SOURCE: "Front Line vs. Flapdoodle," in The New Leader, Vol. LXXVI, No. 1, 11 January 1993, pp. 20-1.

In the assessment below, Kanfer characterizes Ned Weeks in The Destiny of Me as "an authentically tragic figure. "

There are two Larry Kramers. One is the quiet, intense author of fiction, plays and film scenarios, including a memorable adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence novel Women in Love. The other Larry Kramer is the founder of the organization called ACT-UP. Its shock troops personify the noisome In-Your-Face style—bursting into St. Patrick's Cathedral in the middle of a mass, blocking out the scheduling signs at Grand Central Station, shouting down politicians and doctors, all in the name of AIDS activism. They have raised the consciousness of hundreds—and turned off thousands more.

The author admits that a good many of his followers are now "'problem kids' I often no longer recognize, often don't...