Hidden: Reflections on Gay Life, AIDS, and Spiritual Desire
"Encountering Richard Giannone's writing through his academic studies of Willa Cather and Flannery O'Connor, I was impressed by his skill, sensitivity, and thoughtfulness. Even so, I was unprepared for the power of this book, this very personal memoir. The vulnerability and rawness of emotion revealed here were unexpected. ...A brave, haunting, work."-A. G. Mojtabai, author of Blessèd Assurance"Richard Giannone has authored the latest classic in the revered genre of spirituality--a genre that has produced Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain, Dorothy Day's Long Loneliness, and Richard Rodriguez's Days of Obligation. This is a must-read for anyone interested in lived religion in America."-Mark Massa, S.J., Boston College"[Giannone] emphasizes otherwise indiscernible patterns of grace, thereby sieving the essence of Catholicism from the dogma to redeem the gay community's place in the Church."-Publishers Weekly"...This is a work that resists easy or tidy conclusion. While caring for ailing female relations, Giannone rediscovered a spirituality inspired in part by the desert fathers and mothers of the third century and in part by his scholarly work on Flannery O'Connor.... His work captures two important historical points: the impact of AIDS on gay life and the experience of baby boomers as caregivers....His memoir will be of interest to social historians and many gay and lesbian readers."-Library Journal"The second book has a wider appeal, of course, for it relates a common situation that many people face--caring for a sick family member, and some of the existential crises and vistas that such a task produces."-National Catholic Reporter"It is these kind of glimpses into gay life (among other things) that make it hard for many Christians today to imagine that there could be anything wrong with being gay."-First Thoughts: A First Things Blog". . . [A] thoughtful and gracefully written book."-The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide"... even as Hidden brings [Giannone's] life out of the shadows, it always looks to the mystery--in love and beyond death--that attracts and eludes the eye."-Flannery O'Connor Review