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The Last Lovers on Earth: Stories from Dark Times

This book is part ofApocalypse Then and Now: Collected Works 1980-2020,which contains ten of Charles Ortleb's books.This first collection of short stories by Charles Ortleb captures gay life and gay culture at the end of the twentieth century with a unique, irreverent kind of humor and satire that has never been seen before. Three of the stories were the basis for the provocative film, "The Last Lovers on Earth" which is available on DVD and can be watched online. John Lauritsen praised the collection: "Beautifully written, wildly imaginative fables, which puncture a great many sacred balloons, gay and straight. AIDS activists, government 'scientists', doctors, suburban Parents of Gays, 'Queer Theorists' -- all get their comeuppance. I could only read this book a few paragraphs at a time -- gasping, laughing, and then thinking. And after reflection, some of Ortleb's most shocking and outrageous statements emerged as expressions of common sense and decency in a world going viciously mad." The writer, who has been a poet, a lyricist, a journalist and a publisher, has been compared to George Orwell because of his keen sensitivity to dangerous totalitarian undercurrents of AIDS policies that the gay community refused to recognize. Anyone trying to understand what it was like to be living in a confused and terrified gay community from 1980-2000, should read these stunning nine stories.Read more

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