Reviews on The Year of Facing Fire (2)

So much has changed

The Year of Facing Fire

I enjoyed reading this book. I felt she concentrated a lot on her situation while her brother was really going through such a dire situation. It struck me how much things have changed. Testing HIV positive was literally death sentence then (and a very hard, cruel death). Today if treatment is compliant, it is the same as any other chronic illness. Life expectancy and quality of life is good. Still strange to me that such enormous strides have been made in the treatment of HIV/AIDS but cancer research is still so far from effective treatment. The book is worth reading especially to empathise with the effect on the rest of the family

A moving and life affirming memoir

The Year of Facing Fire

South African author Helena Kriel is a Hollywood script writer whose lively, colourful and slightly eccentric family lives in Joburg. When her beloved brother Evan is diagnosed with HIV/aids she returns home to be with him in the family home on his final journey. This is not a morbid book, it is a beautifully and eloquently told story, radiating love and life. Vulnerable and real, Helena turns the family tragedy into the stuff of life. Her descriptions of Joburg, Los Angeles and India radiate sensitivity and poetry. I enjoyed this book way more than I expected.