Plague Took Us

Imagine losing so many of your friends and surviving a truly frightening epidemic when you're in your twenties ...

When David I. Steinberg, a newly out gay man, relocated from a small town in Connecticut to San Francisco in 1979, he had no idea that he'd be soon flung into the chaos of the then-unnamed AIDS epidemic ravaging nearby. He recounts engrossing and sexy stories of the young men he'd loved while detailing their tribulations with devastating changes in their health. Through it all, he reconsiders the intrinsic value of a gay life truly lived."David Steinberg finds his way in San Francisco during the plague years, from the first ripple of intimate terror to the insane unrelenting maelstrom when the sky rains down souls. He captures the textures of an impossible life, the cacophony of a world of young men demolished at the height of their vitality-the romance and sex, the activism and music, the community of care and the mainstream's indifference. Mass death simplifies its victims. Steinberg honors the dead by restoring their complexities and passions. This is an act of love." -Robert Glück, author of About Ed and I, Boombox"Steinberg gives us grief in the best possible way-through stories of love and loss, through humor, reflection and a deep appreciation for what is best in all of us." -Trebor Healey, author of A Horse Named Sorrow"Plague Took Us bears witness to a generation of gay men in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond who didn't survive, and gives meaning to those of us who did. More than forty years have passed since the first deaths in this book occurred, and yet these events and people feel very much alive in Steinberg's tender, detailed prose. Until recently, few who survived those years were ready to read about it, much less write about it. Thankfully, there are new generations of readers, activists, and academics belonging to multiple identities who are hungry for every tender detail. What can we learn from these stories? We learn that we are not alone, and that connecting with each other will be what gets us through our darkest historical moments." -Brent Calderwood, author of The God of Longing