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saritagonzalez's review
5.0
Stunning book! So many sentences were highlighted. Poets are truly the best writer.s. Highly recommend.
pturnbull's review
4.0
A beautifully written, literary memoir about Lisicky's early years in Provincetown from 1991-1994. I was immediately captivated by the opening scene, in which he is saying goodbye to his mother, and on the brink of a new life. He realizes, "She is afraid of my living among my kind, especially now that so many young men are dying of AIDS. She is expecting me to die of AIDS."
AIDS is the character all other characters maneuver around, containing as it does the fullness of both sex and death within itself. Liskicky describes the times and the social scene in a way that is both lyrical and psychologically astute. He ends with a chapter dated 2018, "Afterlife," when Lisicky commits to daily PrEP to protect himself from HIV/AIDS. This decision is a repudiation of all the fear and damage of the past, but the tragedy of the disease still resonates, still spreads itself through young gay men in the interior of the nation and elsewhere.
I am awed by the depth and beauty of Lisicky's ruminations about culture, identity, and sexuality and am glad that I purchased this book.
AIDS is the character all other characters maneuver around, containing as it does the fullness of both sex and death within itself. Liskicky describes the times and the social scene in a way that is both lyrical and psychologically astute. He ends with a chapter dated 2018, "Afterlife," when Lisicky commits to daily PrEP to protect himself from HIV/AIDS. This decision is a repudiation of all the fear and damage of the past, but the tragedy of the disease still resonates, still spreads itself through young gay men in the interior of the nation and elsewhere.
I am awed by the depth and beauty of Lisicky's ruminations about culture, identity, and sexuality and am glad that I purchased this book.
eriknoteric's review
5.0
Every word of Paul Lisicky's "Later" will draw you in, begging you to picture it, to reflect on it, and to read it again and again.
Lisicky arrived in Provincetown, MA in 1991 during the heart of the AIDS crisis. A town on the cape, known for its queer community, was being ravaged by a disease - and a politics - that was killing the community of people calling it home. Entering into a tumultuous center, Lisicky finds his voice as a writer, falls in love, and considers the fears of being infected that lurk around every corner. Throughout his years in the "Town," he avoids ever being tested - desperately seeking freedom from the stigma and weight of the disease that is taking the lives of each of his friends. Though AIDS colors each page of this book, the story is so much more: a story of survival, of loss, of dodging the bullet with the one you love and despite that dodge still separating.
"Later" is a book that a reader hopes never ends. Sadly, it does. But lucky for you, you can read this tale again and again and again.
Lisicky arrived in Provincetown, MA in 1991 during the heart of the AIDS crisis. A town on the cape, known for its queer community, was being ravaged by a disease - and a politics - that was killing the community of people calling it home. Entering into a tumultuous center, Lisicky finds his voice as a writer, falls in love, and considers the fears of being infected that lurk around every corner. Throughout his years in the "Town," he avoids ever being tested - desperately seeking freedom from the stigma and weight of the disease that is taking the lives of each of his friends. Though AIDS colors each page of this book, the story is so much more: a story of survival, of loss, of dodging the bullet with the one you love and despite that dodge still separating.
"Later" is a book that a reader hopes never ends. Sadly, it does. But lucky for you, you can read this tale again and again and again.
readrunsea's review
5.0
This memoir mostly takes place in early 1990s Provincetown, or Town, as Lisicky renders it - a loving nickname for a complicated place. At the height of the AIDS crisis, Town embodies both freedom from homophobia in the ‘outside’ world and a potent concentration of people suffering from the epidemic. Hence, utopia/dystopia at once. A lot of comparisons have been made between the AIDS epidemic and the current pandemic, most of which aren’t really useful imo, but there are undeniable parallels despite major differences that make a story like this feel prescient.
This book is told mainly in vignettes, with rhythmic prose that feels hypnotic, full of gestures and movements. Themes of futurity, fear, joy, grief, and coming of age in a different way than one does in adolescence are its beautiful skeleton.
This book is told mainly in vignettes, with rhythmic prose that feels hypnotic, full of gestures and movements. Themes of futurity, fear, joy, grief, and coming of age in a different way than one does in adolescence are its beautiful skeleton.
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