George Ilsley's Reviews > Before Night Falls

Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
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it was amazing
bookshelves: gay, history, lgbtq, memoir

A powerful memoir which pulls no punches. Reminiscent of Genet or Burroughs in the combination of the beautiful and the grotesque — the elevation of degradation to the exalted.

Read this a long time ago, probably at the time of the movie version (this edition is the movie tie-in). Sunshine on naked prisoners helps to control pubic lice.

This is a book which made me wish to understand the original language, because if it reads like this in translation, what might the original words convey?
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Reading Progress

June 15, 1995 – Started Reading
June 19, 1995 – Finished Reading
August 19, 2022 – Shelved
August 19, 2022 – Shelved as: history
August 19, 2022 – Shelved as: gay
August 19, 2022 – Shelved as: memoir
August 19, 2022 – Shelved as: lgbtq

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