A review by readrunsea
Later: My Life at the Edge of the World by Paul Lisicky

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.