My Name Is Mary: A Memoir

Despite the rapid increase of HIV infection among women, most people still associate AIDS mainly with homosexuals and intravenous drug users. When Fisher (Sleep with the Angels, LJ 12/93) spoke at the 1992 Republican convention, she shattered the stereotypes. A wealthy woman active in Republican politics and mother of two children, she contracted the disease from her husband, who had a history of substance abuse. These memoirs recount her troubled childhood in a broken home with an alcoholic mother, her own battle with alcoholism, her divorce, her work in politics and art, and her transformation into an AIDS activist. Although the book is heavy on psychobabble and self-pity, Fisher is courageous as she faces the many struggles in her life. This book is not a necessary purchase, but large HIV/AIDS collections may want to consider it.
-?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The artist and AIDS activist who spoke at the 1992 Republican convention recounts her childhood in the shadow of divorce and alcoholism, her struggle with HIV, and her mission to educate the public about AIDS

Those who think of Fisher as "the Republican poster girl for AIDS" may find themselves surprised by this sensitive and frank description of her life, her weaknesses, and her disease. She is particularly insistent that she not be regarded as a heroine, and those who have praised her and her book range from President Ford to Larry Kramer.

Fisher (Sleep with the Angels) shifts gears in the middle of this autobiography, which starts as a whiny account bemoaning the divorce of her parents, her birth father's subsequent loss of interest in her, her mother's alcoholism, her own alcoholism and her two failed marriages. But the mood alters abruptly when ex-second husband Brian is diagnosed with AIDS and Fisher learns that she is HIV-positive. The shock of her death sentence transforms her into a stalwart battler for those similarly afflicted: she goes public with her illness and becomes such an activist and prominent speaker that she is invited to address the Republican national convention in 1992, where she shines. As "the Republican poster girl for AIDS," Fisher continues to be a courageous activist, and now views herself as "a pilgrim on the road to AIDS." The last few chapters especially are filled with deeply moving passages. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fisher's third book as the self-described blond, blue-eyed Republican poster girl for AIDS is the best, perhaps because it is not a compilation of speeches. Instead, in uncompromisingly honest autobiographical essays, she details her childhood as stepdaughter of an affluent, powerful Detroit industrialist. Among further details: her indulgent, pill-pushing parents encouraged cycles of medication for her repeated rounds of weight loss, nervousness, sleeplessness, and anxiety; both she and her mother suffered from alcoholism; she was the first female White House advance "man" for President Gerald Ford; and she became HIV-positive as the result of marriage to artist Brian Campbell. "If your father abandons you, your mother might get you another," she concludes. "If people discriminate against you, you may fight back. If you're an alcoholic, you might try climbing on the road to recovery. If you're lonely, you could reach out to others. If you're childless, you could adopt. If you have AIDS, you die." Untainted by self-pity or polemics, Fisher's memoirs ring unstintingly true. Whitney Scott