Monette has his characters negotiate family relations, societal expectations, and personal desires in light of their decisions to lead lives as openly gay men. His early novels generally begin where most coming-out novels end his protagonists have already come to terms with their sexuality long before the novels' projected time frames. In his fiction, Monette unabashedly depicts gay men who strive to fashion personal identities that lead them to love, friendship, and self-fulfillment. He himself died of AIDS-related complications in 1995. He went on to write two important novels about AIDS, Afterlife (1990) and Halfway Home (1991). history, Monette's high-visibility profile was one of his most significant achievements. Since very few out gay men have had the opportunity to address national issues in mainstream venues at any previous time in U.S. Along with fellow writer Larry Kramer, he emerged as one of the most familiar and outspoken AIDS activists of our time. Their publication catapulted Monette into the national arena as a spokesperson for AIDS. These works are two of the most powerful accounts written about AIDS thus far. After Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote extensively about the years of their battles with AIDS (Borrowed Time, 1988) and how he himself coped with losing a lover to AIDS (Love Alone, 1988). Monette's life changed dramatically when Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1980s. He also wrote several novelizations of films. These novels were enormously successful and established his career as a writer of popular fiction. Monette published four novels between 19. Once in Hollywood, Monette wrote a number of screenplays that, though never produced, provided him the means to be a writer. In 1977, Monette and Horwitz moved to Los Angeles. Also during his late twenties, he grew disillusioned with poetry and shifted his interest to the novel, not to return to poetry until the 1980s. For eight years, he wrote poetry exclusively.Īfter coming out in his late twenties, he met Roger Horwitz, who was to be his lover for over twenty years. He began his prolific writing career soon after graduating from Yale. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945.

In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS. Online Guide to Paul Monette's papers at UCLA:

Borrowed Time by Paul Monette