Out of the Shadows, Walt Odets
Out of the Shadows, Walt Odets
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Out of the Shadows
Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives

Author: Walt Odets

Narrator: Will Damron

Unabridged: 12 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/04/2019

Synopsis

It goes without saying that even today, it's not easy to be gay in America. While young gay men often come out more readily, even those from the most progressive of backgrounds still struggle with the legacy of early-life stigma and a deficit of self-acceptance, which can fuel doubt, regret, and, at worst, self-loathing. And this is to say nothing of the ongoing trauma wrought by AIDS, which is all too often relegated to history. Drawing on his work as a clinical psychologist during and in the aftermath of the epidemic, Walt Odets reflects on what it means to survive and figure out a way to live in a new, uncompromising future, both for the men who endured the upheaval of those years and for the younger men who have come of age since then, at a time when HIV is still deeply affecting gay communities, especially among the most marginalized.

Through moving stories—of friends and patients, and his own—Odets considers how experiences early in life launch men on trajectories aimed at futures that are not authentically theirs. He writes to help reconstruct how we think about gay life by considering everything from the misleading idea of "the homosexual," to the diversity and richness of gay relationships, to the historical role of stigma and shame and the significance of youth and of aging.

About Walt Odets

Walt Odets is a clinical psychologist and a writer. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS, and has also contributed chapters to seven anthologies about the lives of gay men. He lives in Berkeley, where he has practiced psychology since 1987.

Reviews

Goodreads review by George on August 12, 2024

Not an easy read, but feels like a “must read”. It is an important book, even though the explicit audience is the US market. Grateful for the insight into the effects of being born before Stonewall, and the impact of the stages of the AIDS epidemic on those who lived with years of death and uncertai......more

Goodreads review by BookChampions on August 24, 2019

I was terribly moved by this book, and while I commend Odets for his urgent and respectful voice guiding readers through this tough look on shame, isolation, trauma, and recovery, it's the stories—one after the other—of the queer men he interviewed and counseled that make this a must read. No surpri......more

Goodreads review by Conor on February 16, 2022

This was an interesting enough book, though the premise--talking about gay men generally through the lens of individual patients the author had helped over the years--got a bit old after a while. Probably the most interesting thing it did was divide gay men into camps based on their exposure to HIV/......more

Goodreads review by Austin on May 23, 2022

This book is genuinely life changing. Reading this book was an incredible experience as over the course of a few weeks, I felt my mindset changing, and I felt more at ease the more I read this. This book is not an easy read, it can be very challenging and heavy, but it is, without a doubt, the most......more

Goodreads review by Jerry on September 29, 2019

As a straight, white, Cis, middle aged male I find myself in a very fortunate, totally unearned position in society replete with white (and other) privilege that I work to understand and try to change every day. In attempting to become more educated on the issues, I have read a lot about the racial......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List