It's take me almost a month, but I finally finished And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. Originally published in 1987, And the Band Played On is a non-fiction account of the founding of AIDS and the HIV virus. Shlits, who reported for the San Francisco Chronicle, tells the story of the discovery of AIDS through people infected by the disease. He intersperses the individual narratives with the politics and science involved in the founding of AIDS. (If you've read/watched any movies about Harvey Milk, many of the characters in the book will be familiar. For example, Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones, both very involved with San Francisco politics, are characters.)
As the Band Played On is an incredibly informative read and very interesting. It's dense at times, although Shilts does a good job at explaining the political jargon. Having not yet been born when AIDS was discovered, I was surprised to read how little media coverage AIDS received. I also realized how little I know about the gay liberation movement of the '70s. Today, discrimination against gays comes in the form of banning same-sex marriage or in issues related to adoption. In the late '70s and early '80s, discrimination against gays came in the form of ignoring a disease that was killing people!
It's truly amazing how far we've come in fighting AIDS. I'm going to try to find a book that chronicles the progression of AIDS research through the late '80s and '90s. With the book ending in 1987, it seems like there is so much of this story to tell.
Have any of your read And the Band Played On or seen the movie? What did you think?
1 comment:
I haven't read this book, but I have seen the film a few times and it's really good. We were really young (some of us not even born yet), when the epidemic hit and so getting a better understanding of what was going on at the time is really helpful to compare what's going on today. I may have to add this one to my "to read" list!
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