Title: San Francisco Survivors
Product review: Paul Reed novels always have an intimate feeling of San Francisco and a keen sense of time, and this latest captures familiar issues and emotions of the past decade. The narrator is no great hero and he knows it, but there is a quiet, understated, real-world heroism in his compassion and sense of duty toward others in his life. It's the sort of quality we often find in ourselves when things go wrong and our superficial concerns automatically give way to what counts. The characters in Verticle Intercourse are as vivid as friends and acquaintances passing on today's Castro Street, or in the neighborhood you know. Though entertaining, this novel is ambitious, and the real story is not the everyday drama but a community surviving after two decades of AIDS, and still putting trust in friendships and love. The ease of Reed's narrative fools you, the pace is quicker than you realize, and by the end you don't want to let go of these lives and their stories.
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