Visions and Revisions ─ Coming of Age in the Age of AIDS

本書是Dale Peck結合回憶錄與長篇隨筆的作品，回望 1987 至 1996 年間愛滋疫情最動盪的時期。作者以拼貼式結構，穿梭抒情、評論與報導書寫，描繪街頭行動者、藝術家與感染者的日常，也直面政府的遲疑與冷漠。從紐約、倫敦到密爾瓦基，書寫不僅關於疾病，更關於恐懼、慾望、身分與公共行動。本書細膩呈現AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power的現場經驗，同時反思文學如何在危機中保存記憶，為那個仍未遠去的年代留下必要而清醒的見證。

A Flavorwire Best Nonfiction Book of 2015
A Bay Area Reporter Best LGBT Nonfiction of 2015 Selection

"Novelist and critic Dale Peck's latest work--part memoir, part extended essay--is a foray into what the author calls "the second half of the first half of the AIDS epidemic," i.e., the period between 1987, when the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) was founded, and 1996, when the advent of combination therapy transformed AIDS from a virtual death sentence into a chronic manageable illness. Reminiscent of Joan Didion's The White Album and Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday, Visions and Revisions has been assembled from over a dozen essays and articles that have been extensively rewritten and recombined to form a sweeping, collage-style portrait of a tumultuous era. Moving seamlessly from the lyrical to the analytical to the reportorial, Peck's story takes readers from the serial killings of gay men in New York, London, and Milwaukee, through Peck's first loves upon coming out of the closet, to the transformation of LGBT people from marginal, idealistic fighters to their present place in a world of widespread, if fraught, mainstream acceptance. The narrative pays particular attention the words and deeds of AIDS activists, offering a street-level portrait of ACT UP with considerations of AIDS-centered fiction and criticism of the era, as well as intimate, sometimes elegiac portraits of artists, activists, and HIV-positive people Peck knew. Peck's fiery rhetoric against a government that sat on its hands for the first several years of the epidemic is tinged with the idealism of a young gay man discoveringhis political, artistic, and sexual identity. The result is a visionary and indispensable work from one of America's most brilliant and controversial authors. "--

Dale Peck is the author of twelve books in a variety of genres, including Martin and John, Hatchet Jobs, and Sprout. His fiction and criticism have appeared in dozens of publications, and have earned him two O. Henry Awards, a Pushcart Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. He lives in New York City, where he has taught in the New School’s Graduate Writing Program since 1999.