Originally published in 1984 by Gay Sunshine Press, Paul Reed's
Facing It
is the first American novel to deal with the emerging holocaust that is the AIDS crisis.
This edition features a new introduction by Jerry Rosco, author of the biography
Glenway Wescott Personally
and editor of the Wescott journals
Continual Lessons
and
A Heaven of Words
.
"Reed established himself at the forefront of the literary response to AIDS...
Facing It: A Novel of AIDS
narrates the emergent realities of the epidemic through its protagonist Andy and his family physician Dr. Walt Branch. Both characters struggle to cope with Andy's mysterious debilitating illness and eventual death from AIDS-related complications . . . With this novel, Reed initiated a writing career that determinedly grappled with the evolving concerns of HIV epidemiology, even as the most personal contours of his private life were simultaneously and gravely impacted by the virus." -Mark John Isola,
Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States
"
is that rare novel - published in 1984 it is one of the first fictional works about HIV/AIDS - that radiates both the fierce energy of dispatches from the front lines and nuanced emotional consideration of what it means to be alive. At times blunt, even brutish about the horrific inequities of the epidemic's early years,
chronicles the everyday details of living in a - personal, social, political, medical - crisis when the very act of writing sustains hope and resembles something like salvation." -Michael Bronski, author of
Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps
,
A Queer History of the United States
, and co-editor of
Invisible History: The Collected Poems of Walta Borawski
"Paul Reed's
sounded the first call to the ravages, horrors, and duplicitous national reaction to the beginning of AIDS. An indictment, as well as a mirror of hope, its revelations still compel." -Philip F. Clark, author of
The Carnival of Affection
will help us to face not just AIDS but the random cruelties and rare beauties of this life. Mr. Reed has done us all a good turn by writing this novel." -Rita Mae Brown, author of
Rubyfruit Jungle
, blurb from the original edition
Paul Reed
was born in California in 1956 and along with
he was the author of several works of fiction, memoir and nonfiction, including safe-sex erotica under the pen name Max Exander. He died in January 2002 of AIDS-related complications.