Reviews - Been There, Read That!

The Normal Heart

The Normal Heart

By: Larry Kramer

Forward by: Joseph Papp

*Playwright

TRIGGERS: HIV/AIDS

4.5 Hearts out of 5

Summary from GoodReads: THE NORMAL HEART is the explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubling medical crisis today: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrendering ordeal of suffering and doom - an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality.

Filled with power, anger, and intelligence, Larry Kramer's riveting play dramatizes what actualy happened from the time of the disease's discovery to the present, and points a moral j'accuse in many directions. His passionate indictment of government, the media, and the public for refusing to deal with a national plague is electrifying theater - a play that finally breaks through the conspiracy of silence with a shout of stunning impact.

My Review on the agonizingly true playwright of "The Normal Heart:"

Set in the heart of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York in the early 1980s, gay activists band together to stand up to find out what is sweeping their nation; their world. Ned Weeks, leader of the organization searching for answers to this epidemic, bands his gay friends together to begin a group of activists wanting to know why their loved ones are dying before their eyes.

The city is know for their gay baths, gay bars, and gay love, but what they don't know is that all this gay loving is what is causing the lovers/partners of these men to die before anyone knows why they are gone.

Dr. Emma Brookner, the main doctor who is the one examining most of the men in New York, finds that thousands of cases of these purple lesions, and common symptoms are being discovered. She doesn't take anything easy, but is scared of the world hearing her own words so she must work through Ned Weeks who is willing to risk it all to save the ones he loves, knows, and even the strangers contracting this disease across the world.

In "The Normal Heart," some of the most influential parts are reflected towards what had happened years before in the Holocaust. Kramer does a great job of weaving the two tragedies together to create an even larger impact on its reader.

Our main character, Ned Weeks, finds out that *(!)spoiler alert(!)* his lover Felix Turner has contracted the disease once a purple lesion is exposed on his foot. This pushes Weeks even further into his fight and investigation because the man who is said to have never loved anyone is feeling the true hurt and pain that his friend's and friend's lovers have all felt.

Kramer takes us on an adventure through this tragic epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Even though throughout the play the real name of the disease is never mentioned it is highly led towards and meant to be portrayed as HIV/AIDS. You journey through these mens lives and see their loved ones dying before their eyes-in their arms.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what had happened during the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York, if you have a strong heart towards a cause such as this, or if you just want to read a playwright that is so strongly written to follow something so heartbreaking. Kramer did any amazing job portraying the lives of these men, the life of a gay "writer" standing for his words and for who he is, meeting a gay "writer," who declares he writes of all things gay, but will not print the word "gay."

The play is very controversial to some people who have read it, seen it, or have even been in it. I see their points, but I think even if you do not agree with all things that are said within the script, I believe you will have an emotional upbringing either way. The play is written so that even though the gay community is the main subject, it does allude to, and in some places mention the heterosexual sides as well.

This play has really changed my outlook on things, and being as a writer and someone who doesn't let even the smallest things go unsaid, I completely see what Ned Weeks is doing as a writer during this time and especially standing up for Felix as well as the rest of the gay community. I think if you keep that in mind as well (or even just go into the play with an open mind) you'll be able to really see the play as it's meant to be seen - as an outlook as well as a warning.

This playwright is for when there was a disease before there was a word to say what it was.

If you do read this play, I ask for your own comments on it as well! I look forward to hear your opinions on it!

See you all soon!

~BetwixtDecisions