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A review by veleda_k
Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death by Lillian Faderman
4.0
(I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
This is an engaging, accessible biography that offers some new angles from which to examine the life of Harvey Milk. Faderman places Milk's Jewish identity at the forefront of his story, showing how Milk's Jewishness influenced his activism and life. It's not an aspect that I've seen scholarship on Milk examine much before, so I liked the fresh angle.
There's a frank examination of Milk's flaws and foibles. Faderman looks at the little tragedies of Milk's life that were of his own making, such as his eternally doomed romantic life, with Milk always coming back to broken young men, hoping he could save them. And it's clear that things like Milk's love of the spotlight did both good and ill.
Looking at the notes, this book seems to correct a few errors present in Randy Shilts' "The Mayor of Castro Street.
All in all, I enjoyed this biography very much and I think it's useful work of queer scholarship.
This is an engaging, accessible biography that offers some new angles from which to examine the life of Harvey Milk. Faderman places Milk's Jewish identity at the forefront of his story, showing how Milk's Jewishness influenced his activism and life. It's not an aspect that I've seen scholarship on Milk examine much before, so I liked the fresh angle.
There's a frank examination of Milk's flaws and foibles. Faderman looks at the little tragedies of Milk's life that were of his own making, such as his eternally doomed romantic life, with Milk always coming back to broken young men, hoping he could save them. And it's clear that things like Milk's love of the spotlight did both good and ill.
Looking at the notes, this book seems to correct a few errors present in Randy Shilts' "The Mayor of Castro Street.
All in all, I enjoyed this biography very much and I think it's useful work of queer scholarship.