The Plague Years: A Chronicle of AIDS, the Epidemic of Our Times

This carefully researched report based on Black's award-winning Rolling Stone series on AIDS discusses the crisis and its effect on both the gay and straight communities. He reviews conflicting theories on the cause of the disease, a single virus as opposed to the conjecture attributing AIDS to numerous interrelated factors. He also explores differing moral views regarding the epidemic, held by a vocal segment to be a scourge of God condemning victims to pariah-like isolation. AIDS, Black notes, threatens gays' hard-won acceptance. While it has forced some homosexuals to come out of the closet, it has pushed others back, and the gay community is split between orgiasts and celibates. The author warns that should AIDS spread among heterosexuals, a response of fear and panic could lead to curtailment of civil liberties for gay and straight alike and the adoption of measures recalling the Nazis' treatment of Jews. Black is the author of Medicine Man, etc. (June 2)