The Q Journal: A Treatment Diary

In this simply written, moving account, Reed (a San Francisco novelist and editor for Ten Speed/Celestial Arts) chronicles his treatment for AIDS with an experimental drug called Compound Q. Although this compound, which kills off infected cells, has been available in China for 20 years, it still awaits FDA approval here and thus is used only in official clinical trials, and, outside the trials, must be obtained ``underground.'' Reed's diary begins as he mourns the death from AIDS of his lover Tom. Reed's own condition has improved due to his use of the drug AZT, but he now ``rethinks his treatment options . . . to find some way to step back from the brink.'' While Reed often uses medical jargon without explaining it (for instance, macrophages and T-cells), he writes convincingly about how AIDS has changed his outlook. His journal reflects wisdom and courage and offers hope for the world's many AIDS sufferers. around the world. Toward the end of it, he writes, ``I will not comply to illness . . . even as friends, and Tom, have gotten sick and passed on . . . the possibility of survival, of living to see a cure, has always outweighed the gloom.'' (May)