Paul Monette, in Borrowed Time: an AIDS Memoir

Of course, it is especially difficult to focus on the love when so much that goes on between Paul and Roger has to do with the disease and its effects. This is especially true when the reader realizes that the book's beginning and end refer to the fact that the author himself is carrying the virus that killed his lover.

I don't know if I will live to finish this. Doubtless there's a streak of self-importance in such an assertion, but who's counting? . . . All I know is this: The virus ticks in me. . . . I used up all my optimism keeping my friend alive. Now that he's gone, the cup of my own health is neither half full not half empty. Just half (1-2).

Thus the journey of Paul and Roger's love begins, in Paul's words, and in Paul's recollection. In other words, the book begins after Roger has died, after Paul has himself acquired the virus, and after the prevailing factor in Pau

. . .
he dying person or the survivor. Everyone knows he and the people he loves are going to die, but all are in denial about it, just as Paul and Roger are in denial about the role AIDS is playing in their lives long before they come to that realization. Like Paul and Roger, everybody thinks that it is the other person who has done something that will bring death on. One always searches for the factor in the dead person's death which distances him from one. In the case of Paul and Roger, denial focuses on the fact that the two lovers did not live the fast-lane lifestyle that AIDS victims' all seemed to live. Therefore, they believed, or hoped, they were safe from the disease. All human beings to some degree are in such denial. Here, however, in this book, are two men who are going through just such an experience. Paul is the closest to the reader because he is the writer and because the reader sees the death of his lover through his eyes. The book could be simply another story about the loss of a lover to AIDS, another "disease" story. However, it is lifted far above that level because of two factors. First, Monette is a very fine writer. Second, he does not keep himself from looking straight in the eye of his and Roger's experi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Paul Roger, Roger AIDS, Roger Paul, Roger Horwitz, Paul Roger's, Roger Horwitz's, paul roger, AIDS Memoir, love roger, York Avon, focus love, Medical Center, love world, paul roger denial, plagues love, love war, roger denial, losing love, beginning book, love terrible,
Approximate Word count = 1422
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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