Reviews for In the City of Shy Hunters

The average rating for In the City of Shy Hunters based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-05-11 00:00:00 Jerry Castillo After reading this book, I wanted to go back and change my ratings of all the other books I gave five stars to. This is the book I've been waiting for. To call In the City lyrical is certainly true, but also disappointing, ordinary. I would invent new words for this book, choreograph a 1000-person line dance in Thompkins Square Park, a humble tribute. I want to buy a copy for every rehab and homeless shelter and gay community center in the country. I want to live in this book. I have lived in this book. I am still living in this book. I'm in love with the characters: William of Heaven, Fiona Yet, Rose and Ruby, Charlie and True Shot. They are my Art Family, hanging out in the basement of my memory, lovely new additions to the swarm under the jumbotron that says "Gotham." How could new people -- fictional characters, even -- insinuate themselves into something so impermeable as my own history? It's magic, but they have done just that. Speaking of magic: I knew there was a divine tether between the Known Universe and this book, that it is somehow a hologram of the human experience twisted into a raunchy fable. That is magic enough, but here's some more magic: In the City of Shy Hunters was published in the early months of 2001. Here's a quote from p. 437: "As I lit the cigarette, the World Trade Center was in the rearview mirror, and I turned around to look. The World Trade Center buildings were so beyond human they'd disappeared." This book is a beautiful example of contemporary urban wisdom, heart, and tragedy, as it truly is -- inseperable from, a celebration of the whole, of Life Cafe: the ouroboros, the peace pipe, and the dog shit.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-07-17 00:00:00 Ken Lenart I should probably give this book four stars, but I can't. I started volunteering with people living with HIV/AIDS when I got to college. It seemed like the right thing to do. It was a show a gratitude to those who'd come before to make my gay life easier. It was a promise that my generation would learn our lessons; keep ourselves healthy. In the five years I volunteered, I watched young men grow horribly old and die. I discovered how strong the will to live can be. I learned to smile in the face of death; to pretend it wasn't waiting on the couch to take someone else away. And I learned how to say goodbye to beautiful people who didn't get a chance to fulfill their potential. The specter was always close. After college, I volunteered elsewhere, and learned different things. That the drugs were getting better. People were dying at a more reasonable rate. That life didn't have to end, and that healthy was an option. And I got to stop saying so many goodbyes. And there was talk of a vaccine; a hope that maybe this would end. And then it didn't. People are still healthy, the drugs work, and sometimes they don't. People get sick, and sometimes they get better. Sometimes they die and I have to remember to say goodbye. But it's worse now. Now, those young men (and women) are my friends. I knew them before, and now I have to know them after. Watch the struggle. Count the pills. Know about the medical appointments; the tests. Know the counts and the stats and the treatments and the services and the struggle. And I still can smile. And offer support and advice. I still know which support groups meet when, and I make referrals to service providers. And I make a mean chicken soup. But I'm tired, and I don't want to do it anymore. I want it to be over, and it's not. It keeps going on. And every time I read "AIDS" in this book, a tiny part of me wanted to hide and never come back. And that's why I had to give it three stars. But it really deserved four.