Unbound: A Book of AIDS

by Aaron Shurin

​​A moving collection of essays that bring poetic insight to the sheer facts of the AIDS epidemic, in an attempt to make meaning from suffering.

​​Unbound is a poet’s intimate account of life in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s during the apex of the AIDS epidemic. In his search for meaning, Shurin dives down into the broken-hearted, revelatory core of the social landscape and the lives of friends who both succumbed to and transcended the disease. Twenty-five years after its initial publication, Unbound continues the search, resonating inescapably with the perils of our new pandemic. Shurin brings to life a familiar world tensed on the threshold of living, balanced precariously on the edges of love and friendship, family and community, rapture and mourning.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Poetry

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

AARON SHURIN is the author of fifteen books and chapbooks, including the poetry collections Involuntary Lyrics (Omnidawn, 2005), The Paradise of Forms (Talisman House, 1999), a Publishers Weekly Best Book and, the prose collection, Unbound: A Book of AIDS (Sun & Moon, 1997). His work has appeared in over twenty national and international anthologies, most recently Nuova Poesia Americana Contemporana (Italy: Oscar Mondadori, 2006). Shurin's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commision, and the Gerbode Foundation. He is Associate Professor and Director of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco. "

Reviews

[Sarah Schulman]

“The famous San Francisco sun has turned to famous rain.” Only when I began to read Unbound did I realize how much it was missing. Aaron Shurin brings his massive command of language, and the history of gay poetics,to this frontline eyewitness account of The specificity of AIDS in San Francisco. The work is frank and authentic, emotionally intentional, and it brings us back to the endless shock of coping with the impossible. We need this work to expand our understanding: of both relevant futures and ungraspable pasts.

[Julene · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the preface of the book the sentence that speaks to me is: "The range of information AIDS presents keeps one at full attention." I have worked in HIV since 1991 and my attention has been riveted by the range of information that keeps changing and shifting. AIDS is changing science, culture, and the landscape of politics and economics worldwide. It shapes our deep grief and our future realities. The ramifications from this epidemic is unfathomable. We have lost so much and gained so much. Aaron Shurin with his exquisite language and poetry writes from his experience in the early 90s where he lived in San Francisco, and many friends died. It is a small book and one I will sit with again. In his elevated language and his heightened cultural sense he deeply examines and articulates what is nearly impossible. It is a meditation to return to. It is unfortunately out of print but available.

[John Treat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very short book is obviously by a very good poet. I read it in a single sitting, mesmerized by Shurin's language and his depth of understanding of grief. It's a bit "San Francisco" for my taste, by which I mean a wee bit precious, but it still stands as one of the best literary works on AIDS that I have read, and I've read a lot. I thought of many people when I read it. Kudos.

[Gabe Etaat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for those who want emotional, raw, and diverse perspectives of individual stories from the peak of the AIDS epidemic. The variety of literary styles are tied by the common thread of open expression while facing ones’s mortality.