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Sir Elton's look at AIDS a sorry effort

Reviewed by: Anne Katz

Posted: 07/21/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Elton John should stick to pop ballads. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Book review

Love Is the Cure

On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS

By Elton John
Little Brown, 219 pages, $30

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Love is the cure for AIDS? This could be the title of a terrible country and western song, and this memoir by Sir Elton John is almost as bad.

In 10 chapters the veteran British pop star covers his perspective on the global HIV/AIDS crisis, starting with the story of Ryan White, a teenager with hemophilia who was infected with HIV in the 1980s.

John befriends him, takes him on trips and to concerts, and rushes to his bedside when he is dying. This precipitates both a personal crisis with cocaine and alcohol, not to mention bulimia and a healthy dose of self-loathing and pity.

John continues with diatribes against governments of numerous countries (Canada never gets a mention, even though his partner, David Furnish, hails from Toronto), the Catholic Church and the pharmaceutical industry.

While this may be well-deserved, what mostly comes across is the self-serving thread about the Elton John AIDS Foundation and all the money it has raised, sprinkled with nods to the odd celebrity (Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana) who helped the cause.

This sorry effort stands in stark contrast to the many excellent books written over the past 20 years about the HIV epidemic.

Dominique Lapierre's Beyond Love (1990) and Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On (1987) tell the story of the epidemic with accuracy and passion.

Elinor Burkett examines the role of government, scientists, activists and celebrities in The Gravest Show on Earth (1996). And on an intensely personal level, Michael Callen describes his journey with the disease in Surviving AIDS (1990), the title of which was his hope, as he died in 1993.

And for care givers, Charles Garfield's Sometimes My Heart Goes Numb (1995) tells the stories of the men and women who bore witness to the losses of the epidemic in a collection of stories from the front lines.

While John takes pains to point out the effects of stigma, shame, misinformation and blatant lies on the lives of those living and dying in this epidemic, his message is both simplistic and sensationalistic.

The most egregious chapter is the last, when John posits that love is the only cure for AIDS.

He suggests that compassion, empathy, commitment and love will ensure that everyone who needs medication will get it, and in this way a cure is possible. Oh, yes, money is important too (an additional $5 billion to $7 billion per year to the existing global expenditure), but we also need understanding, dialogue and education.

Anyone with common sense knows that it is not that simple. Those of us who have lost friends and family members to this disease know all too well that love is never enough, for if it were so, our friends and family would still be here.

Sir Elton should perhaps stick to things he knows -- pop ballads and piano playing -- and leave the cure for AIDS to scientists and health-care professionals.

Anne Katz is a Winnipeg nurse, educator and author of several books about cancer and sexuality.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 21, 2012 J8

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