12

W E D N E S D A Y

Like Mark Doty’s Heaven’s Coast and Marion Winik’s First Comes Love, Fenton Johnson’s anecdotal Geography of the Heart is an autobiography-biography in memory of a lover lost to AIDS. Johnson, a San Francisco novelist, spent 1987 through 1990 with the HIV-positive Larry Rose. The resulting revelations and grief moved Johnson to discuss safe sex with his surprisingly receptive, heterosexual Kentucky nephews, and to assume the role of caring son to Rose’s parents, German Jews who spent WWII in hiding and settled in L.A. Johnson is both literary and down-to-earth enough to accept the sentimental. He even sums up a simple philosophy of life with a quote from Rose: “Love is like a ripe peach. You take it when and where you find it, there’s no point in letting it sit around.” Johnson reads today at 6 p.m. at Lambda Rising, 1625 Connecticut Ave. NW. FREE. (202) 462-6969; and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at Borders, 11301 Rockville Pike, Rockville. FREE. (301) 816-1067. (Nathalie op de Beeck)