Description
In 1992, Dr. Ross A. Slotten had the dubious distinction of signing more death certificates in the city of Chicago--and, by inference, the state of Illinois--than any other physician. As a family physician, he trained to care for patients from birth to death, but when he completed his residency in 1984, he had no idea that many of his future patients would be cut down in the prime of their lives. Among those patients were close friends, colleagues, and former lovers, who were shunned by most of the medical community because of their sexual orientation and HIV-positive status. Slotten wasn't an infectious disease specialist, but because of his unique position as a gay man and a young physician, he became an unlikely pioneer, swept up in the maelstrom of one of the greatest epidemics in modern human history. In Plague Years, Slotten offers a unique first-person account of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, drawing from private journals and notes from his thirty-plus years of practice. Spanning not just the city of Chicago, but four continents as well, Plague Years provides a comprehensive portrait of the epidemic, from its mystery-riddled early years through the reckless governmental responses of the United States and other nations that led to legions of senseless deaths and ruined lives to the discoveries of life-saving drug cocktails that transformed the disease into something potentially manageable. Unlike most other books on the subject, Slotten's story extends to the present day, when prevention of infection for those at risk and successful treatment of those already infected offer a ray of hope that HIV/AIDS can be stopped in its tracks. Alternating between Slotten's reactions to the crisis as a gay man and the demanding toll the disease took on his career and the world around him, Plague Years sheds light on some of the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in a way that no previous medical memoir has.
About the Author
Ross A. Slotten is a family practitioner specializing in the care of people with HIV/AIDS. He lives in Chicago with his partner and is the author of The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace.
Reviews
"Plague Years is a remarkable book. At once the story of a disease and a very personal and reflective memoir, 200-some pages written in a powerful narrative style at once artful and enlightening. . . .There are many truths in this stunning and important book. And there's also hope." -- Rick Kogan * Chicago Tribune *
"[A] powerful, humane and stylish memoir." * Nature *
"This medical memoir will be welcomed as a timely and thought-provoking read." * Choice *
"Slotten's memoir of caring for AIDS patients in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, Plague Years, could not be more timely. . . . San Francisco and New York City have long been cast as the epicenters of the AIDS epidemic, but Slotten provides a history of another major urban center coming to grips with an illness that was unexpected and misunderstood. . . .He is unflinching in examining his own psychology, the mechanisms he erected to protect himself, articulating his sense of deficiency in a bracing confessional tone. . . What loudly echoes from Slotten's account is the commitment of caregivers to confront the uncertainty of a contagious disease." -- Jerome Groopman * The New York Review of Books *
"A tense reading experience. Indeed the entire story of [Slotten's] love for a man who broke his heart sets us up for many pages of suspense. This story is woven in with memories of his young adulthood and middle years spent medically caring for AIDS patients, particularly gay men. As he comes to terms with his own advice to get tested-something he had avoided doing himself-readers may feel as if they're holding onto a fraying rope." -- Terri Schlichenmeyer * The Gay & Lesbian Review *
"Slotten recounts his experience in the clinic with acuity and sensitivity. . . . Plague Years is thus a clinical story that is layered with emotional depth and personal detail, as he grapples with both medical and personal crises. The result is captivating and transformative." * Cleveland Review of Books *
"A heartfelt meditation on a time many thought they'd never see their way through-and a self-critical look at how he got through it. . . . As the public waits for medical miracles to crush the coronavirus, Slotten's words provide a glimmer of hope." * Jewish United Fund News *
"This is a devastating book, made more so by Slotten's viewpoint as both gay man and doctor, and by casual reminders of the things we didn't know then, and the things we know now. 'Plague Years' is profane and blunt and nail-biting and heartbreaking and hopeful, and that pretty much covers it." * The Meridian Star *
"A plainspoken memoir of the AIDS onslaught by a doctor whose life and career have been spent fighting back at it, Plague Years is humane, harrowing, and-eventually, mercifully, guardedly-hopeful. It was not an easy thing for me to return to the Chicago of those early years of increasing anxiety and fear-who knows how many times Dr. Slotten and I may have unknowingly crossed paths?-but this is an important account, and well worth your time." * Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times best-selling author of Dreyer's English *
"An excellently written, eminently readable, and absolutely compelling account of the AIDS epidemic, told with passion from the inside. Slotten vividly brings to life the stories of individuals lost to history and memory, as well as the experience of being a doctor on the frontline of something he never expected to encounter." * John D'Emilio, author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Past *
"Plague Years could have been written only by a highly observant and deeply thoughtful firsthand witness, reporting the most intimate and honest moments between a physician and his patients. A moving memoir of a gay doctor's life during the most horrific years of the AIDS epidemic as well as an insightful and detailed historical document." * Sean Strub, founder of POZ magazine and director of The Sero Project *
Book Information
ISBN 9780226718767
Author Ross A Slotten
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
About the Author
Ross A. Slotten is a family practitioner specializing in the care of people with HIV/AIDS. He lives in Chicago with his partner and is the author of The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace.
Reviews
"Plague Years is a remarkable book. At once the story of a disease and a very personal and reflective memoir, 200-some pages written in a powerful narrative style at once artful and enlightening. . . .There are many truths in this stunning and important book. And there's also hope." -- Rick Kogan * Chicago Tribune *
"[A] powerful, humane and stylish memoir." * Nature *
"This medical memoir will be welcomed as a timely and thought-provoking read." * Choice *
"Slotten's memoir of caring for AIDS patients in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, Plague Years, could not be more timely. . . . San Francisco and New York City have long been cast as the epicenters of the AIDS epidemic, but Slotten provides a history of another major urban center coming to grips with an illness that was unexpected and misunderstood. . . .He is unflinching in examining his own psychology, the mechanisms he erected to protect himself, articulating his sense of deficiency in a bracing confessional tone. . . What loudly echoes from Slotten's account is the commitment of caregivers to confront the uncertainty of a contagious disease." -- Jerome Groopman * The New York Review of Books *
"A tense reading experience. Indeed the entire story of [Slotten's] love for a man who broke his heart sets us up for many pages of suspense. This story is woven in with memories of his young adulthood and middle years spent medically caring for AIDS patients, particularly gay men. As he comes to terms with his own advice to get tested-something he had avoided doing himself-readers may feel as if they're holding onto a fraying rope." -- Terri Schlichenmeyer * The Gay & Lesbian Review *
"Slotten recounts his experience in the clinic with acuity and sensitivity. . . . Plague Years is thus a clinical story that is layered with emotional depth and personal detail, as he grapples with both medical and personal crises. The result is captivating and transformative." * Cleveland Review of Books *
"A heartfelt meditation on a time many thought they'd never see their way through-and a self-critical look at how he got through it. . . . As the public waits for medical miracles to crush the coronavirus, Slotten's words provide a glimmer of hope." * Jewish United Fund News *
"This is a devastating book, made more so by Slotten's viewpoint as both gay man and doctor, and by casual reminders of the things we didn't know then, and the things we know now. 'Plague Years' is profane and blunt and nail-biting and heartbreaking and hopeful, and that pretty much covers it." * The Meridian Star *
"A plainspoken memoir of the AIDS onslaught by a doctor whose life and career have been spent fighting back at it, Plague Years is humane, harrowing, and-eventually, mercifully, guardedly-hopeful. It was not an easy thing for me to return to the Chicago of those early years of increasing anxiety and fear-who knows how many times Dr. Slotten and I may have unknowingly crossed paths?-but this is an important account, and well worth your time." * Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times best-selling author of Dreyer's English *
"An excellently written, eminently readable, and absolutely compelling account of the AIDS epidemic, told with passion from the inside. Slotten vividly brings to life the stories of individuals lost to history and memory, as well as the experience of being a doctor on the frontline of something he never expected to encounter." * John D'Emilio, author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Past *
"Plague Years could have been written only by a highly observant and deeply thoughtful firsthand witness, reporting the most intimate and honest moments between a physician and his patients. A moving memoir of a gay doctor's life during the most horrific years of the AIDS epidemic as well as an insightful and detailed historical document." * Sean Strub, founder of POZ magazine and director of The Sero Project *
Book Information
ISBN 9780226718767
Author Ross A Slotten
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
