The American People: Volume 2: The Brutality of Fact: A Novel

The American People #2

by Larry Kramer

In The American People: Volume 2: The Brutality of Fact , Larry Kramer completes his radical reimagining of his country’s history. Ranging from the brothels of 1950s Washington, D.C., to the activism of the 1980s and beyond, Kramer offers an elaborate phantasmagoria of bigoted conspiracists in the halls of power and ordinary individuals suffering their consequences. With wit and bite, Kramer explores (among other things) the sex lives of every recent president; the complicated behavior of America’s two greatest spies, J. Edgar Hoover and James Jesus Angleton; the rise of Sexopolis , the country’s favorite magazine; and the genocidal activities of every branch of our health-care and drug-delivery systems.

The American People: Volume 2 is narrated by (among others) the writer Fred Lemish and his two friends―Dr. Daniel Jerusalem, who works for America’s preeminent health-care institution, and his twin brother, David Jerusalem, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp who was abused by many powerful men. Together they track a terrible plague that intensifies as the government ignores it and depict the bold and imaginative activists who set out to shock the nation’s conscience. In Kramer’s telling, the United States is dedicated to the proposition that very few men are created equal, and those who love other men may be destined for death. Here is a historical novel like no other―satiric and impassioned and driven by an uncompromising moral and literary vision.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, LGBT

896 pages, Hardcover

Published January 7, 2020

About the author

Larry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) was an American playwright, author, public health advocate and gay rights activist. He was nominated for an Academy Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was twice a recipient of an Obie Award. In response to the AIDS crisis he founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, which became the largest organization of its kind in the world. He wrote The Normal Heart, the first serious artistic examination of the AIDS crisis. He later founded ACT UP, a protest organization widely credited with having changed public health policy and the public's awareness of HIV and AIDS.[1] "There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. And he helped change it for the better. In American medicine there are two eras. Before Larry and after Larry," said Dr. Anthony Fauci.[1] Kramer lived in New York City and Connecticut.

Reviews

[Steve Donoghue]

A massive semi-fictional dramatization of 20th century history, a scathing protracted indictment of the Reagan administration, an unblinking portrait of the risks of love ... this massive second volume in Kramer's "American People" masterpiece is all these things and many more. An unforgettable reading experience. My full review: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/t...

[Marc Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zehL...

[John Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think a companion book to this Volume is Randy Shilt's "And the Band Played On". Yes, another long book. But, would help a reader of "The Brutality of Fact" know who are the real life major players that Kramer satirizes. Some are easy (at least for me), like Anthony Fauci and Robert Gallo. Some others not so much. Kramer also calls out presidents (easy to figure out), and Hollywood celebrities.

But, for those who only think of Kramer as a loud, angry, and cranky man. He also takes himself to task in this book in the character of Fred Lemish. Also, I agree with something that Paul Monette said about Kramer in "The Brink of Summer's End", the documentary about Monette. For all his yelling and screaming, Kramer cared about everyone. Even those he had disagreements with.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I thought Vol. 1 was a slogg, and so I was kind of dreading this a little, since it's even longer, but... This volume is much more "accessible" than the first volume - maybe it's because all most all of it happens during my lifetime, so I had a better understanding of the incidents that Kramer was alluding to throughout most of the book. Really glad I read it, even though it mostly just made me angry and sad. Really glad that I read it.