Paternity Test
Michael Lowenthal
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Celluloid Activist is the biography of gay-rights giant Vito Russo, the man who wrote The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, commonly regarded as the foundational text of gay and lesbian film studies and one of the first to be widely read. But Russo was much more than a pioneering journalist and author. A founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and cofounder of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Russo lived at the center of the most important gay cultural turning points in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His life as a cultural Zelig intersects a crucial period of social change, and in some ways his story becomes the story of a developing gay revolution in America. A frequent participant at zaps and an organizer of Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) cabarets and dances which gave the New York gay and lesbian community its first social alternative to Mafia-owned bars Russo made his most enduring contribution to the GAA with his marshaling of Movie Nights, the forerunners to his worldwide Celluloid Closet lecture tours that gave gay audiences their first community forum for the dissection of gay imagery in mainstream film. Biographer Michael Schiavi unravels Vito Russo s fascinating life story, from his childhood in East Harlem to his own heartbreaking experiences with HIV/AIDS. Drawing on archival materials, unpublished letters and journals, and more than two hundred interviews, including conversations with a range of Russo s friends and family from brother Charlie Russo to comedian Lily Tomlin to pioneering activist and playwright Larry Kramer, Celluloid Activistprovides an unprecedented portrait of a man who defined gay-rights and AIDS activism.
Schiavi tells a compelling story in this biography from his re-creation of life on the streets of East Harlem and in Greenwich Village of the 1960s and 1970s to the way he conveys Russo s excitement about his film research and popular education to his account of the AIDS years in New York City. John D Emilio, Italian American Review
In Schiavi s] hands Russo s life is both fascinating in its own right and a window into a larger milieu of activism during two critical decades. Italian American ReviewBest Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers
Finalist, Gay Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Awards
Finalist, Over the Rainbow Selection, American Library Association"
Schiavi tells a compelling story in this biography from his re-creation of life on the streets of East Harlem and in Greenwich Village of the 1960s and 1970s to the way he conveys Russo s excitement about his film research and popular education to his account of the AIDS years in New York City. John D Emilio, Italian American Review
In Schiavi s] hands Russo s life is both fascinating in its own right and a window into a larger milieu of activism during two critical decades. Italian American ReviewBest Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers
Finalist, Gay Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Awards
Finalist, Over the Rainbow Selection, American Library Association"
Product Details
| Publisher | University of Wisconsin Press |
| Publish Date | May 10, 2011 |
| Pages | 288 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780299290009 |
| Dimensions | 8.3 X 5.6 X 1.0 inches | 1.0 pounds |
BISAC Categories: Literary FictionLGBTQ+
About the Author
Michael Lowenthal is author of three previous novels: The Same Embrace, Avoidance, and Charity Girl, which was a New York Times Book Review "Editors' Choice" title, a Washington Post "Top Fiction of 2007" selection, and a Book Sense Top Twenty Pick. He is a core faculty member in Lesley University's MFA program in creative writing. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Reviews
"The Paternity Test is an exuberant book--a feat, considering how thoroughly Michael Lowenthal ransacks the human condition for its enduring weaknesses and inevitable disappointments. Yet he manages this with such warmth and wit, bringing to his disparate, often clashing band of characters so much compassionate intelligence, that in the end we can't help rooting for each one to find happiness--even as we come away with a clearer perception of how rightly varied their different versions of happiness may be."--Leah Hager Cohen, author of The Grief of Others
"A good, old-fashioned page-turner and a sophisticated look at the mysteries of long-term love and the convoluted reasons for wanting a child. Lowenthal writes with intelligence and passion and made me care a great deal about the fates of his flawed, fascinating characters."--Stephen McCauley, author of Insignificant Others
"A page-turner thanks to its realistic characters and a situation that might hit close to home for some."--Advocate
"A searingly honest portrait of love under fire, a fearless exploration of what it means to be an adult, a couple, a family. It is a story for our time."--Jennifer Haigh, author of Faith
"Michael Lowenthal's new novel deftly and wisely explores the various ways families are formed, altered, and destroyed by charting the vagaries and exigencies of two marriages. I loved the complicated, compelling characters all of whom come vividly alive in the beautifully evoked Cape Cod setting. The Paternity Test is a riveting and wonderful book."--Peter Cameron, author of Coral Glynn and Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
"So many different relationships are put to the test in Michael Lowenthal's thought-provoking novel--not only the bond at the heart of the book between two gay men and the Brazilian woman acting as their surrogate mother, but also the bond between husbands and wives, between siblings, between aging parents and their adult children. The Paternity Test is a complex, emotionally satisfying, and thoroughly engaging story."--Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children
"Works up to . . . a can't-look-away ending that will leave readers feeling both shaken and pensive."--Gay and Lesbian Review
"A good, old-fashioned page-turner and a sophisticated look at the mysteries of long-term love and the convoluted reasons for wanting a child. Lowenthal writes with intelligence and passion and made me care a great deal about the fates of his flawed, fascinating characters."--Stephen McCauley, author of Insignificant Others
"A page-turner thanks to its realistic characters and a situation that might hit close to home for some."--Advocate
"A searingly honest portrait of love under fire, a fearless exploration of what it means to be an adult, a couple, a family. It is a story for our time."--Jennifer Haigh, author of Faith
"Michael Lowenthal's new novel deftly and wisely explores the various ways families are formed, altered, and destroyed by charting the vagaries and exigencies of two marriages. I loved the complicated, compelling characters all of whom come vividly alive in the beautifully evoked Cape Cod setting. The Paternity Test is a riveting and wonderful book."--Peter Cameron, author of Coral Glynn and Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
"So many different relationships are put to the test in Michael Lowenthal's thought-provoking novel--not only the bond at the heart of the book between two gay men and the Brazilian woman acting as their surrogate mother, but also the bond between husbands and wives, between siblings, between aging parents and their adult children. The Paternity Test is a complex, emotionally satisfying, and thoroughly engaging story."--Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children
"Works up to . . . a can't-look-away ending that will leave readers feeling both shaken and pensive."--Gay and Lesbian Review
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