VBT# Copper Lilies - Bradon Nave

 

 

Review: Copper Lilies - Bradon Nave - February 2016

 When I saw that Bradon Nave had a book out as part of the tour, I knew I had to read it as I had previously read two of his earlier books and I loved them as they were both powerful and emotional reads. What I didn't expect though was that after not long finishing a book where the main character's brother passed away from AIDS - the book set in 1984 , that I would in a span of less than a month pick up another one with that particular topic. Copper Lilies is set in 1986 in San Francisco , in a time where AIDS is becoming more recognised as a fatal disease and the pride life is blooming. I have to admit, that I did struggle with this particular book as in parts found it hard to connect to the characters and to me the story felt disjointed. It did however, give me a snapshot of what it was like in the mid- 1980's with the rising of AIDS and making people aware of it and also letting people know that AIDS just wasn't a disease that homosexuality was the reason as the book touches on a person with hemophilia and how his younger brother at just ten years old was diagnosed with at that time in the 1970's - GRID which stood for Gay-Related Immune Disease.  Copper Lilies tells the story of Nora who was a country girl and one day wanted to do more for this world and headed to San Francisco where she met a great group of friends at an organisation called Buddies. Buddies was created so that people who mainly had AIDS would not die alone and to show them that their were people who cared about them. As I said though I struggled personally with this book and it took me longer to read than usual , it did pull at my heartstrings and it did make me think about death and the art of dying alone as when my mum died , I was unfortunately on the other side of the world and I have wished so many times that I could have been with her in her last days , but I am glad that she did have family around her and did not die alone in hospital.