Eighty-sixed - Hardcover

Feinberg, David B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670823155 ISBN 13: 9780670823154

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1989

Synopsis

Bound in quarter cloth and paper covered boards.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This first novel by a New York City mathematician records the changes in gay lifestyles precipitated by the AIDS epidemic between 1980 ("Ancient History") and 1986 ("Learning How to Cry"). The novel's greatest asset is also its chief flaw: diary-like monthly reports describe the narrator's romantic and sexual experiences with bracing immediacy, but finally the novel reads less like fully imagined fiction than a heavily detailed but uninspired newspaper account. The narrator doggedly recounts his faltering attempts to come to terms with the spectre of death in his friends' lives and his own, but Feinberg relates events without enabling the reader to feel or understand the tragedy he gradually unfolds. Long telephone conversations with various friends who are no more than mechanical voices distract attention, as does a labored subplot that revolves around trivial office politics. Readers will be saddened as a friend of the narrator's dies in the the second half of the narrative, but the limited emotional impact of the scenesand the novel itselfderives from the fact that it is about AIDS and death, rather than from the author's ability to shape experience and manipulate our sympathies.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In this witty first novel, Feinberg contrasts pre-AIDS 1980 with post-AIDS 1986, illuminating the changes that have come about in the gay community. In 1980, B.J. Rosenthal's biggest concern is finding a steady boyfriend, as he goes from one sex partner to another, but in 1986 his attention is focused on AIDS anxiety and the painful death of friends. Unlike the recent spate of somber novels dealing with AIDS, Feinberg's work mixes generous doses of humor with an increasing sense of pathos, bringing to mind the plays of Harvey Fierstein. To evoke the mood of each year, Feinberg injects a distracting string of pop culture references, but overall, this is an engrossing, honest novel. Highly recommended.James E. Cook, Dayton & Montgomery Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0670823155
• ISBN 13: 9780670823154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336