The Gifts of the Body is a series of short stories written by Rebecca Brown

Rebecca Brown (author)

Rebecca Brown is an American lesbian author whose work has contributed significantly to contemporary gay and lesbian literature.-Biography:Brown is from Seattle, was the first writer in residence at Richard Hugo House, co-founder of the Jack Straw Writers Program and now serves as the creative...

 published by HarperCollins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. It is narrated by a caregiver

Caregiver

Caregiver may refer to:* Caregiver or carer - an unpaid person who cares for someone requiring support due to a disability, frailty, mental health problem, learning disability or old age...

 for various patients with AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

. Each of the chapters could be viewed by themselves, but can also be connected to create one story. They are each an illness narrative in themselves because they describe the physical and emotional trauma experienced by both the patients and the caregiver.

Plot summary

The book is divided into ten short stories, the titles associated with "gifts" which are various functions of the body, both physical and emotional. These gifts are (in order of the stories) sweat, wholeness, tears, skin, hunger, mobility, death, speech, sight, hope, and mourning. Each of these "gifts" are experienced by the caregiver. The caregiver deals with various patients who have AIDS, showing the different relationships that they share, whether they be good or bad. The patients themselves are different from one another in terms of age, financial situation, attitude towards the illness, etc., showing the reader that this disease can/does affect all types of people.

The Caregiver

The gender of the caregiver is unknown, although it is hinted that it is a young adult because he/she is still attending school. The caregiver works for Urban Community Services, also known as UCS, an organization that seems to be specifically geared towards patients with AIDS. As the caregiver interacts with the patients, the reader witnesses the relationships that he/she shares with them, all of them having a level of closeness to them. The caregiver is straightforward, almost blunt, in narrating the story, which allows for his/her emotions to be clear.

Rick

He is the first patient that the caregiver tells a story about. The two seem to share a routine, with the caregiver visiting every Tuesday and Thursday, bringing coffee and cinnamon rolls to share. After Rick would answer the door, always with a "Hello! Just a minute!", the two would talk before the caregiver would clean his house. So, when the caregiver comes to visit him one day and finds him curled up on the couch, not really responding, it is known that there is something wrong. He is shaking, saying he is cold, when in reality he is hot and sweaty. The caregiver holds him until he can be taken to the hospital.

Mrs. Connie Lindstrom

She is an old woman that the caregiver is new to, but comes to develop an especially close relationship with. Aside from the caregiver, she is the most recurring character because of this relationship. She tries to be independent in taking care of herself, despite her illness, as seen in The Gift of Wholeness when she insists upon making the refreshments despite being totally out of breath throughout the whole process. She shares a close relationship with her three children, especially her son Joe. In The Gift of Mourning, it is Joe and the caregiver who are constantly at her side in her last moments.

Ed

He is an older man that the caregiver has been with for awhile. He has been accepted for a room at a local hospice after being on the waiting list for a long time, but when the time comes, he is unsure of whether or not he wants to accept it. In The Gift of Tears, he ends up not accepting the room, claiming he has too much to do before he can move out. However, we find that he ends up in the hospice in The Gift of Mobility where he is respected and known as the man who turned down a room. When the caregiver comes to visit him, he seems to be adjusting well, but as the visits progress, the caregiver learns that Ed can't stand living in the hospice. He ends up leaving the hospice to go to the Y, but ends up leaving the Y the same day, leading the caregiver to not know of his whereabouts. When the caregiver asks his friends at the hospice how he seemed when he left, they simply laugh and say "vertical".

Carlos

Carlos is described to be middle age and of Hispanic descent. The caregiver's interaction with this patient is minimal until it's time to give him a bath. In the process of getting him undressed, the condom part of his catheter is exposed, much to his embarrassment, but the caregiver remains casual and calm for his sake. It is the bath that seems to calm him, the feeling of his skin being clean a soothing ritual to him.

Marty

A young adult, the caregiver first met him when visiting Carlos, since the two had been close friends for their entire lives. The caregiver does not recognize him at first, his appearance having changed drastically from essentially fat to drastically thin. The two discuss the death of Carlos and it is revealed that Marty played a part in his friend's death in the end because he hated to see him suffer through the pain, telling the caregiver that he "gave him the gift of death."

Mike

Mike is someone who the caregiver does not usually go to, but due to the usual caregiver, Roger, taking a different sub, the caregiver needed to be the sub. Throughout the visit, Mike is constantly comparing what the caregiver does to what Roger does, revealing the close nature of his and Roger's relationship, leading the caregiver to tell him that he is very important to Roger, an act that the caregiver feels makes all the difference with Mike.

Keith

Described to be the scariest looking patient thus far, the caregiver tells about the process of placing the salve

Salve

A salve is a medical ointment used to soothe the head or other body surface. A popular eye medicine known as "Phrygian powder" was one of Laodicea's sources of wealth...

on his sores, something that he/she comes to learn to do without cringing or making it embarrassing for Keith. One day, as the caregiver is placing the salve on his body, Keith tells the story behind a painting from Africa. It is revealed that he lived in Africa for some time, something that his family, especially his mom, thought was a good thing, until he contracted AIDS and had to return to the States. He is the only other patient besides Connie that the caregiver is present with at death.

Margaret

She is a supervisor of UCS and is revealed to have been with the organization for a long time. Margaret and the caregiver share a close relationship. Margaret has contracted AIDS though, calling for her to step down from her position, causing an emotional response from everyone in the organization. When the caregiver asks her if there is anything that he/she can do for her, she responds "You can hope again."

Reception

There are mixed reactions towards this series of short stories. Marilyn McEntyre described it as an informative read about caregiving due to the appreciation and respect shown for the process of giving and receiving care. However, Jennifer Blair says that there is a theme of shame in these stories that is so strong is creates an absence of the hope and expectation of success, and that it establishes its own ethic about caregiving and how it must "never inspire a measurable, retributive, or moralistic response."

External links

• Stories from around the world of people affected by HIV/AIDS- http://www.avert.org/aids-hiv-stories.htm
• Information for being a caregiver for someone with AIDS- http://www.everydayhealth.com/hiv-aids/hiv-aids-caregiving.aspx