Rat Bohemia

Set in contemporary New York City, Rat Bohemia is the story of Rita Mae Weems, a woman from Queens who works as a rat exterminator for the Department of Health's Pest Control Division. As she battles the budget cuts for extermination and streetlights, her best friend, Killer, a career plant-waterer, is busy falling in love with the rakish and enigmatic Troy Ruby. And David, a writer who is HIV-positive, struggles to be truthful about the AIDS experience even as his family averts their eyes from his day-to-day efforts to stay alive. Through Rita, David, and Killer, Schulman traces the very particular and very devastating ways that gay people are abandoned by their families - a subject that has not yet found its way into the public discussion about AIDS - and the enormously creative and courageous ways in which gay men and lesbians lead their lives despite this loss.