(Reviewed by John Heilman)
A Friend of Dorothy’s manages to capture a young gay man’s search for belonging while simultaneously describing another young man’s decline during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The book is a powerful reminder of the devastation of AIDS before effective treatments became available.
This is a must read for those who cared for or watched friends die in those early days, but you will need to remind yourself that the book is a work of fiction. The author perfectly depicts everything associated with those days filled with illness, death, dying and despair: the denial, the anger, the resignation, the grasping for false cures, and the eventual decline into incoherence.
A Friend of Dorothy’s is not, however, just a poignant story about AIDS in the early days; it is ultimately a story about the powerful human need for connection, even in the midst of a devastating epidemic. Willett’s introverted and self-effacing protagonist slowly manages to let down his self-protective shield, enabling him to finally feel kinship with the rest of humanity.