AEGiS-BKREV: Unholy Ghosts

Unholy Ghosts

Gay Men's Press/InBook, 1436 W. Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60607. 255p. ISBN 0-85449-233-X. $14.95. (Fiction)
Richard Zimler. 1996.

Testing HIV positive is difficult to accept for anyone. Many become very depressed and want to stop living. Fortunately, today there are many combinations of drugs that can prolong life and maybe make being HIV positive a chronic condition that can be controlled with medication. Richard Zimler has written a moving and sometime funny story about a gay, Jewish, American classical guitar teacher who leaves Greenwich village after so many of his friends have died of AIDS. He moves to Portugal where he teaches Guitar. One of his star students, Antonio, tests HIV positive and threatens to end his life. The Professor takes Antonio under his wings and proceeds to show him that to continue living is difficult but the only route to follow. He takes Antonio and Antonio's estranged father on a car trip to Paris so that Antonio can prepare for a concert career as a classical guitarist.

The story is about the trip where the three of them get to know each other like they have never known before. It is a story of coming out, of being afraid of sex, of love, of desire, of violence, and of confession. This is a delightful gay novel that will catch your attention and keep you reading from beginning to end. It is a story for those who are HIV positive and say, "Why continue?". Antonio sees that living is the only way. A recommended book for public and academic libraries and for those school libraries that are liberal enough to have gay novels.

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