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The year is 1989 and Mark Doty's life has reached a state of enviable equilibrium. His reputation as a poet of formidable talent is growing, he enjoys his work as a college professor, and, perhaps most important, he is deeply in love with his partner of many years, Wally Roberts. The harmonious existence these two men share is shattered, however, when they learn that Wally has tested positive for HIV.
In Heaven's Coast - part memoir, part journal, part elegy for a life of rare communion and beauty - Mark Doty evinces the same stunning honesty, resplendent descriptive power, narrative assuredness, and rapt attention to the physical landscape that has won his poetry such attention and acclaim. The result is a poignant limning of the difficult accommodations and adjustments Doty and his partner must make as they realize the trajectory of their imagined life together may be dramatically cut short.
Every descent into darkness requires a guide, and for this journey Doty is our Virgil. Through his unflinching, ever-direct gaze, we are permitted to view the many layers of tragedy - the aching pain of slow leave-taking, the impotence and rage with which we greet death at what should be life's richest and most vital moment.
From diagnosis to the initial signs of deterioration to the heartbreaking hour when Wally is released from his body's ruined vessel, Heaven's Coast is an intimate chronicle of love, its hardships and innumerable gifts.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Health, Patients, AIDS (Disease), Biography, Fiction, Literary Anthologies, Gay men and AIDS, Gay couples, Aids (disease), patients, biography, Gay men, Poets, biography, Grief, LGBTQ biography and memoir, LGBTQ HIV/AIDS, Stonewall Book Awards, New York Times reviewed, collection:randy_shilts_award=finalistPeople
Wally Roberts (d. 1993)Places
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Heaven's Coast: Memoir, A
March 12, 1997, Harper Perennial
Paperback
in English
0060928050 9780060928056
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Heaven's coast: a memoir
1996, HarperCollinsPublishers
in English
- 1st ed.
006017210X 9780060172107
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Book Details
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First Sentence
"In 1989, not long after my partner Wally and I took the HIV test, the pain is in my back--which had been a chronic, low-level problem--became acute."
Work Description
The year is 1989 and Mark Doty's life has reached a state of enviable equilibrium. His reputation as a poet of formidable talent is growing, he enjoys his work as a college professor and, perhaps most importantly, he is deeply in love with his partner of many years, Wally Roberts. The harmonious existence these two men share is shattered, however, when they learn that Wally has tested positive for the HIV virus.
From diagnosis to the initial signs of deterioration to the heartbreaking hour when Wally is released from his body's ruined vessel, Heaven's Coast is an intimate chronicle of love, its hardships, and its innumerable gifts. We witness Doty's passage through the deepest phase of grief — letting his lover go while keeping him firmly alive in memory and heart — and, eventually beyond, to the slow reawakening of the possibilities of pleasure. Part memoir, part journal, part elegy for a life of rare communication and beauty, Heaven's Coast evinces the same stunning honesty, resplendent descriptive power and rapt attention to the physical landscape that has won Doty's poetry such attention and acclaim.
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Feedback?November 8, 2021 | Edited by Jenner | Edited without comment. |
August 6, 2021 | Edited by New York Times Bestsellers Bot | Add NYT review links |
June 11, 2021 | Edited by Jenner | Add subjects, description |
March 3, 2021 | Edited by Lisa | Added new cover |
December 7, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | new work |