Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/AIDS

by Patti Lather, Chris Smithies

Educator Patti Lather and psychologist Chris Smithies observed and chronicled support groups for women diagnosed with HIV. Whether black, Latina, poor, or middle class, the women in these groups share the common bond of living with HIV/AIDS, and they describe how it affects their lives in terms full of practical reality and moving poignancy, as they fight the disease, accept, reflect, live and die with and in it.

Genres: Nonfiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Christina Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I retrieved this great read today after coming across its reference in a methods book. I wanted to see what a feminist interview analysis had the potential to become. I instantly fell into deep admiration for the researchers, the women, and the pages that captured the story of U.S. women living with HIV/AIDS in the early 1990s.

The women...the researched, in academic terms (a term deliberately meant to sound and feel extraordinarily impersonal)...are co-producers of the book. The result is unique and topples the typical researcher/researched division and hierarchy, leaving in its place a literal literary tapestry. It is a rich, touching, evocative, textured narrative whereby each page weaves sectioned segments of the overall story. The top portion of the page leaves the interviews of the women intact, in the womens' own words, categorized into major chapter themes then incorporating sub-themes, as needed. The authors then use auto biography and qualitative analysis in ticker form (running along the bottom of the page) to provide explanation for their choice of method and structure, and to inform the reader of relevant background information to the dialogue taking place above. This prevents the authors from overburdening, loosening, or losing the womens' voices, thus obscuring what is important to the study, while mirroring the vulnerability that the women bring forward. The page is then again interrupted throughout with text boxes that provide additional richness to the dialogues taking place. It is a structure that others too entrenched in notions of "proper" may vilify. In the end, it is a magnificent breath of fresh poststructuralist, postmodernist air that can only enliven the means by which we accomplish academic discourse.

As for the women themselves, living in the midst of a rising epidemic in the early 1990s with nothing but experimental medication that did little to prevent the acceleration from HIV to AIDS, and living with extreme public fear that lead to extreme discrimination and isolation, I wish to say, "Well done!" Knowing that HIV/AIDS was primarily considered a "gay man's disease" during this time, it remains a sad commentary that the question that always must be asked within any situation is, "Where are the women?" At least within these pages, the women are here and I have heard them. I remain hopeful that medicines advanced enough to keep most of the women with us for a very long time. I cried over those who were lost to us before the book was published. I am honored to have had the privilege of knowing a little about them all.

[Jennifer Money · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way this book was written. It is a presentation of participatory research done with women with HIV and AIDS. The book was very participant focused and the reader was able to understand the voices of the women. I would like to set my graduate thesis up in a similar fashion on a smaller scale based on my own subject of lesbian identities. Recommended for anyone interested in women with AIDS or for anyone who is interested in alternative research styles/feminist research methods.

[Lauren Levitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I appreciated the decision to represent the women’s stories without interruption, and I enjoyed the Angel interludes. The boxes scattered throughout the text were a little distracting, although I suppose that was the point. An important read for anyone interested in feminist ethnography.

[Kata Mertanen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried. A lot.

I cried for the joys and sorrows of the women interviewed for this book, I cried for the deaths, I cried for the delicate way how this book is written. Patti Lather is setting a marvelous example of doing post-structuralist feminist research and write accordingly. Allthough the roots in her work are deeply rooted to the theory and very specific way to see the world she does not let that dominate, but rather makes a rhizome of different voices and stories that show us the multi-layered picture of lives of women living with HIV/AIDS.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figured I would dig this, because AIDS narratives are interesting to me, but there's nothing in this book that is new to me. So I figured it would interest me on an informational level, but it's old enough that the information is essentially stale. So I thought maybe I'd enjoy the methodology, but there just isn't that much detail on it except on the immersive level, which I found fairly boring.

[reem · Rating 3 out of 5]

pardon my language, but this book is a little confusing. i mean its even written like 3 things at a time. you can read the top of the page or the middle or another part. god, how post structural. on the other hand, its got important stuff. i just think it would help to present it in a more accessible way.

[Alisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

you will certainly learn about HIV/AIDS from this book, but the narratives of the women living with aids will captivate you. it is not written as traditional text and interweaves simultaneous narratives, intertexts about angels, and facts about HIV/AIDS.