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This glorious volume includes a series of vignettes about people's diverse reactions to AIDS in the early 1980s when it began entering the general population of the US. Fear engendered draconian responses by many, and Barber, who at the time was a disease intervention specialist, wrote of the reactions and responses of people who had received a diagnosis, as well as those who were affected by the trepidation that someone they knew had it or might have it.
The short-short stories, each about a page long, reveal the author's perception of the myriad experiences of those he encounters. "Concerned Citizen" tells of a report via telephone about a person who the caller thinks probably has AIDS because "she has that drug user look." "Crossroads" appears to be Barber's perceptive reflection of the horrors that plague each person who has the infection. Those who remember the times before the "drug cocktails" will recall the sometimes horrific reactions expressed to those who were ill. A quote in the book refers to a Los Angeles Times article from 1985 in which fifty percent of respondents to a national poll favored "Criminal charge, quarantine, tattoo."
These reminders, written by a man whose caring and sensitivity are evident, are pertinent today as the US faces other crises that can polarize people, including the spread of another virus and, potentially as toxic, the fear that it engenders. Readers of this work may learn from the behaviors and reactions of and to the AIDS crisis, which were both public and yet intensely private, about how to deal with public health issues with common sense and compassion.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review