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The Gifts of the Body
An emotionally wrenching work of fiction about a health-care worker who tenders compassion and love to victims of AIDS, by an author who "strips her language of convention to lay bare the ferocious rituals of love and need."--New York Times Book Review
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
14 people are currently reading
1772 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Brown
43 books118 followersRebecca Brown’s diverse oeuvre contains collections of essays and short stories, a fictionalized autobiography, a modern bestiary, a memoir in the guise of a medical dictionary, a libretto for a dance opera, a play, and various kinds of fantasy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
November 19, 2018
An AIDS novel by an author named Rebecca … no, it’s not The Great Believers; I failed with that book earlier this year, though I’m determined to try again because I’m such a fan of Rebecca Makkai’s work. Instead, this is a 1994 novella, or perhaps a set of linked short stories, narrated by a home care aide who bathes and feeds those dying of AIDS. The same patients appear in multiple chapters titled “The Gift of…” (Sweat, Tears, Hunger, etc.) – Rick, Ed, Carlos, and Marty, with brief appearances from Mike and Keith. But for me the most poignant story was that of Connie Lindstrom, an old woman who got a dodgy transfusion after her mastectomy; the extra irony to her situation is that her son Joe is gay, and feels guilty because he thinks he should have been the one to get sick. Several characters move in and out of hospice care, and one building is so known for its AIDS victims that a savant resident greets the narrator with a roll call of its dead and dying. Brown herself had been a home-care worker, and she delivers these achingly sad vignettes in plain language that keeps the book from ever turning maudlin.
A favorite passage:
“I’d thought about the sores all week long, about how they looked and how it frightened me. But I’d worked myself up to acting like it didn’t bother me. … I also kept telling myself that even if I wasn’t feeling or thinking the right things, at least he was getting fed, at least he was getting his sheets changed, at least his kitchen was getting cleaned, at least his body was getting salve.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
A favorite passage:
“I’d thought about the sores all week long, about how they looked and how it frightened me. But I’d worked myself up to acting like it didn’t bother me. … I also kept telling myself that even if I wasn’t feeling or thinking the right things, at least he was getting fed, at least he was getting his sheets changed, at least his kitchen was getting cleaned, at least his body was getting salve.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
September 10, 2007
By one of the overlooked masters of contemporary prose, this book perfectly demonstrates the horrors of the AIDs epidemic and the small kindness one can show in the face of that horror.
February 4, 2023
Rep: gay characters
October 22, 2018
Wow... a very fast, gripping, and moving read.
This would definitely go on my "Death and Disease" book shelf alongside "Magic Mountain" and "Adentro una hiena." The rawness of the writing reminded me of "Lo que no tiene nombre."
The prose is VERY Raymond Carver-esque and I loved it. I liked how we learn NOTHING directly about what is motivating the narrator to do this kind of work (and then, it is implied, to quit doing it).
Also, unlike "Olive Kitteridge," I had no problem here keeping track of character "crossover" appearances" in the different linked stories. (It helps that this book is only 140 pages long!)
I def recommend, but it's fuerte.... although on some level, with all the craziness happening in the world right now, I kind of appreciated reading a book that was about being compassionate to strangers in need, ya know?
I'm not sure if I would go back to this, but I am curious about seeking out other works by this same author now.
This would definitely go on my "Death and Disease" book shelf alongside "Magic Mountain" and "Adentro una hiena." The rawness of the writing reminded me of "Lo que no tiene nombre."
The prose is VERY Raymond Carver-esque and I loved it. I liked how we learn NOTHING directly about what is motivating the narrator to do this kind of work (and then, it is implied, to quit doing it).
Also, unlike "Olive Kitteridge," I had no problem here keeping track of character "crossover" appearances" in the different linked stories. (It helps that this book is only 140 pages long!)
I def recommend, but it's fuerte.... although on some level, with all the craziness happening in the world right now, I kind of appreciated reading a book that was about being compassionate to strangers in need, ya know?
I'm not sure if I would go back to this, but I am curious about seeking out other works by this same author now.
September 23, 2020
Written by a home health care worker describing her experiences caring for people suffering and succumbing to AIDS. The stories are interwoven, emotional and hard hitting.
I read this on the recommendation of Shawn the book Maniac,it was fantastic.
I read this on the recommendation of Shawn the book Maniac,it was fantastic.
April 12, 2024
4.5⭐️
This is told in 11 short chapters, snapshots in the narrator's experience as a nurse's aid for people with AIDS in the early 90's, each focused on a particular motif. We revisit each character from the first half of the book in the second half in different ways, giving the book a bit of continuity and a symetry.
The writing style has simple descriptions, yet the emotion still comes right through. It very much mirrored the feeling in that sort of situation; when you're trying to distance your emotions to get what needs to be done, to not feel the overwhelm.
I will say, obviously this has medical content and death, but there is also some ableism. Some of it is passive word choice, but also mostly from the narrator's reflection (and most of these thoughts are also critiqued by the narrator in-text).
This is told in 11 short chapters, snapshots in the narrator's experience as a nurse's aid for people with AIDS in the early 90's, each focused on a particular motif. We revisit each character from the first half of the book in the second half in different ways, giving the book a bit of continuity and a symetry.
The writing style has simple descriptions, yet the emotion still comes right through. It very much mirrored the feeling in that sort of situation; when you're trying to distance your emotions to get what needs to be done, to not feel the overwhelm.
I will say, obviously this has medical content and death, but there is also some ableism. Some of it is passive word choice, but also mostly from the narrator's reflection (and most of these thoughts are also critiqued by the narrator in-text).
October 14, 2021
The dust jacket to this novel reads: “You don’t notice its power until your stomach knots and your eyes fill with tears.” This really is a true summation of the way Rebecca Brown writes. There are moments in the stories she tells where you just feel shook, heartbroken, or gobsmacked. AIDS obviously brings stories of sadness and pain but the author finds ways to remind us the beauty of compassion and human decency.
August 14, 2008
A naive description of the early days of the HIV epidemic and what caring for those dying people was like. Well-written and honest, compelling in its honesty, still this book reflects the early days in that it romanticizes the disease and those dying of it. As one who works with HIV patients every day, I can honestly say that dying of this disease does not inherently ennoble one any more than dying of bladder cancer or being run down by a truck.
One reason I feel it is dangerous to suggest that a particular disease is special is because when it becomes unspecial, all of that wonderful funding disappears, all of those celebrity fundraisers stop happening, and those who are still living with a suddenly unpopular disease are left without the basic necessities for living their lives. Another reason it can be hazardous to give a disease celebrity status is that one who is diagnosed with it may not want to live up to the billing the disease gets. What is needed in this world is a rational rather than an emotional response to disease. In the final analysis, HIV is a virus, and nothing more. It has no mind with which to care who it infects, and it singles out no population.
Right now, breast cancer is going through this same treatment; it is the disease-of-the-month, so to speak. God knows, any funds which can be devoted to this condition are sorely needed and far overdue. But watch closely what happens as it loses its cache and becomes just another condition. Will we then begin to see Bono hosting the Concert for Bird Flu?
Don't get me wrong; in its own way, this is a wonderful book, and for the time it was written was quite courageous. But I hope we have moved past this simplistic rendering and have found a place in our hearts for all those who suffer, even from diseases and conditions that don't give us the opportunity to write such books. I mean, would she have written this way about colorectal cancer? Somehow, I doubt it.
One reason I feel it is dangerous to suggest that a particular disease is special is because when it becomes unspecial, all of that wonderful funding disappears, all of those celebrity fundraisers stop happening, and those who are still living with a suddenly unpopular disease are left without the basic necessities for living their lives. Another reason it can be hazardous to give a disease celebrity status is that one who is diagnosed with it may not want to live up to the billing the disease gets. What is needed in this world is a rational rather than an emotional response to disease. In the final analysis, HIV is a virus, and nothing more. It has no mind with which to care who it infects, and it singles out no population.
Right now, breast cancer is going through this same treatment; it is the disease-of-the-month, so to speak. God knows, any funds which can be devoted to this condition are sorely needed and far overdue. But watch closely what happens as it loses its cache and becomes just another condition. Will we then begin to see Bono hosting the Concert for Bird Flu?
Don't get me wrong; in its own way, this is a wonderful book, and for the time it was written was quite courageous. But I hope we have moved past this simplistic rendering and have found a place in our hearts for all those who suffer, even from diseases and conditions that don't give us the opportunity to write such books. I mean, would she have written this way about colorectal cancer? Somehow, I doubt it.
September 14, 2018
I have a keen interest in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, so I admit I was predisposed to like this book, and I was not disappointed. It is certainly of that time and therefore may seem dated, but it's a valuable lens into the final months, weeks, and days of individuals who died from the disease.
The narrative follows an unnamed home health care aide who assists people with AIDS with cooking, cleaning, and chores but also provides necessary companionship. Her patients have some diversity. Though most are white men, she also aids an elderly woman who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during a mastectomy and an African-American patient who was a well-traveled professor before becoming ill.
As the book charts the deteriorating health of the patients and presents a vivid depiction of end-of-life issues for AIDS patients and their friends and families, it also documents the relationships that develop between care workers and patients as well as the emotional strain that can come from loving a person who is near death. It is a realistic and heart-wrenching account.
The narrative follows an unnamed home health care aide who assists people with AIDS with cooking, cleaning, and chores but also provides necessary companionship. Her patients have some diversity. Though most are white men, she also aids an elderly woman who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during a mastectomy and an African-American patient who was a well-traveled professor before becoming ill.
As the book charts the deteriorating health of the patients and presents a vivid depiction of end-of-life issues for AIDS patients and their friends and families, it also documents the relationships that develop between care workers and patients as well as the emotional strain that can come from loving a person who is near death. It is a realistic and heart-wrenching account.
November 2, 2014
Powerful stories from early in the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of a kind, smart home health aid. Fiction based on real life experiences. Interesting too, 20 years later, to note what has and hasn't changed. And of course many others with conditions other than AIDS find themselves in similar need of help and compassion.
November 9, 2021
Outstanding. Everyone has something to learn from this book
September 7, 2025
beautiful but devastating. reread it almost a year later and I think it's one of my favourite books ever.
Want to read
September 11, 2023Recommended by Greg at Supposedly Fun
November 14, 2020
[1994] Notes to self…Designated as fiction but the author was a home-care worker and I couldn’t help reading it as a memoir. Our (unnamed, as far as I remember, which also helped me think of her as Rebecca) narrator is a home-care worker who works for an agency that takes care of people with AIDS. More accurately, people who are actively dying of AIDS. Used clear, simple, unadorned style to pack a powerful emotional punch. She shows us how she cares, in speech and in actions, about people she has newly met and in very difficult circumstances, and we care, too. Could I do that job? Could I go to work knowing my heart would break a little more each day? I like to think I could, but I honestly don’t know. Read at first like short stories, but the characters recur and a complete story emerges.
January 20, 2021
I loved this so much. Its simple, moving prose captures the essence of humanity perfectly. Its short chapters focuses on the visits a young nameless home care aide makes to her ‘clients’, who are dying of AIDS. It spoke so much of dignity, kindness and empathy.
We cared for my mother-in-law in our home at the end of her life, and although it was incredibly hard, it was what she wanted, and I feel that it was the least I could do for this amazing woman. This one-sitting novel is a must read.....
We cared for my mother-in-law in our home at the end of her life, and although it was incredibly hard, it was what she wanted, and I feel that it was the least I could do for this amazing woman. This one-sitting novel is a must read.....
April 6, 2021
I so, so love this book. It's beautifully written, and so tender. The prose is simple and yet poetic. But mostly, I love how Brown etches out such compassion between her characters, who all have AIDS, and the narrator, who is a home care aide. The situations are realistic and moving, and there is such love and suffering, hope and forgiveness, so much humanity contained within this small book. The ending is too damned beautiful, and of course I cried (is there anything better than crying at the end of a book?).
Highly, highly recommend this beautifully written gem.
Highly, highly recommend this beautifully written gem.
November 23, 2018
I want to start by asking you to look at the cover image of The Gifts of the Body because it represents the feeling of the stories well, and the nudity is important. This is a slim collection of 163 pages, and within are 11 interconnected stories. In each is an unnamed narrator. I pictured him/her as the author Rebecca Brown, who was a home-care worker. Typically, when an author writes about such an intimate topic and he/she has done the work before, I immediately assume that the fiction is a good deal autobiographical. Should I assume that? Some literary theorists say yes, that the author’s life informs the work, and others say no, not at all. Regardless, a home-care worker sees people naked at their most vulnerable. The character in the stories will hold a person as he/she is dying.
The titles are all some type of gift: sweat, tears, mobility, death, etc. The narrator goes into the homes of people who are in their last stages of dying from AIDS, which sets the collection during the AIDS epidemic (it was published in 1994). Today, people can control the virus and live long lives. But remember that during the height of the epidemic, AIDS victims were the walking dead, shunned by a society that wasn’t sure how AIDS was transmitted. I had an older student last year who told me that in the 80s he wouldn’t even shake people’s hands — that’s how scared his community was.
The last step for people in The Gifts of the Body is hospice care, but just before that the narrator comes to their home to help with chores, meals, and bathing. He/she (it’s not clear) typically has a regular client, but as people die quickly, new clients are added frequently, and sometimes he/she must sub for another home-care worker who can’t make an appointment. The challenge is to see each patient as human, but not get too attached because they’re all going to die soon.
Rebecca Brown writes in the most pared down simple sentences I’ve seen in fiction in a long time. With a topic likes the AIDS epidemic, there’s no need to add anything extra. The “extra” might distract readers from what’s important: the people. Here’s an example from a man who is so close to death that he can’t really speak anymore:
Though The Gifts of the Body is made up of individual stories, there is an overall shape. The narrator introduces us to different people in the early stories, transitions them to hospice care near the middle, and describes their deaths in the end. Only one person’s death is detailed, but the rest are labeled dead. I think it’s important to end with that one story in which readers get the details of what a person’s face and breath and eyes do in those last moments. It’s not lovely and it’s not like the movies, and it’s important. I cried in those moments because it’s so real, but the death scene is not sensationalized.
An important book that puts a face on the AIDS epidemic, including the victims, their families, and the people who cared for them. I don’t typically include an image of the author because I don’t think it matters, but I’m adding a picture of Brown below as a sort of acknowledgement of the work she did when very few would.
This review was originally published at Grab the Lapels.
The titles are all some type of gift: sweat, tears, mobility, death, etc. The narrator goes into the homes of people who are in their last stages of dying from AIDS, which sets the collection during the AIDS epidemic (it was published in 1994). Today, people can control the virus and live long lives. But remember that during the height of the epidemic, AIDS victims were the walking dead, shunned by a society that wasn’t sure how AIDS was transmitted. I had an older student last year who told me that in the 80s he wouldn’t even shake people’s hands — that’s how scared his community was.
The last step for people in The Gifts of the Body is hospice care, but just before that the narrator comes to their home to help with chores, meals, and bathing. He/she (it’s not clear) typically has a regular client, but as people die quickly, new clients are added frequently, and sometimes he/she must sub for another home-care worker who can’t make an appointment. The challenge is to see each patient as human, but not get too attached because they’re all going to die soon.
Rebecca Brown writes in the most pared down simple sentences I’ve seen in fiction in a long time. With a topic likes the AIDS epidemic, there’s no need to add anything extra. The “extra” might distract readers from what’s important: the people. Here’s an example from a man who is so close to death that he can’t really speak anymore:
Rick loved cats. He’d wanted to adopt one that was hanging around his place, but everyone said he could get sicker from the cat, but he said he didn’t care. But then he decided not to keep the cat and called everyone he knew till he found someone who could take it. He’d decided he didn’t want to keep the cat, then have it miss him and not have a dad after he died.The language is basic. The sentence structure is simple and compound sentences, no more. But the emotion is so strong that I’m having a hard time writing about it. This really is a sad book, but one that reminded me that humans deserve dignity regardless of what their body is doing, what runs in their veins, the condition of their skin.
Though The Gifts of the Body is made up of individual stories, there is an overall shape. The narrator introduces us to different people in the early stories, transitions them to hospice care near the middle, and describes their deaths in the end. Only one person’s death is detailed, but the rest are labeled dead. I think it’s important to end with that one story in which readers get the details of what a person’s face and breath and eyes do in those last moments. It’s not lovely and it’s not like the movies, and it’s important. I cried in those moments because it’s so real, but the death scene is not sensationalized.
An important book that puts a face on the AIDS epidemic, including the victims, their families, and the people who cared for them. I don’t typically include an image of the author because I don’t think it matters, but I’m adding a picture of Brown below as a sort of acknowledgement of the work she did when very few would.
This review was originally published at Grab the Lapels.
December 23, 2020
4.5 for now but I can see myself bumping it up after sitting on it for a while. The first two chapters I thought maybe this wasn’t going to affect me. The prose is scarce and bare bones (thinking: sally rooneys normal people) with little emotion, making me think she didn’t intend for this to be an emotionally heavy book. But it is. She leaves out the emotion for the reader to do that part and strangely, it worked. Like, really worked. Or maybe it hit a little closer to home because the descriptions of a person dying from AIDS sound a lot like someone deteriorating from cancer and I definitely wasn’t ready for that. Damn.
I read this within one sitting. I don’t even think it was two hours. I kind of wish I hadn’t done that because now it feels like a fleeting memory rather than an emotional journey. I’ll come back to this someday again.
I read this within one sitting. I don’t even think it was two hours. I kind of wish I hadn’t done that because now it feels like a fleeting memory rather than an emotional journey. I’ll come back to this someday again.
August 2, 2025
The book is written from the point of view of a home-care worker who assists people with AIDS.
The writing is simple, plain and detached in the beginning, describing the facts for what they are.
It all starts to gradually crumble and we can feel the impact the situation has on the narrating voice.
We, as readers, can perceive the desperation of the characters from the very beginning. Sentiment that is given off from that simplicity of wording itself.
The focus is on what people can give to and receive from others and is portrayed beautifully.
When you finish it you're left in a chockehold.
"After they died you missed them. But also there was a way you missed them before they died because you knew they were going to die."
The writing is simple, plain and detached in the beginning, describing the facts for what they are.
It all starts to gradually crumble and we can feel the impact the situation has on the narrating voice.
We, as readers, can perceive the desperation of the characters from the very beginning. Sentiment that is given off from that simplicity of wording itself.
The focus is on what people can give to and receive from others and is portrayed beautifully.
When you finish it you're left in a chockehold.
"After they died you missed them. But also there was a way you missed them before they died because you knew they were going to die."
December 31, 2025
I found this book when I was looking into lesbians' roles as caretakers during the AIDs pandemic when very few others were willing to treat and be so near to those with AIDs (the reason that the L is listed first in LGBTQ+). While it is never explicitly stated that the unnamed narrator in this book is a lesbian, Rebecca Brown herself is, and she worked as an at home health aide just as the protagonist did. Her vignettes are fictional, but you can tell that the line between her real life and these stories is heavily blurred. This whole book is a tender reminder of how far small kindnesses can go. God bless lesbians, God bless those who died unnecessarily of AIDs, and once again, fuck you Ronald Regan
December 1, 2024
A quick but nonetheless powerful read. The prose is spare and to the point. The unnamed narrator, a home care aide for AIDS patients, describes her clients in a series of interconnected short stories. While the language is plain, the plainness becomes sharp when describing how the specter of death affects those who are dying and those who witness their decline. Death was almost inevitable at this point in the development of disease. There is hope in the plainly described gifts of care and shared experiences in the face of tragedy.
November 26, 2022
This was such a beautiful and painful collection of vignettes from the perspective of a home care aid, but truly about the patients. Following the early days of the AIDS epidemic, these stories were moving, showing the diversity across those impacted by the disease and how they were loved.
Loved Connie and how both her sickness and family were discussed.
I just finished this and I will be crying for several days.
Loved Connie and how both her sickness and family were discussed.
I just finished this and I will be crying for several days.
June 13, 2024
This was such a beautiful and painful collection of vignettes from the perspective of a home care aid, but truly about the patients. Following the early days of the AIDS epidemic, these stories were moving, showing the diversity across those impacted by the disease and how they were loved.
Loved Connie and how both her sickness and family were discussed.
I just finished this and I will be crying for several days.
Loved Connie and how both her sickness and family were discussed.
I just finished this and I will be crying for several days.
August 7, 2025
This book is incredibly raw and a beautiful account of the relationships between caretakers and those with AIDs during the epidemic. This book will make you feel all the emotions; grief, anger, joy, and so on. I think it depicted how damaging the epidemic was incredibly well through a first person point of view (from the caretaker). I also really loved how the narrator is never named, it puts more emphasis on remembering the names of those she worked with in the book. Highly recommend.
October 12, 2017
I had never heard about this book till I read Will Schwalbe's Books for Living where this book was discussed. The Gifts of the Body is a fictionized account of a home health care aid who assists people with aids. The author was a home-care worker herself so she has much knowledge of what she writes. It is a very moving and sad book which brought tears to my eyes while reading it.
December 20, 2019
I have never read a book written so simply but with so much emotional heft. It’s raw and unfiltered and accessible. There are so many stories about this subject but none are quite like this - it almost defies description.
This was a tough book to track down, but I’m glad I did. You will be too. Bring the tissues.
This was a tough book to track down, but I’m glad I did. You will be too. Bring the tissues.
August 23, 2020
this book was on my "to read" list for years literally....finally was able to find and purchase a copy...so glad i did....reflections on personal care from age of AIDS/HIV are still relevant in this age of COVID....reminder of self-care as well....short essays which bring forth concepts to be reflected upon all day....
July 13, 2021
💔❤️🩹❤️
Shattered, but in a beautiful, moving, caring way. The narrator is a home care worker for PWAs. People with aids. The time spent with each of the characters/chapters is a lesson in how to care for our fellow humans.
Beautiful.
Rebecca Brown is one of the smartest, most amazing people I know. I plan to read my way through all her work.
Shattered, but in a beautiful, moving, caring way. The narrator is a home care worker for PWAs. People with aids. The time spent with each of the characters/chapters is a lesson in how to care for our fellow humans.
Beautiful.
Rebecca Brown is one of the smartest, most amazing people I know. I plan to read my way through all her work.
December 7, 2023
I find Brown's narratives especially moving in how she finds so much beauty in the frail, rash-ravaged bodies of her AIDS-stricken clients. Between their bodies and the humility she feels in handling them, the vulnerability becomes powerfully mutual. I devoured this book in less than 48 hours, but beware that it is a tear-jerker.
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