JULIA

Many thought of her as Queen Nancy. Others as the Dragon Lady. But for millions of Americans, Nancy Reagan was the always-smiling and deeply admiring presidential spouse who stood by her man; that image lingers still in the touching picture of a bereaved widow at her husband's casket. Nancy Reagan has stirred passionate defenders and acerbic critics in many books and the media. James Benze, however, is the first biographer to discuss the effect of her acting background on her tenure as first lady. Unlike earlier biographers, he focuses on the way she applied her acting skills to meet the...

¿Y si la felicidad consistiera en despojarse de todo? Desde el momento en que supe que no podría hacer gran cosa para salvar al mundo, empecé a pensar en instalarme por un tiempo, solo, en una cabaña. Compré una isba de troncos, lejos de todo, en la orilla del lago Baikal. Allí, durante seis meses, a cinco días de marcha del pueblo más cercano, perdido en una naturaleza desmesurada, traté de ser feliz. Creo haberlo logrado. ¿Y si la libertad consistiera en adueñarse del tiempo? ¿Y si la felicidad fuera disponer de soledad, de espacio y de silencio... cosas de las que carecerán...

The author discusses his own homosexuality, his emotional and intellectual odyssey toward becoming a writer, his relationships with Reynaldo Arenas and Manuel Puig, and how they, as well as Federico García Lorca, faced homophobia, in a personal look at what it means to grow up in Latin America as a homosexual. (Social Science)

Su niñez, su intensa relación con la poetisa y cantante Patti Smith, su introducción en el mundo del arte neoyorquino, su romance con el mecenas Sam Wagstaff, su obsesión por los bajos fondos del sexo en Nueva York y su lucha antes de sucumbir al sida.