After Woodstock: The True Story of a Belgium Movie, an Israeli Wedding, and a Manhattan Breakdown

After the Woodstock Festival in 1969, Tiber (who wrote about his involvement in organizing the event in Taking Woodstock) plunged headlong into a new life, leaving behind his career as a Manhattan interior designer to become a gay rights advocate and travel the globe. His sexual awakening, sparked by the infamous Stonewall Riots, puts him at odds with his “Old World” Jewish parents, but he found emotional renewal in the arms of Andre, an acclaimed Belgian theater director. Tiber sees Andre as a career-driven theater professional and often feels jealous of his work at Yale and Columbia and Hollywood. In Belgium, Tiber and Andre successfully collaborate on a musical comedy and a Holocaust film. Some of the key moments in the bittersweet memoir feature Tiber’s humorous, hypersensitive observations about the rigors of being openly gay in America during the turbulent gay rights era and the AIDS crisis, as well as his struggles with his overbearing mother. Tiber delivers a wonderful account of survival while wrestling with creativity, loss, tragedy, and disconnection from traditional family values. Foreword by noted film director Ang Lee. (Mar.)