This was an astounding work on an astounding life and talent. So much detail, elaborate research and retelling, painstaking work to construct a life in words. You will feel angry and astonished and exhilarated, you will feel completely inadequate creatively. It is a fantastic history of an artist and of a time and of a subculture, it is a snapshot into a New York City that no longer exists. It is a story of AIDS and AIDS activism and a country that turned its back on a group of people, and could have stood alone as a book. The NEA saga could also be its own book. You will learn. Even if you think you know Wojnarowicz, you will learn.

It is also a memorial. It was painful to read of AIDS related death after AIDS related death but I appreciated the memorializing that took place for each person lost.

Warning, this is a very long book. I put it on my Kindle without checking page count and then realized once engrossed that I was barely 1/4 of the way there. And it seemed impossible to read anything else while in the middle of it.

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David Wojnarowicz has been one of my favorite artists since I first discovered him in the early 1980's. He is remembered most for his controversial works and the conservative backlash against them. He was a gay man and much of his subject matter considered his sexuality and the AIDS crisis. He was a street kid for a period of time and wrote a comic about that time period that I adore, 7 Miles a Second (I just saw that it's being re-released by Fantagraphics this February). His work is deeply personal and done in many mediums. He was a prolific writer, as well, and published a number of semi-autobiographical works. I admire his body of work, his courage, and the journey of his life. He died of AIDS in 1992 - a sad loss - but his works remain controversial everywhere they are exhibited. Fire in the Belly is a very good, very detailed biography of Mr. Wojnarowicz diligently researched and well-written. A no-holds barred read, this is highly recommended. ( )