Ghosts of St. Vincent's

by Tom Eubanks

“Before the entitled lived here exclusively, the marginalized died in droves.”

Founded in 1849 to care for indigent immigrants in Greenwich Village, St. Vincent’s Hospital was sold in 2010 to create multi-million-dollar homes. In its 161 years of existence, the legendary institution treated survivors of the Titanic, tended to victims of both World Trade Center attacks, and served as Ground Zero of the AIDS Crisis.

With honesty, humor, and flights of historical fancy, GHOSTS OF ST. VINCENT’S tells the hospital’s story through the eyes of a man who spent a winter on its 7th floor AIDS ward and survived just in time for the drug “cocktail” that saved so many lives.

Featuring appearances by indomitable icons, from poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to director Sidney Lumet to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, with appearances by Ed Koch and The Ramones, among others, GHOSTS OF ST. VINCENT’S explores coming out and coming back from the dead, gender fluidity and gentrification, the price of forgiveness, the cost of survival, and the ephemeral nature of New York City.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, LGBT, History, Gay, 20th Century, Biography

225 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2017

About the author

Tom Eubanks lives in Southern California.

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book simply because I was a nurse at St. Vincent's both before and at the beginning of the AIDs crisis (I did not work the AIDs Units- but we were all touched by it).
I liked this book very much, but it was hard to read as it brought back some horrid memories of how cruel the world was during those years. Strengthened my love, pride and admiration for the people of Saint Vincent's.

[Gabbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I originally picked up this book thinking it was a history of the hospital (and it still turned out to be, in a way), I kept reading it because the author captured me with the way he spilled his spirit onto the page. I am too young to have lived through the era but he brought me there with his stories and had me thinking of some books by Abraham Verghese in certain parts. Being chronically ill myself I could relate to more passages than I cared to, but that is also what I loved about the book, too - that even though we deal with separate “invisible illnesses,” the pain, the heartache, the hatred of hospitals and pure exhaustion is the same no matter what and that bonds us, in a way. I will be recommending this book to many people I know, and have already!

[Fiona Helmsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I read online that the author had to self- publish because publishers felt that the recent spate of books with AIDS storylines made the genre bloated. How absolutely ridiculous. (Funny how some stories have restrictive quotas to their telling, others not so much.) Eubanks is a great writer with an erudite yet chatty style. If anything, I wished it were longer.

[Alyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful account of a dark period so recent in our history, Eubanks sheds light on the day to day life of a gay man at the height of the AIDS crisis. I learnt a lot and I felt a lot through reading this book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eubanks pays bittersweet homage to an institution, which served those at the epicenter of the AIDS crisis in the 70s, 80s and 90s, St Vincents. Beautiful, dark introspection of those friends he witnessed dying juxtaposed against his own “miraculous” 3x survival from complications that killed his peers a mere 12 months prior to his last visit to the “Sevens....” I have no words. The chapter on Lazarus Redux was brilliant.

His musings on the conversion of St Vincents to luxury apartments express exactly what I had felt. It erased vitally important NYC history. It opened the old wounds of the gay community and their loved ones by virtually ignoring and minimizing a stigmatizing plague that literally emptied NYC neighborhoods while no one seemed to care. Perhaps it’s because AIDS has been reduced to “a chronic illness manageable with medication,” but I remember when DC and Mayor Koch did everything in their power to not only conceal what was happening but also delay the release of life-saving therapies.

This book is not tragedy porn. I felt no pity while reading it. Eubanks evoked old anger and outrage. I also felt his insult over the perceived erasure of a neighborhood and its citizens that offered a place where LGBTQ could feel safe and appreciated. Yes, even in “liberal” NYC, out people had a tough time finding jobs and housing.

And now, I’m angry all over again.

Well done, Mr Eubanks. I wish you peace in your heart, continued good health and happiness with your husband and lots more good writing.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heartfelt quasi-memoir, quasi-fiction work, which I thought was very interesting, but the memoir sections is where it really excelled. Eubanks has a plainspoken, efficacious yet emotional way of writing. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important look at the AIDS crisis beautifully told by braiding the author's own story with a history of St. Vincent's Hospital, 'ground zero' of the epidemic in NYC.

[susan murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won from goodreads
About st Vincent's hospital and some of the patients on the 7th floor .
Some interesting stories mainly about one patient and his life from the beginning also who he met along the way.
He was one of the lucky ones that the drug saved .

[Victoria Curtin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I’m VERY biased, as a nurse that worked at St. Vincent’s during those grim days early on in HIV, but this is a beautifully written book.

[Mills College Library]

362.11 E86 2017

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel is about some famous patients of St. Vincent's and the AIDS sick narrator. I was a bit disappointed that more than the half of the book is about the gay narrator who suffered from AIDS when it was a taboo and no cure in sight. There was no tension f the narrator is going to survive it because the back of the book already tells you that he will be saved. One sees that Tom Eubanks did a lot of research for the stories of the historical characters as well as for the detailed description of the course of an AIDS illness. Although there are a lot of medical terms and exact portrayals of the treatment (which was boring sometimes) it was nice to read. Probably because of the many innuendos to plays and movies. For a lot of them I am too young to understand but the ones I got eased up the topic and were funny.
There were a lot of crazy characters thanks to the narrators gayness and with that involving in the drag queen and gay scene of New York City. What I enjoyed too were the descriptions of New York City and the comparison of it in 1990s to nowadays.
All in all the book is very good for people who want to get to know more about the struggle of being gay and having AIDS in the 1990s in the US. It is written appealingly and funny so one can overlook the passages full of detailed descriptions of the sickness and treatments although I wish there would have been more historical characters who got treated in St. Vincent's.

[Pat Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book because I thought it was a history of the hospital and because I lived on Bank Street in the early 80’s before AIDS. I felt the best part were the imagined hospital conversations of little Frankie Spellman and Roy Cohn as well as Ed Koch and Johnny Ramone. The author really captures the spirit and the sense of community that existed in the early days of AIDS when so many of my young men friends died. The ghosts of St.Vincent’s should haunt the church and the gentrification of the village

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read! Highly recommended.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was more of a series of vignettes interspersed with the author's own experiences at the hospital. I actually think it worked better than a linear history would have. Sandwiching the story of how Edna St Vincent Millay got her middle name with the story of Mayor Koch meeting Joey Ramone in the waiting room around the more gruesome stories of the 7th floor was a good balance. I have tried to forget the 7th floor as I visited friends there. It was grim. But the nursing staff went above & beyond; I'm glad the author showed that. I couldn't help but agree when he mentioned the film "Poltergeist" at the end. I do believe things like that are very possible. Though I haven't been to the West Village in some time; there's no longer any reason to go there, I can't help but agree that certain corners and establishments and locations may have changed over time, but somewhere the ghosts of all those men still go on.

[Gregory Orr · Rating 5 out of 5]

St Vincent’s hospital in the West Village dates back to the Civil War and had a long, glorious history in NYC. Nearing the end of the 20th century it was also the epicenter of the AIDS crisis. Hundreds of men died alone and shunned by their families on the 7th floor AIDS ward. Tom Eubanks was one of those 7th floor ward patrons near death. Until the new AIDS meds took hold of him and he’s still here today. Weaving a historic non fiction history of the hospital mixed with his own story as a transplanted new NY’er, I loved it. Oftentimes sad, but also smart. St.Vincents , sadly was torn down in 2008 to make room for condos. The ‘new’ New York Tom also explains.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly unique approach to memoir (I believe that's what it is, though it's not entirely clear). The chapters flip between those narrated by a young man with HIV spending time in St. Vincent's in the 1990s and historical figures who have spent time there in years prior. I found all of the chapters engaging. I read this in a couple of hours and hardly put it down. There are multiple grammatical errors (mostly missing words), which did impact my rating a bit. I also enjoyed the shifting perspectives, but I don't think they tied together all that well (though I'm also not sure they really needed to). Overall, I would definitely recommend it.

[Lisa Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to read books about the histories of old hospitals. I enjoyed the parts of this book that told stories of St. Vincent's and the people there, and the author's recount of his personal experiences on the 7th floor. I felt like the book went off on a number of unrelated tangents, though, and lost something in the process. My favorite story was about how Vito snuck out to see a movie - it was very endearing. I would've loved to see more stories like that in this book, and more history and detail of the hospital itself. I won a copy of this in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating biography of both the author and the hospital. I read it because my sister was a social worker at St. Vincent's for 25 years, but my "connection" to the book was not necessary to enjoy this compelling book.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was good, but I wanted more descriptions of 1980s NYC.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming out and surviving AIDS. A perfect sunday afternoon read.

[Rachel S · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, it was a good read. I noticed a few typos and underdeveloped stories that left me confused. Still, it kept my interest and I enjoyed it.

[Thomas Severino · Rating 5 out of 5]

History of people who stood against the plague in a place that welcomed the hopeless and alone. Immensely good reading. Poignant and heroic ...

[Melanie Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

As a nurse who came into practice in the late 90's I found this book interesting as a light history of the start of AIDS in New York. I did a winter "mini-mester" course in nursing school in NYC. I never quite realized how progressive it was for a super religious nursing school to go and visit places like The Gay Men's Health Crisis Center. I applaud the professors decision to take us there and later wondered if she got grief for it. It opened my eyes to the how stigmatized this population was. That class was monumental for me as a 19 year old sheltered nursing student. It was critical to see, even though their lifestyle was so foreign, for me, it showed me that these people needed non-judgmental care givers more then ever. I didn't know about St Vincent's before. And from a medical perspective, reading about their method of care was informative and fascinating. I applaud the Catholic church in this manner of service. I am so conflicted how they go from "your lifestyle is going to cause you to go to hell" but we'll take care of you free of charge. They seemed to care for the same people free of judgment, that their priests were condemning. I find that to be quite the paradox. I found the conspiracy theories relatable to what we're dealing with in the medical field related to the current pandemic. I can't imagine how much worse the HIV /Aids conspiracies would have been if we'd had the internet like we do now.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book succeeds despite rather than because of the autobiographical element. I feel like an ass for saying so, but the author doesn't come across as very likable. But then, we are who we are, and his experience is one that needs to be told and preserved. He took the time to contextualize his own experiences and create a memory of a time and place that shouldn't be forgotten.

While not an amazing pleasure read, it's a very interesting historical read. Really a 4.5 star sort of situation.

[vanessa johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty and articulate

This is a terrific book. Tom Eubanks manages to combine an informative history of St. Vincent's with his own experiences of the hospital in a seamless narrative. Laugh out loud moments come as often as tears do and there is a constant sense of the author's sense of irony and the absurd.

I'll be looking out for more from Mr. Eubanks if this is the standard of writing he can achieve.

[Ellie Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

75/100