Lazarus Rising: A Novel, Joseph Caldwell, Author
On a cold winter’s day, the life of Dempsey Coates is changed forever because of a chance meeting. On her way to her artist’s lair, she notices a group of exhausted firemen trying to get into one of the buildings in order to briefly warm up. No one is opening a door to them. They were granted a brief break from the fire fighting and they longed to sit down in a warm lobby to rest. Moved by the sight of their weary, frozen faces, Dempsey invites them in and serves them some hot coffee.
Johnny Donegan is one of the firefighters. He becomes smitten with her. Soon, they are in an active love affair. Dempsey, though, grows tired of the relationship and wants to moves on. Unfortunately, she also moves into the world of drugs. When she discovers she is pregnant, she beats the drug habit, but her pregnancy has a tragic end when she discovers that she has AIDS.
Dempsey begins the cocktail of drugs, the therapeutics that have been discovered to keep victims alive. After more than a decade passes, Dempsey and Johnny suddenly meet again. He volunteers to model for a painting she is doing. The painting is going to memorialize a friend who has died from AIDS, and she tells Johnny that she, too, has the dread disease. He doesn’t seem to mind. Totally smitten with her, he takes care of her every need and they are once again lovers. (Here, the reader who remembers the early days of AIDS, will have to suspend disbelief. Relationships were more feared than sought after, because the fear of catching AIDS was considered a death sentence).
Johnny, a devout Catholic, manages to find a priest who is willing to allow them to marry, even though the marriage cannot be properly consummated in the eyes of the Church. The Church forbade the use of condoms and forbade the marriage, but Johnny wants only to care for the woman who is the love of his life. When Dempsey’s doctor tells her some surprising, unexpected news, she descends into a somber and introspective mood. She begins to question everything, her relationship with Johnny, the idea of miracles, and the meaning of life and death. She is filled with doubt and guilt. Her doctor had asked if someone had prayed for her. Why? Although her future with Johnny is waiting, she no longer knows if that marriage will take place.
The author has captured the character’s dilemma well, from the first moment of her diagnosis, to the last when she struggles to understand the meaning of what has happened to her. After living with fear and dread, after one has prepared for the end, how does one proceed if the danger disappears? Why do some live while others die? Why do some suffer more than others. Do we understand survivor’s guilt? After preparing for the difficult task of facing death with courage, can one simply turn around and face the unpredictable future of a long life? Is one grateful or resentful?
The book puts a gentler hand on the subject of AIDS, on facing life and death, and reveals the emotional and mental strain that accompanies the decay of the body and mind from the disease. Faith in G-d and religious dogma are questioned often. Relationships are judged as the value of life is questioned. The early 90’s were still backward. Hospital rules were archaic. Same sex couples could not comfort each other because they were not related. The Church did not recognize marriages that could not be properly consummated. Certain relationships were considered unholy and abnormal, or as illnesses. Drug use became more widespread. In that time frame, were Johnny and Dempsey involved in a dance of death of which each was unaware? When you know you have limited time, do your actions take on different meaning, are some meaningless?
One of my friends faced his end with courage, but his bisexual partner faced it with denial and refused all help with experimental drugs in the event she would test positive. She refused to be tested. When Dempsey wasted the cocktail of drugs, I was disturbed. There were no therapeutics for my friend. Surely, when they were available, wasting them would be a sin.
Was this story a parody of the parable of Lazarus, the rich man vs. the poor one? Who was the rich one? Who was the poor one? Would both suffer equally? I deeply respect my friends who have faced untimely ends with courage and dignity. What should I think of Dempsey’s reaction to the gift of life which was the antithesis of her reaction to the sentence of death? After preparing for one’s death, realizing the importance of some things over others, should you feel trepidation or euphoria when given a reprieve?
In closing, I would like to say that Caldwell did an outstanding job of humanizing the suffering of the victim but also of those that were engaged with the victim. He briefly brought up politics, which I thought was unnecessary. If nothing else, in this climate of a COVID 19 pandemic, the President’s monumental effort to find therapeutics and vaccines should be appreciated by all, and the Republicans should not be denigrated by the author, since even with the effort of many Presidents and researchers combined, it took years to find therapeutics for AIDs, and although so many years have passed, the disease still has no vaccine. Raw religion is injected into the narrative and the reader must analyze why. The writing style of the author is simple and easy to follow, yet it is very eloquent and the picture painted, while dark, is illuminating. So many philosophical questions are raised by this author who is surely, at the age of 92, facing death himself. Coincidentally, he put the ending of the time frame of the book in 1992!