In Alysia's teens, Steve's friends-several of whom she has befriended-fall ill as AIDS starts its rampage through their community.

The world, she learns, is hostile to difference. As a child Alysia views her father as a loving playmate who can transform the ordinary into magic, but as she gets older Alysia wants more than anything to fit in. But the pair live like nomads, moving from apartment to apartment, with a revolving cast of roommates and little structure. He takes Alysia to raucous parties, pushes her in front of the microphone at poetry readings, and introduces her to a world of artists, thinkers, and writers. Steve throws himself into San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation-few of whom are raising a child. Read an interview between Alysia Abbott and Ted Kerr, programs manager at Visual AIDS.With a new foreword After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. While such a relationship may go against what conventional wisdom suggests around who lives with HIV, FAIRYLAND paints a complex portrait of two people dealing with the virus, the father living with HIV, and the daughter learning to understand what that means.Įmail Ted at to receive the discussion guide, and find out details about where and when the book club is meeting. With '70s and '80s San Fransisco serving as backdrop, the book explores sexuality, shifting morals in America, music, gay politics, health and family relations.įor members of the Visual AIDS community, the book is especially poignant as it sheds light an a subject not often spoken about in America: the relationship between a parent living with HIV, and their children. Written by Alysia Abbott about her father, the writer Steve Abbott, FAIRYLAND is an inviting book that charts a heart warming and unique relationship between a single father and strong willed daughter during a tumultuous time in America. Visual AIDS on October 29th led a book club meeting about FAIRYLAND at the Bureau of General Services Queer Division. Have you read FAIRYLAND: A Memoir of My Father?

Do you enjoy talking about a book you have read with a group of interested and interesting people?

Fairyland a memoir of my father