Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise

A collection of essays written by Monette in '92 and '93, Last Watch of the Night chronicles his thoughts on family, spirituality and the church, health and disease, writing, and AIDS, primarily as connected to being gay in America in the 1970s and 1980s. All personal and heavily anecdotal, the essays veer between being sorrowful, angry, and celebratory, though Monette's sarcastic humor often comes through as well. While a few of the essays come off as being overly self-indulgent, most of them are both thoughtful and entertaining, well worth the time for any interested reader. It's worth noting, also, that readers needn't be familiar with Monette's other works in order to get something out of the collection--most of the references to show more his own writings are general, his primary focus being on more memoir-and-history based interests.

On the whole, the collection is well worth reading for any interested parties, though perhaps not as historically or personal telling as readers might wish. show less

Monette writes again in his autobiographical way. But this is not necessarily an autobiography. These are short stories or quips and reflections of his last days before dying of AIDS. I especially enjoyed the stories reminiscing about friends I knew in Los Angeles who had died of AIDS. However, some chapters especially the ones dealing with his activism riled me -- I'm all for activism but did not support the "cross the lines" activism of Act - UP. Skip the one dealing with his insomnia - who cares! Some of his writing his very self-absorbed and he does know how to whine so much that he appears to victimize himself and believe he loves the term "poster boy for AIDS" - don't think so - there have been many courageous people who died of show more AIDS who did not have the White benefit of Monette. show less

With Borrowed Time and Becoming a Man-the 1992 National Book Award winner for nonfiction-this collection completes Paul Monette’s autobiographical writing. Brimming with outrage yet tender, this is a “remarkable book” (Philadelphia Inquirer).