The Prettiest Star
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The Prettiest Star
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Narrated by:
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Tiffany Morgan
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Charlie Thurston
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By:
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Carter Sickels
About this listen
Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die.
At 18, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised. But within six short years, AIDS would claim his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories of death, Brian decides to write his mother a letter asking to come back to the place, and family, he was once so desperate to escape.
Set in 1986, a year after Rock Hudson's death shifted the public consciousness of the epidemic and brought the news of AIDS into living rooms and kitchens across America, The Prettiest Star is part Dog Years by Mark Doty and part Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. But it is also an urgent story now: It a novel about the politics and fragility of the body; it is a novel about sex and shame. And it is a novel that speaks to the question of what home and family means when we try to forge a life for ourselves in a world that can be harsh and unpredictable.
Contains mature themes.
©2020 Carter Sickels (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
Listening to the different points of view gave this book a depth that you don’t often find
It’s beautifully narrated and keeps you coming back for more
The very real emotions around gay people and AIDS in the 1980’s are front and foremost in this book making it a must read
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Heartbreaking breathtaking real
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It’s so heartbreaking, touching, real and raw
What an incredible book
Just incredible
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The story is written in first person narrative in a diary form from the point of view of three different characters: Brian, his mother and his younger sister. Many other characters are discussed: Brian's father, grandmother his cousins and the locals, who all have different attitudes toward's Brian's return.
The descriptive writing is beautiful and really brings the story to life, a story that can only ultimately, end in death.
Some reviewers found the characters and storylines bit cliched but I loved this book; it really is a pretty thing.
Beautifully Written
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