My Government Means to Kill Me

English language

Published July 23, 2022 by Flatiron Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-83352-5

(1 review)

A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s New York City, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air.

Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl “Trey” Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and …

A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s New York City, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air.

Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl “Trey” Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.

3 editions

Leaving_Marx reviewed My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

This was a love hate read

3 stars

I really liked this book when it started out. A historical fiction looking at new York during the aids crisis from the perspective of a young gay black kids. It had a ney York specific star studded cast with significant enemies and hero's of the gay and civil rights movements and Republicans represented. I loved the world building and the significant cruising spots, bath houses and gay/fetish clubs name dropped in it.

But there was so many downsides I often encounter with literature from a pretty left of center perspective on grassroots politics. There was icon and quotable lines, and a strong beginning third of the book but as they tried to represent struggle, non violence, political struggle and the gay agenda it really fell apart for me and had me almost hate reading until the end.

I wish I could rate this a 4 star and a 1 star …

I really liked this book when it started out. A historical fiction looking at new York during the aids crisis from the perspective of a young gay black kids. It had a ney York specific star studded cast with significant enemies and hero's of the gay and civil rights movements and Republicans represented. I loved the world building and the significant cruising spots, bath houses and gay/fetish clubs name dropped in it.

But there was so many downsides I often encounter with literature from a pretty left of center perspective on grassroots politics. There was icon and quotable lines, and a strong beginning third of the book but as they tried to represent struggle, non violence, political struggle and the gay agenda it really fell apart for me and had me almost hate reading until the end.

I wish I could rate this a 4 star and a 1 star at the same time because I felt like so conflicted about the book as a whole piece in the end.