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Diary of a Lost Boy: A Novel
Bill and Susan have vowed to care for their glamorous, HIV-positive friend, Hector Diaz, but their seemingly perfect marriage threatens to fall apart and destroy the harmony of the three friends. 10,000 first printing.
183 pages, Hardcover
First published January 18, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 23, 2018
This purports to be a funny novel about AIDS.
The protagonist, Hector, whose diary we are supposed to be reading, is in a quest for detachment, and it feels like he does mostly achieve it in the end, though there is a lingering bitter aftertaste. A lot of the book is amusing, but eventually, it is hard to get away from the overwhelming truth of decay and deliquescence.
There isn't much of plot and Hector remains illusive but the distinctive voice, transcribed in bold, beautiful writing provides the central hook of the book.
The protagonist, Hector, whose diary we are supposed to be reading, is in a quest for detachment, and it feels like he does mostly achieve it in the end, though there is a lingering bitter aftertaste. A lot of the book is amusing, but eventually, it is hard to get away from the overwhelming truth of decay and deliquescence.
There isn't much of plot and Hector remains illusive but the distinctive voice, transcribed in bold, beautiful writing provides the central hook of the book.
August 14, 2012
Harry was my childhood best friend. Reading his words, I hear his voice and also glad they live on long after him.
August 20, 2011
dont really remember it to much. i know i liked it a lot. i was on a lot of medication. it cheered me up.
April 14, 2022
“I GO TO SOME PLACE THRILLING!”
Hector Diaz, the narrator of Harry Kondoleon’s novel Diary of a Lost Boy, lives in New York City. He has been diagnosed with AIDS and given two years to live. He devours the writings of Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-fourteenth century philosopher and mystic, to help himself detach from the world and prepare for his inevitable death. Epigraphs from Eckhart, such as “All creatures are pure nothingness,” appear before several chapters. A quotation from Eckhart concludes the novel.
It is not in Hector’s nature to be completely serious. Much of Diary of a Lost Boy reads like a stand-up comedy monologue. The dialogue during the two dinner parties from hell is wonderfully bitchy and witty. I laughed out loud when I read these scenes. (Kondoleon was also a playwright.) Hector’s humor can be angry and dark, as when he looks in the mirror and observes, “I see the corpse . . . My beauty went to the circus to apply for a job,” and in the chapter titled “AZT, CMV, DDI, KS, MAI, PCP, XYZ.”
Hector also tries to obtain detachment or, at least, diversion, by helping his friends Susan and Bill repair their broken marriage. Hector questions why he is so invested in the Deds. (The couple’s last name is a pun, get it?) He says, “I hope it is not the syndrome of the single gay man projecting himself into the straight couple or straight man or straight woman.” As I read this, I thought, Hector, it is the syndrome. You are wasting your time. Susan and Bill are having too much fun with their troubles. Now stop it and worry about yourself! Hector gives a credible reason for the attention he gives to Susan and Bill: “I was friends with them before I was diagnosed. I helped them find their apartment. They love me. They see after me.”
The Susan and Bill show threatens to take over the novel. I found them tedious. Did Kondoleon mean for Diary of a Lost Boy to be in part a satire on straight life? Bill, a notorious philanderer, gets his own diagnosis, testicular cancer, and loses one of his balls. It is a relief when Susan and Bill are pretty well written out of the last several chapters.
While reading this novel, something kept bugging me about the title. It finally hit me: the phrase “Lost Boy.” Yes, I thought, Peter Pan and his Lost Boys. But Hector never mentions Neverland. Hector is simply—and tragically—a lost boy.
Hector is delirious when he finally detaches from the world. His thoughts are joyful and lyrical. And there is no more Susan and Bill. Did he ever really need them? It greatly underestimates Hector’s strength and bravery to think that he did. His last words are “Please do not feel sorry for me—I go to some place thrilling!”
Harry Kondoleon was lost to AIDS in 1994 at the age of 39.
Hector Diaz, the narrator of Harry Kondoleon’s novel Diary of a Lost Boy, lives in New York City. He has been diagnosed with AIDS and given two years to live. He devours the writings of Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-fourteenth century philosopher and mystic, to help himself detach from the world and prepare for his inevitable death. Epigraphs from Eckhart, such as “All creatures are pure nothingness,” appear before several chapters. A quotation from Eckhart concludes the novel.
It is not in Hector’s nature to be completely serious. Much of Diary of a Lost Boy reads like a stand-up comedy monologue. The dialogue during the two dinner parties from hell is wonderfully bitchy and witty. I laughed out loud when I read these scenes. (Kondoleon was also a playwright.) Hector’s humor can be angry and dark, as when he looks in the mirror and observes, “I see the corpse . . . My beauty went to the circus to apply for a job,” and in the chapter titled “AZT, CMV, DDI, KS, MAI, PCP, XYZ.”
Hector also tries to obtain detachment or, at least, diversion, by helping his friends Susan and Bill repair their broken marriage. Hector questions why he is so invested in the Deds. (The couple’s last name is a pun, get it?) He says, “I hope it is not the syndrome of the single gay man projecting himself into the straight couple or straight man or straight woman.” As I read this, I thought, Hector, it is the syndrome. You are wasting your time. Susan and Bill are having too much fun with their troubles. Now stop it and worry about yourself! Hector gives a credible reason for the attention he gives to Susan and Bill: “I was friends with them before I was diagnosed. I helped them find their apartment. They love me. They see after me.”
The Susan and Bill show threatens to take over the novel. I found them tedious. Did Kondoleon mean for Diary of a Lost Boy to be in part a satire on straight life? Bill, a notorious philanderer, gets his own diagnosis, testicular cancer, and loses one of his balls. It is a relief when Susan and Bill are pretty well written out of the last several chapters.
While reading this novel, something kept bugging me about the title. It finally hit me: the phrase “Lost Boy.” Yes, I thought, Peter Pan and his Lost Boys. But Hector never mentions Neverland. Hector is simply—and tragically—a lost boy.
Hector is delirious when he finally detaches from the world. His thoughts are joyful and lyrical. And there is no more Susan and Bill. Did he ever really need them? It greatly underestimates Hector’s strength and bravery to think that he did. His last words are “Please do not feel sorry for me—I go to some place thrilling!”
Harry Kondoleon was lost to AIDS in 1994 at the age of 39.
July 6, 2017
compelling and insightful
corresponds to my feelings regarding God as a concept
you can see right through Hector and I love it.
corresponds to my feelings regarding God as a concept
you can see right through Hector and I love it.
March 10, 2017
I thought I was finally reading a funny AIDS novel, but about two-thirds of the way through I realized it wasn't funny at all, just bitter to the point of laughing about it all.
August 27, 2012
Can't believe I just got around to reading this. Deep, mordantly funny, almost unbearably moving.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews