Reviews
How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France
jackiez19's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
The biggest thing that I got out of this book was how incredibly hard the gay community fought in the 1980s to be considered a priority by the medical establishment. This was a really wonderful deep dive into this movement. For anyone wanting to read it, don't be intimidated by the page length! A lot of the numbered pages are part of a detailed notes section at the end, which I think is optional. I didn't read the notes, anyways.
queerofthedagger's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This somehow combines the stark history and a personal memoir of the AIDS epidemic, and it's exactly as important, harrowing, and needed as that sounds. While it is very US, and within that New York-centred, I think especially for my younger generation of queer people this is a highly, highly needed read. That aside, the one thing really sitting not well with me were the repeated Holocaust comparisons, even though I realize that it was a commonly used figure. Still, such a personal, not-sparing-anything documentation of the fight against AIDS, and how much we only had, and only have, ourselves to thank for everything that has been accomplished.
somestuff's review against another edition
5.0
a very strong overview of treatment activism during the pre-treatment era of HIV/AIDS.
Has some deep rabbit holes into certain players and possible treatments that um in my opinion could have been replaced with deeper info on some of their other aspects of the pandemic only brushed upon. With this I’m talking about over coverage of AL-721 bootlegging, the Native’s coverage of the epidemic (Especially Chuck Ortleb’s conspiracy theories getting some serious airtime, as well as the deep and continuous info on Joseph Sonnabend. And a very deep biography of Larry Kramer’s and Michael Callen’s artistic outputs?
And by things left out I mean the ashes actions, true explanations of funding campaigns for ACTUP/NY, and funding structured within NIH/NIAID and what restructuring actually occurred after the Clinton administration “shook things up”.
Some of the early years does feel like a near copy of and the band played on with only slightly less focus on patient O/ Gaetan Dugas.
Has some deep rabbit holes into certain players and possible treatments that um in my opinion could have been replaced with deeper info on some of their other aspects of the pandemic only brushed upon. With this I’m talking about over coverage of AL-721 bootlegging, the Native’s coverage of the epidemic (Especially Chuck Ortleb’s conspiracy theories getting some serious airtime, as well as the deep and continuous info on Joseph Sonnabend. And a very deep biography of Larry Kramer’s and Michael Callen’s artistic outputs?
And by things left out I mean the ashes actions, true explanations of funding campaigns for ACTUP/NY, and funding structured within NIH/NIAID and what restructuring actually occurred after the Clinton administration “shook things up”.
Some of the early years does feel like a near copy of and the band played on with only slightly less focus on patient O/ Gaetan Dugas.
sfletcher26's review against another edition
4.0
5 years ago, when I began working in Haemophilia research I was told that I needed to read Randy Shilts' "And the Band Played On" so that I would begin to get an understanding of one of the defining eras in the recent history of Haemophilia care, the disaster that was the contaminated blood tragedy.
Ostensibly about the HIV crisis and the history of its effects in the LGBT community Shilts' book often went into the implications of the crisis for those infected by contaminated blood including many in the Haemophilia community. For many years Shilts' book has been the only large-scale history of the HIV crisis and his book is a triumph of journalism. That said he has received some criticism for the way he portrayed some of the major players and Gaetan Dugas in particular, who he identified as Patient Zero. It was therefore with interest that I discovered France's in a bookshop late last year. Not having seen the documentary to which this is a companion piece I was looking forward to discovering the crisis through a fresh pair of eyes.
France's book is centred on the response of the LGBT community to the crisis rather than a straight documentation of the crisis per se. That said it does for much of the first half tread the same ground as Shilts' earlier work. France's east coast focus though does make it significantly different from the west coast centrism of Shilts earlier work. The second half of the book though is very different as it focuses much more on the part played by those individuals with HIV in their fight to find a treatment. It describes how a combination of arrogance, hubris, political torpor and at times plain old fashioned homophobia meant that the death toll was far greater then it ever need have been. The book therefore chronicles the birth of, what has since become a major feature within medicine and research today, that of patient involvement and advocacy.
My one criticism though is his failure to address the issue of the wider implications of the HIV crisis and in particular the spread of the disease by contaminated blood and chronicle that communities fight. Whether that was a conscious decision of a genuine oversight is unclear.
France is an excellent and engaging writer who's book is as much a personal testimony as a history of the events of the time. A must read.
Ostensibly about the HIV crisis and the history of its effects in the LGBT community Shilts' book often went into the implications of the crisis for those infected by contaminated blood including many in the Haemophilia community. For many years Shilts' book has been the only large-scale history of the HIV crisis and his book is a triumph of journalism. That said he has received some criticism for the way he portrayed some of the major players and Gaetan Dugas in particular, who he identified as Patient Zero. It was therefore with interest that I discovered France's in a bookshop late last year. Not having seen the documentary to which this is a companion piece I was looking forward to discovering the crisis through a fresh pair of eyes.
France's book is centred on the response of the LGBT community to the crisis rather than a straight documentation of the crisis per se. That said it does for much of the first half tread the same ground as Shilts' earlier work. France's east coast focus though does make it significantly different from the west coast centrism of Shilts earlier work. The second half of the book though is very different as it focuses much more on the part played by those individuals with HIV in their fight to find a treatment. It describes how a combination of arrogance, hubris, political torpor and at times plain old fashioned homophobia meant that the death toll was far greater then it ever need have been. The book therefore chronicles the birth of, what has since become a major feature within medicine and research today, that of patient involvement and advocacy.
My one criticism though is his failure to address the issue of the wider implications of the HIV crisis and in particular the spread of the disease by contaminated blood and chronicle that communities fight. Whether that was a conscious decision of a genuine oversight is unclear.
France is an excellent and engaging writer who's book is as much a personal testimony as a history of the events of the time. A must read.
laurenmaria422's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death, Cancer, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Suicide, Outing, Homophobia, Grief, and Sexual content
Minor: Police brutality, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Drug use