid to save their lives.
An excellent book with so much detail and heart.
nikidon's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
4.25
sumsunalli's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a dense but powerful summary of the epidemic that changed the world. It has a thorough and intriguing recount of all the powers at play throughout the major years. I often found myself putting the book down to absorb the facts and the shocking reality of the 1980's; it also made me reflect on the parallels of the governmental support we have seen with the Coronavirus.
I would definitely recommend anyone to read this book who wants to learn more about an important time period in history. Fair warning: be ready to buckle up for 605 pages of factual material!
I would definitely recommend anyone to read this book who wants to learn more about an important time period in history. Fair warning: be ready to buckle up for 605 pages of factual material!
belanaborealis's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
5.0
informative, frustrating & sad
marmoo's review against another edition
4.0
This history of the early political, scientific, and social response to the early AIDS crisis is as infuriating as it is heartbreaking. Randy Shilts has his heroes and his villains—perhaps displaying that common journalistic bias toward a willing source—but his underlying sense of outrage doesn’t undercut the book’s authority; rather, it imbues the account with even more urgency. All in all, And the Band Played On is a landmark example of the power of good journalism.
emleemay's review against another edition
5.0
The gay plague got covered only because it finally had struck people who counted, people who were not homosexuals.
1) This is an absolutely astounding piece of investigative journalism. Shilts has dug deep into the history of the AIDs crisis: from its very early origins in Africa, being passed around by a lack of medical hygiene, to the bath houses of New York and San Francisco. He has provided a comprehensive, horrific history of the disease, its victims, and the uncaring government who allowed it to spread out of control.
2) Shilts is an AMAZING writer. I'm interested in the history of diseases, but then I'm interested in the history of a lot of things. Technology, art, religion, democracy... being interested in something is one thing; being able to hold my attention for 600+ pages of non-fiction is quite another.
But Shilts did not have a problem. His writing style feels almost like you are reading a dark, dramatic novel as he paints a vivid picture of every scene. It's so very compelling. This simple truth seems obvious and yet it is easy to forget amid a sea of fantasy pageturners-- reality is so much more haunting and terrible than fiction.
3) This book exposes the homophobia, overt or otherwise, that allowed AIDs to become a disaster. Homophobia is not surprising to me in this often shitty world we live in, and yet I still managed to be shocked at the way medical professionals, government officials, and the media repeatedly failed the gay victims at the centre of this crisis.
We have teams around the world whose job it is to quickly isolate and stop infectious diseases before they can become epidemics. Shilts uses Legion Fever (or Legionnaires' disease) as an example. When there was an outbreak of Legion Fever in 1976, the government poured money into it and the CDC acted quickly to stop its spread. However, AIDs was not offered the same treatment.
Despite the fact that more people were dying from AIDs and it was spreading much more quickly, many medical professionals refused to acknowledge it, the media would not talk about gay sex, and some people even outright suggested it was the wrath of god, punishing gay men for immoral behaviour. It is heartbreaking how many gay men, as well as others, were allowed to die because of a fear of the word "homosexual".
What must it be like to be diagnosed with a disease and discover that the government refuses to care about finding the cause, or a cure, for it? I can't even imagine. It is horrific.
4) I recommend this book to everyone. It's a fast-paced, fascinating, and awful read that looks at a very recent area of history. If there was ever a perfect argument against bigotry, it is this disastrous way the AIDs epidemic was handled in its wake, and the millions of people who have died because of it.
I also recommend checking out the movie "The Normal Heart" for a more visual experience of this history.
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