All The Young Men
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
All The Young Men, a gripping and triumphant tale of human compassion, is the true story of Ruth Coker Burks, a young single mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis, and becoming a pivotal activist in America’s fight against AIDS.
In 1986, 26-year old Ruth visits a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who would tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS, and is called upon to nurse them. As she forges deep friendships with the men she helps, she works tirelessly to find them housing and jobs, even searching for funeral homes willing to take their bodies – often in the middle of the night. She cooks meals for tens of people out of discarded food found in the dumpsters behind supermarkets, stores rare medications for her most urgent patients, teaches sex-ed to drag queens after hours at secret bars, and becomes a beacon of hope to an otherwise spurned group of ailing gay men on the fringes of a deeply conservative state.
Throughout the years, Ruth defies local pastors and nurses to help the men she cares for: Paul and Billy, Angel, Chip, Todd and Luke. Emboldened by the weight of their collective pain, she fervently advocates for their safety and visibility, ultimately advising Governor Bill Clinton on the national HIV-AIDS crisis.
This deeply moving and elegiac memoir honors the extraordinary life of Ruth Coker Burks and the beloved men who fought valiantly for their lives with AIDS during a most hostile and misinformed time in America.
Related to All The Young Men
Related ebooks
All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood Park: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This One Looks Like a Boy: My Gender Journey to Life as a Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cottonmouth Kisses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiary of a Drag Queen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51 Dead in Attic: After Katrina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Godmother: A Crime Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Immortality of Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Sweetbitter: by Stephanie Danler | Includes Analysis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Logical Family: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of St. Vincent's Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Evening Hour: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Women We Buried, Women We Burned: a memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beautiful Revolutionary Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hillbilly Queer: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDanny's Mom: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWatermark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonny Appleseed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After Elias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSorry to Disrupt the Peace: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Passing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solutions and Other Problems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Feeding the Soul (Because It's My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for All The Young Men
3 ratings0 reviews