Nicole Itano

Like "28: Stories of AIDS in Africa", "No Place Left to Bury the Dead", attempts to tell the story of HIV/AIDS by providing snapshots of people's lives. The book is divided into three separate parts, Denial, Despair and Hope, and follows three different families, in three different southern African countries, Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana." No Place" tells the story of the individuals, while giving facts and figures to create a brief history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The book is often vivid and sad, and certainly gives a somewhat human face to the horrible problem. She also raises some interesting questions about the funding and mismanagement of the billions of dollars flowing into the continent, and sheds some light on theory that the stigma of death keeps people from discussing HIV/AIDS and getting tested.

Although I thought the story was relatively interesting, I did have some issues with the book. Firstly, I couldn't help feel that this book has already been published, albeit in a better version. 28 Stories discusses the stories of people affected with HIV/AIDS and gives facts and figures on the topic, but does it in a more complete manner. Nolan’s book covers the continent and gives a longer, more descriptive history, which helps give more authority to her book. While Itano's book only covers the southern most portion of the continent and tells the story of only three women, who have very similar stories, their main difference being where they were born and where they lived.

Secondly, I took some issue with Itano’s inability to keep her self out of the story. Often times, she borrowed the people money and gave them gifts. Although I understand the issue of taking someone’s tragic story and giving them nothing in return (Itano actually discusses this issue in the book), it rubbed me as if she was patting herself on her back for assisting these people. -- I know I sound jaded, but I wonder if the book would have lost anything if she simply would have left these facts out. At the very least the book lost its journalist edge, and felt more like a memoir every time she disclosed her sharing.… (meer)