F R A G M E N T S by Jim Petosa

Description

F R A G M E N T S
by Jim Petosa
Paperback | ISBN: 1968919376

Heartbreaking, intimate, and deeply human, F R A G M E N T S is a powerful memoir and theatrical work chronicling love, loss, survival, and memory during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

Originally developed as a one-man performance and premiered on World AIDS Day 2025 at the Becket Arts Center in Massachusetts, Jim Petosa’s deeply personal work now arrives in book form, preserving a story shaped by grief, resilience, and the urgent need to remember.

Structured as a series of vivid “fragments,” the memoir recounts Petosa’s life with his partner between 1985 and 1990 as they navigate the devastating realities of the AIDS pandemic. Rather than presenting a linear historical account, the book embraces the emotional architecture of memory itself: moments, conversations, sensations, and details that remain permanently etched into the mind long after time has passed.

Each fragment captures both the brutality and tenderness of an era defined by uncertainty, fear, activism, and extraordinary acts of love. Alongside profound grief, the memoir also finds room for humor, absurdity, intimacy, and fleeting moments of joy that persisted even in the darkest circumstances.

Petosa writes with emotional clarity and theatrical precision, creating a deeply immersive portrait of shared life during one of the most devastating public health crises in LGBTQ+ history. His reflections also speak to broader universal experiences of caregiving, mourning, survival, and the complicated responsibility carried by those who remain behind to tell the story.

More than a memoir, F R A G M E N T S serves as both personal testimony and cultural preservation, contributing to the ongoing body of literature and performance born from the AIDS epidemic. It stands as a reminder that memory itself can become an act of resistance against erasure.

Poignant, compassionate, and beautifully reflective, F R A G M E N T S is essential reading for those interested in LGBTQ+ history, AIDS-era memoirs, queer theater, and stories of enduring love in the face of unimaginable loss.