Geography of the heart : a memoir / Fenton Johnson

This rare and moving memoir is the story of two men who met, fell in love, lived, loved, and experienced death in one of the worst epidemics of our time. Novelist Fenton writes masterfully about his deceased lover, Larry Rose. They are opposites in many ways: Catholic and Jew, Southerner and Californian, descendant of Appalachian folk and descendant of Holocaust survivors, HIV negative and HIV positive. Yet they know they are right for each other and, perhaps more importantly, right for the times. Johnson not only describes their three years together but also their prehistories: Johnson's growing up in rural Kentucky, Rose's parents hiding from Nazis under the floorboards of a house in Holland. The level of compassion, understanding, and love between these two men is a testament to how humans could and should treat each other. Rose used to say, even in the face of terrible odds, how lucky he was. Anyone who reads this work will also feel lucky for having done so.