How to Survive a Plague

The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS

By: David France

Narrated by: Rory O'Malley

A New York Times 2016 Notable Book

The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic—from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague.

A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts.

Not since the publication of Randy Shilts’s classic And the Band Played On has a book measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.

In dramatic fashion, we witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), and the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT. We watch as these activists learn to become their own researchers, lobbyists, drug smugglers, and clinicians, establishing their own newspapers, research journals, and laboratories, and as they go on to force reform in the nation’s disease-fighting agencies.

With his unparalleled access to this community David France illuminates the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader-turned-activist, the high school dropout who found purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York, the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers’ club at the height of the epidemic, and the public relations executive fighting to save his own life for the sake of his young daughter.

Expansive yet richly detailed, this is an insider’s account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights. Powerful, heart-wrenching, and finally exhilarating, How to Survive a Plague is destined to become an essential part of the literature of AIDS.

If you're into this topic do not miss this

as someone who was already very interested in the topic oh, I could not get enough of this book. it might be overkill for anyone who is not interested in this level of detail.

Powerful

This is an amazing story. It filled in many of the bits and pieces I remembered from my youth. I love the combination of memoir, epidemiology, and history, especially about the power of activism.

Amazing story of perseverance and activism

This audiobook is an extremely compelling story especially, given that I came of age after the epidemic and for me AIDS/HIV have always been a medical condition that while scary was never a death sentence.
Hearing the stories of clothes on the front lines told in such a heartbreaking and such a humanizing way opened my eyes and sparked a new interest it also elicited tears, anger and astonishment at the profound failures of the United States government. This performance brought it all home communicating the gravity of the tragedy as well as the frustrations experience by those on the front lines. Providing a perspective on history that is glossed over or not covered at all. While at times the plethora of names, organizations and various stores was difficult to follow the overall tale of sorrow neglect pain and heroism was clear. I strongly recommend this audiobook regardless of those difficulties because of its cultural importance to a community so often marginalized and as an ode to a generation that died so that we do not have to live under the shadow of the plague in the United States gay or straight.

Must listen/read

There was very few books that I have consumed that I can say were truly life changing, but this is one of them. My perspective on many things is changed and I’m grateful to David France for having the courage to give us this history.

Comprehensive overview of AIDS crisis

After 29 hours of this book I feel like there is little more to say. Excellent history, well written, and well-read. Left wondering if so many people had to die except for somewhat uncaring politicians and drug companies and Fauci....love to read a book on him. And this book resonates after the speed with which vaccines were developed for Covid. no holdups there.

Gripping history of early AIDS epidemic & ACT UP

David France begins his history of the early years of the AIDS epidemic with the 2013 funeral of Spencer Cox, an activist with ACT UP-New York who was integral in the group's fight to get access to drug trials and drugs and get a too often indifferent government to care about the plight of people living with AIDS.

Cox had survived the death sentence of AIDS when the life-extending drug cocktail became available in 1996, only to lose contact with the friendships he'd formed in ACT UP and his sense of purpose. For some reason, he just decided to stop taking his AIDS medication.

The second chapter goes back to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981. Just like Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On, How to Survive a Plague follows the epidemic forward through key figures and events in what was at first a mystery disease. Larry Kramer, the Old Testament prophet of the epidemic, plays a large and divisive role in early activism. He's a great character and a real champion with a habit of alienating those he's needs.

Peter Staley also figures a lot. He's the baby-faced Wall Street trader who, to keep his job, stays in the closet until AIDS makes it impossible. Then activism becomes his new mission.

There are a lot of characters in this engrossing story. A lot of them die off. Because before 1996, AIDS was nearly 100 percent fatal. The epidemiology of AIDS reads like a great murder mystery. What is this disease killing young men? Why is it concentrated in the gay community? The medical community was scrambling for answers through a fog of confusion and fear.

David France also tackles the unresponsiveness of the federal government and New York's mayor Ed Koch. The evolution and work of ACT UP becomes the backbone for much of this history because it exemplifies the coalition of people living with AIDS who had to come together and act when no one else would. This book is a great follow-up to And the Band Played On because it covers a longer period of time. Shilts's published his in 1987 and a lot has happened in the HIV/AIDS fight since then, including the debunking of the Gaetan Dugas/Patient Zero myth and the drug cocktail.

The narrator does an excellent job.

Heartbreaking, incredibly informative

This has far more detail than other books I had read, and is far more heartbreaking. But it allowed me to understand far better why my closest friend, who did not survive long enough to see the creation of life-saving drugs, fell into homelessness and street drugs. It remains the greatest sorrow of my life, and I searched for him for decades until I discovered the truth.

This is no hagiography, and all of the figures are very much human, but the things that they lived with while continuing the struggle to take care of loved ones, move a recalcitrant government and industry, and earn a living make them entitled to be called “the greatest generation,” version 2.0.

This is evocatively told by Rory O’Malley, and one hopes he will continue to narrate.

Excellent!

Riveting true story of aids activism- triumphs and failures. I was totally engrossed throughout. Highly recommend.

Comprehensive and personal

France gave a deep, technical, but personable overview of the AIDS crisis. Narration was superb. Would definitely recommend.

A View of Early AIDS Rarely Seen

I read this as research for something I am writing and it pulled me in fast, keeping me enthralled with both the social and scientific aspects of the birth of the AIDS movement in the US. I was there for some of it and my experiences are spot on for the beginning parts of the book, but it blossomed demonstrating the intense anger at the lack of concern everyone but the gay community had for their lives. Reading how ACT UP and the other groups were born was fantastic history for me to learn about.

What is interesting are the parallels between COVID-19 and the AIDS pandemics, how if it isn't white healthy men being eviscerated, no one seems to give a whit about them/us.

I will read this book again after I read other books from that time. It really has added to my knowledge about that very painful time.