Life Is Not a Rehearsal

The reader is as relieved as Brudnoy when at last, on page 73, the then-21-year-old, relentlessly randy, homosexual, Yale junior is delivered of his virginity. With awesome self-commemoration and graphic sexuality, this Boston talk-show host lets it all hang out here: his heavy use of psychedelics as a young man; alcohol abuse; ""wild sex with improper strangers,"" which on a couple of occasions turned violent when Brudnoy picked up psychotics; three-month disability and near death caused by AIDS-related ailments in 1994 (in recounting his bout with shingles, he spares us no details of his ""filthy bowel explosions""). Brudnoy was 54 years old when he suffered his first HIV attack, which finally caused him to reveal his condition. Although there was great local media frenzy, and he received 17,000 letters from his fans, Brudnoy expresses distaste at becoming an AIDS poster boy. An outspoken political conservative, he is an educated man with two masters degrees and a doctorate in history. He was born in Minneapolis, the only child of a dentist and homemaker mother, and grew up in a large community of relatives who indulged unreservedly ""this best little boy in the world."" Brudnoy does the same for himself now, which readers may find off-putting, even as they feel sorry for his medical travails. (Jan.)