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Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey through the AIDS Crisis
In 1992, Dr. Ross A. Slotten signed more death certificates in Chicago—and, by inference, the state of Illinois—than anyone else. As a family physician, he was trained to care for patients from birth to death, but when he completed his residency in 1984, he had no idea that many of his future patients would be cut down in the prime of their lives. Among those patients were friends, colleagues, and lovers, shunned by most of the medical community because they were gay and HIV positive. Slotten wasn’t an infectious disease specialist, but because of his unique position as both a gay man and a young physician, he became an unlikely pioneer, swept up in one of the worst epidemics in modern history.
Plague Years is an unprecedented first-person account of that epidemic, spanning not just the city of Chicago but four continents as well. Slotten provides an intimate yet comprehensive view of the disease’s spread alongside heartfelt portraits of his patients and his own conflicted feelings as a medical professional, drawn from more than thirty years of personal notebooks. In telling the story of someone who was as much a potential patient as a doctor, Plague Years sheds light on the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in ways that no previous medical memoir has.
Plague Years is an unprecedented first-person account of that epidemic, spanning not just the city of Chicago but four continents as well. Slotten provides an intimate yet comprehensive view of the disease’s spread alongside heartfelt portraits of his patients and his own conflicted feelings as a medical professional, drawn from more than thirty years of personal notebooks. In telling the story of someone who was as much a potential patient as a doctor, Plague Years sheds light on the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in ways that no previous medical memoir has.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 25, 2020
37 people are currently reading
578 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 27, 2020
One afternoon in 1985 (or 1986?) I sat by a large square fountain below the 57-story mass of First Chicago. In the next hour or so I expected my doctor to call me with the results of my first HIV test. At that time a positive diagnosis meant only one thing: you would die, probably soon. I did what almost anyone my situation does: wondered what I’d do with a few final months of health, and what I’d do when it failed. I was already a “buddy” for a guy from Southside Chicago whose life was slipping further away every week, so I had no illusions.
The call came an hour later: I’d tested negative. My doctor, barely older than I, could guess what anxiety I’d been living with since my test earlier in the week. He conveyed my good fortune by making a light joke. After the call I sat for a while in shocked relief, gradually returning myself to the land of the living. That doctor was Ross Slotten.
I left Chicago in 1991, leaving behind friends and acquaintances dying of AIDS, and finding new ones in San Francisco. Even in these months of COVID-19 it’s hard to recall the raw cold terror of those days, the grief that never seemed to heal because so often refreshed. Easier to remember the bravery of those young doomed men, the courageous altruism of the lesbian community who filled the breach, the doctors and scientists and activists. And novelists, poets, artists, comics. Culture and unexpected human kindness flourish in adversity.
So — from then until now I had little idea what had happened to Ross. Our relationship was strictly professional, I was one of his many young gay patients, each grateful to find a doctor who understood so much. This book, which I ordered as soon as I saw it mentioned, fills in the gaps. Obviously its appeal will be limited — but for those of us who survived, or for readers whose friends and family did not survive, this is part of the story. Ross also emerges as a character of courage and integrity, of emotional ups and downs, and of compassion. I’m grateful he wrote it.
The call came an hour later: I’d tested negative. My doctor, barely older than I, could guess what anxiety I’d been living with since my test earlier in the week. He conveyed my good fortune by making a light joke. After the call I sat for a while in shocked relief, gradually returning myself to the land of the living. That doctor was Ross Slotten.
I left Chicago in 1991, leaving behind friends and acquaintances dying of AIDS, and finding new ones in San Francisco. Even in these months of COVID-19 it’s hard to recall the raw cold terror of those days, the grief that never seemed to heal because so often refreshed. Easier to remember the bravery of those young doomed men, the courageous altruism of the lesbian community who filled the breach, the doctors and scientists and activists. And novelists, poets, artists, comics. Culture and unexpected human kindness flourish in adversity.
So — from then until now I had little idea what had happened to Ross. Our relationship was strictly professional, I was one of his many young gay patients, each grateful to find a doctor who understood so much. This book, which I ordered as soon as I saw it mentioned, fills in the gaps. Obviously its appeal will be limited — but for those of us who survived, or for readers whose friends and family did not survive, this is part of the story. Ross also emerges as a character of courage and integrity, of emotional ups and downs, and of compassion. I’m grateful he wrote it.
June 18, 2020
Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey through the AIDS Crisis by Ross A. Slotten, M. D.
"In the twenty-first century, young people don't know anyone who has died from AIDS, so they are less afraid." p 211
That statement is the reason this book is needed. As we struggle with COVID 19, people tend to believe they are invincible - they fear nothing and tend to ignore health advice.
Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey through the AIDS Crisis is a very personal, yet accurate and professional, Chicago history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as viewed from the perspective of a "physician who happened to be gay." In, at times, gruesome details, it describes the dark days of the beginning of the pandemic - when no one knew what it was, to the ravages of death that followed: "...a death rate of 98 percent. Only rabies has a higher fatality rate than untreated HIV. No other infectious disease in human history has had the potential to kill a greater proportion of those exposed to it than HIV. One hundred or even fifty years ago, AIDS might have wiped out much of humanity." p. 183
"For those who lived through the worst period of the epidemic, this book could bring back memories of an era that we all hope will never be repeated. For those who didn't experience that terrible time, or who've forgotten how terrible it was, let my chapters serve as a warning to the complacent and ignorant: untreated HIV is as ruthless as any terrorist and as destructive as a nuclear bomb." p. 3
Because Dr. Slotten is both gay and a human being, the epidemic took its toll both professionally and personally: "How close we always are, I think, to death." p. 17. The epidemic forces our protagonist to deal both with his religious beliefs, his sexuality, and his own mortality. Even as he was exposed to the virus, and the traumatic experience of waiting several weeks for an HIV test result - something I experienced myself, but with different results - his resolve never wavered. "I witness the death struggle [e]very day. Unable to intervene, I watch the beast stalk its victims and feel the pain as it sinks its teeth into its thrashing target, as if I were the target myself. The malevolent hunter haunts me." p. 121.
As HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) developed, and HIV became a chronic disease, the book turns on a positive side. However, the cost of HIV therapy continues to be outrageous. Many, especially in third world countries, can't afford the cost of these life-saving medications. Prevention continues to be the most cost-effective way of eradicating the disease. Yet, little is done in the public health arena - especially where it's needed the most - developing countries.
As we deal with our current epidemic - COVID - let no one tell you that your life is worth saving the economy. Just like the four H's: Homosexuals, Haitian Americans, Hemophiliacs, and Heroin users were considered "dispensable" by the Ronald Reagan Administration - costing millions of loses to their respective communities - don't let the Trump administration, sacrifice seniors, black, brown, and sick people to his desire to save the economy.
History tends to repeat itself!
"In the twenty-first century, young people don't know anyone who has died from AIDS, so they are less afraid." p 211
That statement is the reason this book is needed. As we struggle with COVID 19, people tend to believe they are invincible - they fear nothing and tend to ignore health advice.
Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey through the AIDS Crisis is a very personal, yet accurate and professional, Chicago history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as viewed from the perspective of a "physician who happened to be gay." In, at times, gruesome details, it describes the dark days of the beginning of the pandemic - when no one knew what it was, to the ravages of death that followed: "...a death rate of 98 percent. Only rabies has a higher fatality rate than untreated HIV. No other infectious disease in human history has had the potential to kill a greater proportion of those exposed to it than HIV. One hundred or even fifty years ago, AIDS might have wiped out much of humanity." p. 183
"For those who lived through the worst period of the epidemic, this book could bring back memories of an era that we all hope will never be repeated. For those who didn't experience that terrible time, or who've forgotten how terrible it was, let my chapters serve as a warning to the complacent and ignorant: untreated HIV is as ruthless as any terrorist and as destructive as a nuclear bomb." p. 3
Because Dr. Slotten is both gay and a human being, the epidemic took its toll both professionally and personally: "How close we always are, I think, to death." p. 17. The epidemic forces our protagonist to deal both with his religious beliefs, his sexuality, and his own mortality. Even as he was exposed to the virus, and the traumatic experience of waiting several weeks for an HIV test result - something I experienced myself, but with different results - his resolve never wavered. "I witness the death struggle [e]very day. Unable to intervene, I watch the beast stalk its victims and feel the pain as it sinks its teeth into its thrashing target, as if I were the target myself. The malevolent hunter haunts me." p. 121.
As HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) developed, and HIV became a chronic disease, the book turns on a positive side. However, the cost of HIV therapy continues to be outrageous. Many, especially in third world countries, can't afford the cost of these life-saving medications. Prevention continues to be the most cost-effective way of eradicating the disease. Yet, little is done in the public health arena - especially where it's needed the most - developing countries.
As we deal with our current epidemic - COVID - let no one tell you that your life is worth saving the economy. Just like the four H's: Homosexuals, Haitian Americans, Hemophiliacs, and Heroin users were considered "dispensable" by the Ronald Reagan Administration - costing millions of loses to their respective communities - don't let the Trump administration, sacrifice seniors, black, brown, and sick people to his desire to save the economy.
History tends to repeat itself!
July 22, 2020
As someone who has survived the AIDS crisis, buried over 80 friends, and nursed a lover for three horrible years until he lost his battle with the virus, I found this book to be very revealing and heartfelt. Slotten's account of the years as a young doctor on the battle lines against this disease is able to take one to the fight and make one realize how challenging this fight was for the doctors who were confronted with patients dying and so little means to help them. As as a doctor who signed the most death certificates in Cook County during the crisis years, he is very honest in his portrayal of the doctor's role--"unconsciously I gave myself permission to excuse myself from my feelings and painful decisions." Layered into to this account, the author gives us his memoir of his journey to acceptance as a gay man, his respite to remain sane in this battle, and the effects of this challenge on his personal life. This honest look at the doctor's role and struggles is worth the read.
November 30, 2021
I went into this book expecting to learn more about AIDS epidemic, what specifically happened in Chicago at the time, and how a physician on the front lines dealt with being on the front lines of an epidemic. It is very much a memoir but not quite described that way which is unfortunate. His husband was correct to tell him to be less "nitty". Should have leaned into that more in my opinion. For book club, we also talked extensively about patient confidentiality and what lines may have been crossed.
As a 90s child through and through, by the time I realized what HIV/AIDs were as a child, it wasn't quite a death sentence. So getting historical context and his part of caring for HIV positive men of Chicago was interesting to me. I didn't realize how the diseases worked so it was useful getting it explained (despite me only truly half understanding it).
Not sure if I'll recommend it to others unless it specificially meets their needs, but I am glad to have read it.
As a 90s child through and through, by the time I realized what HIV/AIDs were as a child, it wasn't quite a death sentence. So getting historical context and his part of caring for HIV positive men of Chicago was interesting to me. I didn't realize how the diseases worked so it was useful getting it explained (despite me only truly half understanding it).
Not sure if I'll recommend it to others unless it specificially meets their needs, but I am glad to have read it.
March 15, 2021
Most excellent memoir by a doctor who was at the frontline of the AIDS crisis from the very start.
I had seen this book before but only picked it up after seeing, and being touched by, the Channel 4 drama It's A Sin.
Both come recommended. Especially in this time of another epidemic it's striking how many similarities there are between the AIDS epidemic of the 80's and the early days of the Covid pandemic. The differences perhaps are even more striking.
Slotten does a great job of conveying the hardships of those days and the devastation that swept through the Gay community. A community the doctor was himself a part of.
I had seen this book before but only picked it up after seeing, and being touched by, the Channel 4 drama It's A Sin.
Both come recommended. Especially in this time of another epidemic it's striking how many similarities there are between the AIDS epidemic of the 80's and the early days of the Covid pandemic. The differences perhaps are even more striking.
Slotten does a great job of conveying the hardships of those days and the devastation that swept through the Gay community. A community the doctor was himself a part of.
March 12, 2021
For those who want to know more about the experience of an MD working at the center of the AIDS crisis in Chicago, this delivers.
An intimate and circumspect look at how the epidemic transformed part of this city and its citizens.
Easy to imagine teaching this alongside “The Great Believers” in a course that addresses historical fiction and memoir.
An intimate and circumspect look at how the epidemic transformed part of this city and its citizens.
Easy to imagine teaching this alongside “The Great Believers” in a course that addresses historical fiction and memoir.
June 29, 2021
I had certain trepidations about reading this book as I lam an optimistic person who lives in the present, looks forward to the future and seldom looks in the rear view mirror. I lived through the AIDS crisis in the 80’s and 90’s with my late partner Frank who was diagnosed by the author’s partner Tom Klein with Kaposi Sarcoma, an HIV related illness…..so revisiting this painful period of my life and this sad chapter in the global gay Community did not seem to be a good investment in my time.
However, I was disabused of that sentiment by my Chicago urologist Paul Yanover who read Slotten’s book and highly recommended it. My usual habit is to read 20 pages to get a flavor for the subject and writing style and then either discard the book or to go full bore and read the rest of the book in one full swoop if it appeals to me. In this case, I couldn’t put the book down not because I’m enthralled with a disease that caused a horrible death to so many gay men but because of the honest and clear writing style of the author and the challenging period that young doctors like him lived through in attempting to treat a disease with no known cure at the time and an extremely high mortality rate.
The author successfully interweaves how this tumultuous period affected his own life as a son, lover and physician which I found quite fascinating and heart wrenching. While any gay person living through the AIDS crisis knows the tremendous toll that this scourge took on patients and loved ones, in this book we come to understand that physicians treating persons with HIV did not come out of this crisis unscathed and also suffered mightily in many ways. It was illuminating to read about this crisis through the lens of a gay physician.
I highly recommend this book not only for those of us who survived this crisis and those loved ones left in the wake of it, but more importantly for those who were not yet born or did not live through this period.
Bob H
Chicago
However, I was disabused of that sentiment by my Chicago urologist Paul Yanover who read Slotten’s book and highly recommended it. My usual habit is to read 20 pages to get a flavor for the subject and writing style and then either discard the book or to go full bore and read the rest of the book in one full swoop if it appeals to me. In this case, I couldn’t put the book down not because I’m enthralled with a disease that caused a horrible death to so many gay men but because of the honest and clear writing style of the author and the challenging period that young doctors like him lived through in attempting to treat a disease with no known cure at the time and an extremely high mortality rate.
The author successfully interweaves how this tumultuous period affected his own life as a son, lover and physician which I found quite fascinating and heart wrenching. While any gay person living through the AIDS crisis knows the tremendous toll that this scourge took on patients and loved ones, in this book we come to understand that physicians treating persons with HIV did not come out of this crisis unscathed and also suffered mightily in many ways. It was illuminating to read about this crisis through the lens of a gay physician.
I highly recommend this book not only for those of us who survived this crisis and those loved ones left in the wake of it, but more importantly for those who were not yet born or did not live through this period.
Bob H
Chicago
August 21, 2020
This is an inspiring and intimate look at a young doctor who had the steel, in the early days of the AIDS crisis in Chicago, to show up, fight for the afflicted, help establish treatment and hospice centers, puzzle through untested protocols, raise funds. Most important, the reader meets someone who communicated with and treated his patients and their families with honesty, bravery and compassion.
I was lucky enough to have Dr. Slotten as my own general practitioner for 15 years while living in Chicago. I had only a hint of the difficulties he was facing with so many others in his care, and found the stories of life and death in this book so educational and moving, hard as they were to read at times. Many reviews, and much of the marketing for this book including the sample Kindle chapter, might paint a pretty grim picture of its contents, but there's so much more here: the author making his way as a student and young professional, navigating the challenges of coming out, fumbling through (as we all did) the various stages of his first relationships, exhilarating in a life of travel and the arts. The writing is clear and colorful, dramatic and detailed.
Another reviewer here suggests that if you read only one book about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, to turn to "The Great Believers" instead – I disagree, and urge that if you've read and enjoyed that great book, consider this book as "the story behind the story." As a record of Chicago history, LGBTQ history and medical history, this memoir serves as an important document. Young gay guys – and I'm thinking of many I've come across in Boystown who seem not to have a clue of their sexual privilege and freedom – will do well to sit down with this book, and earn an invaluable education of the fate they've been spared.
I was lucky enough to have Dr. Slotten as my own general practitioner for 15 years while living in Chicago. I had only a hint of the difficulties he was facing with so many others in his care, and found the stories of life and death in this book so educational and moving, hard as they were to read at times. Many reviews, and much of the marketing for this book including the sample Kindle chapter, might paint a pretty grim picture of its contents, but there's so much more here: the author making his way as a student and young professional, navigating the challenges of coming out, fumbling through (as we all did) the various stages of his first relationships, exhilarating in a life of travel and the arts. The writing is clear and colorful, dramatic and detailed.
Another reviewer here suggests that if you read only one book about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, to turn to "The Great Believers" instead – I disagree, and urge that if you've read and enjoyed that great book, consider this book as "the story behind the story." As a record of Chicago history, LGBTQ history and medical history, this memoir serves as an important document. Young gay guys – and I'm thinking of many I've come across in Boystown who seem not to have a clue of their sexual privilege and freedom – will do well to sit down with this book, and earn an invaluable education of the fate they've been spared.
June 26, 2020
This is a well-written journey by a doctor who was a major contributor in treating AIDS patients in Chicago. He describes not only his professional involvement, but he includes his personal saga as a gay man. Quite easy to understand, it’s not written in heavy medical terminology. As a gay man who lived through the years when the medical community was grappling with AIDS as an unknown, so much of this came flooding back to me. This is truly a worthwhile retrospective and an
explanatory read!
explanatory read!
December 23, 2020
Moving. Slotten's work is incredible; when so fee doctors took on treating HIV positive patients, he showed genuine care / leadership. As a read this memoir, I could feel some of his vulnerabilities and emotions poured into the ink. However, there were a number of times where I felt frustrated with his attitudes regarding activists. Nevertheless, as a young gay man living during this era, this book felt necessary to read.Thank you for your contributions to humanity.
July 13, 2023
This is going to sound like damning with faint praise, but I ended up enjoying this book far more than I thought I was going to. I work in the world of health care and am very familiar with the sometimes inflated sense of importance, to say nothing of skill outside the clinical setting, that some physicians believe themselves to have. So I wasn't so sure how a memoir about a physician's personal experience with the start of the AIDS crisis was going to be written and whether it would be able to avoid clichés or other schlocky writing. I was pleased to find that for the most part, the author succeeded in avoiding that here.
Slotten does from time to time drift into lightly purple prose but for the most part he keeps it grounded and accessible. That's doubly impressive considering that a lot of what he needs to unpack for a reader are fairly technical details about biology and pharmacology against the backdrop of a truly horrifying event. He manages to keep stories about his patients largely front and center, even as he tries to contextualize the frustration and fear that he and his fellow healthcare provider colleagues are feeling in the face of a disease that can't be stopped and a world that frankly doesn't care if it is because it only hurts the "undesirables."
I also really appreciated that, unlike many takes on AIDS, Slotten doesn't stop the story in the mid-1990s. He's not interested in just telling the worst of the story, he gives time to how AIDS has changed as a diagnosis with the advent of new drugs and better protections. Too often, books about AIDS and HIV focus on the pitiful first victims which contributes to the narrative that AIDS is a thing of the past. It was refreshing to read his descriptions of how he manages cases of HIV in 2016 and how much that contrasts with how he had to do it in 1983.
Slotten does from time to time drift into lightly purple prose but for the most part he keeps it grounded and accessible. That's doubly impressive considering that a lot of what he needs to unpack for a reader are fairly technical details about biology and pharmacology against the backdrop of a truly horrifying event. He manages to keep stories about his patients largely front and center, even as he tries to contextualize the frustration and fear that he and his fellow healthcare provider colleagues are feeling in the face of a disease that can't be stopped and a world that frankly doesn't care if it is because it only hurts the "undesirables."
I also really appreciated that, unlike many takes on AIDS, Slotten doesn't stop the story in the mid-1990s. He's not interested in just telling the worst of the story, he gives time to how AIDS has changed as a diagnosis with the advent of new drugs and better protections. Too often, books about AIDS and HIV focus on the pitiful first victims which contributes to the narrative that AIDS is a thing of the past. It was refreshing to read his descriptions of how he manages cases of HIV in 2016 and how much that contrasts with how he had to do it in 1983.
August 28, 2023
This book was spectacular - a deep dive into the lived experience of the AIDS crisis, stories which have all too often been lost as a result of the crisis itself. Reading the POV of a doctor, rather than a social or political activist, was fresh and unique, unlike what I've read before.
The author's primary place of work, St. Joseph's, and his AIDS ward, struck a particular note for me - I live just two blocks away from said hospital. Reading his accounts of his time in the hospital treating AIDS patients, when many other doctors refused to do so; his retellings of running through Lincoln Park and Old Town to visit and care for patients, makes me look at the streets I walk everyday with a new perspective. Every time I see St. Joe's, now, I'll remember those who lost their lives far too soon, as well as the dedication and care of doctors and nurses who stepped in to take care of those in the community.
Stories from elder gays should forever be treasured - and this book is no exception.
The author's primary place of work, St. Joseph's, and his AIDS ward, struck a particular note for me - I live just two blocks away from said hospital. Reading his accounts of his time in the hospital treating AIDS patients, when many other doctors refused to do so; his retellings of running through Lincoln Park and Old Town to visit and care for patients, makes me look at the streets I walk everyday with a new perspective. Every time I see St. Joe's, now, I'll remember those who lost their lives far too soon, as well as the dedication and care of doctors and nurses who stepped in to take care of those in the community.
Stories from elder gays should forever be treasured - and this book is no exception.
September 20, 2021
This was a good memoir. It did a good job of balancing his personal story with the hard facts of the AIDS crisis. Since I didn't know much going into this, I probly could've used a little more broad statistics, trends, detailed information about the trajectory of the crisis, but of course that just wasn't this specific doctor's experience.
The book's a bit sentimental too as it spends a lot of time describing the neighborhood my fiance used to live in, Boystown in Chicago. Great neighborhood, and probably a higher concentration of LGBTQ people there in the period this book covers, 1970s-90s, than now -- it's interesting and sad to think of the impact of such a huge medical crisis devastating such a specific area.
Overall it was well written, the occasional hint of snobbery aside. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning about the personal affect of the AIDS crisis in the 80s-90s.
The book's a bit sentimental too as it spends a lot of time describing the neighborhood my fiance used to live in, Boystown in Chicago. Great neighborhood, and probably a higher concentration of LGBTQ people there in the period this book covers, 1970s-90s, than now -- it's interesting and sad to think of the impact of such a huge medical crisis devastating such a specific area.
Overall it was well written, the occasional hint of snobbery aside. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning about the personal affect of the AIDS crisis in the 80s-90s.
June 25, 2020
If you're going to read just one book about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, let me recommend The Great Believers instead of this one--perhaps just because fiction can make a better, and in this case fuller, narrative. But this one, from a physician's perspective, is also well worth reading for a glimpse of the intense professional and personal despair of a gay physician signing more death certificates than any other doctor in Illinois during the plague years.
November 20, 2020
Excellent account of the early years of the AIDS epidemic by a young gay physician written with exceptional heart and sorrow. Took me back to my earliest years in nursing when so many young gay physicians I worked with were fighting so hard on behalf of all these bright and talented and beautiful young men and trying to save their lives from the literal plague of a disease that ravaged their bodies and stole their souls. Resurrected my memories of those I cared for and helped to cross over with dignity. Beautifully done memoir and account of the times when acceptance of them was hard to come by amid so much fear and distaste related to lifestyle. Godspeed to each of them.
April 10, 2022
This book was a hard read, but a must read for me. This was the completiong of a trilogy, so to speak, in the book club, dealing with the AIDs crisis in America. This was difficuly because this book covered the same time period of the AIDs crisis that I became aware of what was going on, and launching myself into the fray on many fronts. In many ways, I feel I dealt with the crisis betteer than the author did, but the book was real and so are all the emotions expereinced by the autor and me. For those interested in this period of time in America, when our president at the time did not give a shit, it's an essential read.
April 15, 2024
I liked this a lot. I'm of the same generation as the young patient at the end of the book, so I don't remember a time before HIV or even a time before effective AIDS treatments, but stories like this are so important for younger LGBTQ people who sometimes take it for granted that we can expect dignified treatment in healthcare. It was a big-picture look at the early AIDS years as well as a deeply personal on-the-ground memoir, and I also really appreciated the perspective of someone who was "a nerd" and "not an activist" but was still so important in the grand scheme of things.
April 22, 2024
“I didn’t cry - I usually don’t in such circumstances. It’s not that I didn’t feel sad; I felt terribly sad that Stan - my friend, my patient, and my mentor - was dead. But crying isn’t my go to emotion when crying is the expected response, especially in public. It makes me feel like a cold person, but I’m not. I can cry. I cry during an emotionally charged movie or while reading a good novel with characters the author has magically made me care about, but only when I’m in shrouded in darkness or alone, unwitnessed.”
May 31, 2024
I purchased this book in a Barnes and Nobles in the Chicago area in Spring of 2023. I have just gotten around to finishing it up, and I found this to be one of my favorite biographies. Ross A. Slotten accounts his journey through the AIDS Crisis as a doctor for AIDS patients. It’s an eye opening account of how the AIDS epidemic really went down through a healthcare professional’s lens. Amazing all around.
September 21, 2025
Informative as well as heartbreaking
If HIV has touched your life within your friend or family this book is worth your time. In the pages you will find you are not alone. You will experience the pain of others who have faced this terrible illness that has taken millions of lives. But it will also be thought provoking and supply you with important information and some hope for the future.
If HIV has touched your life within your friend or family this book is worth your time. In the pages you will find you are not alone. You will experience the pain of others who have faced this terrible illness that has taken millions of lives. But it will also be thought provoking and supply you with important information and some hope for the future.
January 2, 2021
A very necessary read for any member of the queer community, especially young gay men with no memory of the AIDS Crisis. Dr. Slotten puts unimaginable tragedy into words and reveals the heart-wrenching reality that many around the world still face. I teared up, laughed, and overall feel lucky to have an insightful look into a dark period in history from a unique perspective.
February 11, 2021
This is not a pleasurable read, as one could guess from the title, but it’s an important story, and Dr Slotten’s memoir of being on the front line of the battle against the AIDS epidemic is told with skill, empathy and surprising candor. As a longtime patient of the author, I’m surprised he found the time to write this revealing memoir of his life as a gay doctor treating AIDS at the onset and peak of the epidemic
January 19, 2025
Overall, l did like this book. It was a very real book about a doctor who was on the frontline of the epidemic in the 80s and into the 90s. The book ends interestingly in the fact that another young man was sick in the modern age with a very preventable disease. However, I’m never a fan of politics or hating on heterosexuals.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2020
Outstanding on many levels. A wrenching account of being on the frontlines when AIDS was a matter of hopelessness. But also a fascinating memoir of the author’s life as a gay man in a period of drastic transition. And of course the story of HIV ultimately becomes one of cautious hope.
January 3, 2021
Excellent, compassionate, engaging. We owe much to Dr. Slotten and those who endured the AIDS crisis to bring us better care.
Well worth the read.
Well worth the read.
September 4, 2023
A really interesting memoir from a primary care doctor who became a frontline worker caring for his patients during the AIDS epidemic.
April 14, 2024
Such an honest book.
July 12, 2025
Omg, omg, don’t skip this thoughtful, anguished memoir of a tragic time in our history.
March 6, 2021
I read this because it took place in Chicago during the AIDS crisis.
I found it awkward at times and that parts of it dragged a lot. I think if I didn’t live in Chicago and know where the specific places he referred to were, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it quite as much.
I found it awkward at times and that parts of it dragged a lot. I think if I didn’t live in Chicago and know where the specific places he referred to were, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it quite as much.
October 20, 2020
Heartfelt and honest
Dr Slotten may occasionally wonder whether he is emotionally cold, but given his work over the past 30+ years, I'm pretty sure he's anything but.
Plague Years catalogues the AIDS epidemic through the eyes of a gay physician. Dr S recalls attitudes and events surrounding the disease with consummate skill, but it is the portraits of his patients that really shine out. As the stories unfold, we understand the terror and dread that accompanied these poor individuals.
To have a life ending diagnosis (as it overwhelmingly was at the time) would be horror enough, but when it came with the prejudice and cruelty that AIDS engendered, the difficulty of just living must have been enormous.
At several points in the book, I found myself wondering how doctors like Dr Slotten were able to carry on practicing during the 1980's and 90's when the prognosis of so many patients was so bleak. That he and others like him did continue is truly remarkable and testament to the best of humanity.
Dr Slotten may occasionally wonder whether he is emotionally cold, but given his work over the past 30+ years, I'm pretty sure he's anything but.
Plague Years catalogues the AIDS epidemic through the eyes of a gay physician. Dr S recalls attitudes and events surrounding the disease with consummate skill, but it is the portraits of his patients that really shine out. As the stories unfold, we understand the terror and dread that accompanied these poor individuals.
To have a life ending diagnosis (as it overwhelmingly was at the time) would be horror enough, but when it came with the prejudice and cruelty that AIDS engendered, the difficulty of just living must have been enormous.
At several points in the book, I found myself wondering how doctors like Dr Slotten were able to carry on practicing during the 1980's and 90's when the prognosis of so many patients was so bleak. That he and others like him did continue is truly remarkable and testament to the best of humanity.
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