Brad Fraser Book order (chronological)

A Canadian playwright's rise to fame unfolds amid the terrors of the AIDS era. Brad Fraser endured an impoverished and abusive childhood, living with his teenage parents in motel rooms and shacks across Alberta and Northern British Columbia. He eventually became one of Canada's most celebrated and controversial playwrights, gaining acclaim worldwide. His journey is marked by challenges stemming from his upbringing and prejudice against his queerness, as well as his combative personality and willingness to confront the establishment. Few Canadian artists have been as abrasive and polarizing as Fraser in his youth. Interwoven with his artistic development is his experience as a queer man navigating the exhilarating Gay Liberation Movement and the onset of a global health crisis. What should have been a triumphant period in his life was overshadowed by the terrifying emergence of AIDS, leading to the sickness and death of friends and lovers. This narrative captures both the evolution of an artist and a significant chapter in gay history, rarely told from a Canadian perspective. Written with Fraser's signature wit and candor, it is an unsparing, sometimes shocking, and always enthralling account.

Pièce de moeurs canadiennes-anglaises, centrée sur le comportement affectif, sexuel et social de marginaux d'Edmonston, petits bourgeois déclassés qui tournent en rond, meublent leur vacuité de sensations fortes, etc. Pas beaucoup d'intensité dramatique; psychologie des personnages peu fouillée. Bon impact médiatique. L'oeuvre a été portée à l'écran par Denys Arcand, pour des raisons qui semblent davantage tenir de la stratégie que de l'art ("jonction" entre les deux Canadas). Dans un entretien, p. 199-212, avec D. Pavlovic, le metteur en scène André Brassard déclare avoir été touché par la "peur immense qu'ont les personnages de l'amour, de l'engagement, et dans le fait qu'ils en ont un besoin épouvantable."