Chapter 1 Summary

Paul Monette feels as if his childhood is completely different from that of any straight man. While the straight children lead their lives with all the expected milestones, he feels as if nothing of importance ever happened to him and nothing ever would. He accepts this life without question until age 25. While in the closet, he lives off of his own self-pity and others in his situation do the same. Slowly dying, at the age of 46, he finally sees that people's lives don't align in the details, as he had previously thought, but at the core. He finds himself surrounded by death from AIDS, having buried yet another lover, Stephen Kolzak. In series of World War II references, Monette uses the plight of the Jews in concentration camps as an analogy to the plight of gays. He wonders why the straight world hates...