I just finished My Fabulous Disease and I wish there was more. Mark S. King is most known for his HIV/AIDS activism – he tested positive for HIV in 1985 – but this book is about so much more. It's about being human, and it's highly accessible even if you don’t know the difference between a T-cell and a Duracell.
The book is a collection of essays written over the past 40 years taken from various publications, including his blog by the same name and his first book, A Place Like This (also excellent).
The essays, mostly memoirs, are sectioned into five parts: HIV/AIDS activism, sex, family, recovery from addiction, and homosexuality. These are not so much subjects as they are perspectives, because King presents as a whole person throughout. It’s frank, and it’s funny, and sometimes it’s visceral.
Several threads run throughout: gratitude, humility, and a keen sense of self awareness. He takes his subjects seriously, but not himself – as demonstrated in the laugh-out-loud funny “The Fabulous Wizard of Poz.”
Far from being a dull retelling of LGBTQ+ history, King frequently brings the reader into the present day, with careful attention to topics like COVID and institutional racism. He rightly expresses pride in early AIDS activism, but expressly refuses to turn the tragedy of AIDS into a morality grenade aimed at younger generations.
King is a gifted writer and an even more gifted storyteller. His voice is intimate and honest. The essays about his family are particularly poignant and sometimes heartbreaking, and boy, can he paint a picture with words. From a powerful essay about grief:
"He received my embrace but his heart had taken distant refuge. It had long been numbed by the effects of the spent cocktail glass, sitting impassive on the coffee table, occasionally clinking with the sound of shifting, melting ice."
When I review books, I always try to find something that could be improved. Here, both as a body of work and in terms of individual essays, I’ve got nothing.
My Fabulous Disease is a must read.
