Don't Kill Anyone, I Love You

This rather sordid tale of AIDS, Ecstasy, bisexual promiscuity, hypocrisy, bureaucracy, and betrayal should help change the American image of Slovenia as a primitive backwater, but it could hardly be what the Llujubljana Chamber of Commerce had in mind. Slovenia is portrayed as a post-Communist, post-punk cultural mosh pit searching uneasily for its sexual, political, and moral identity. A fading cabaret queen subjects herself to countless indignities and insecurities for one-night stands, a deeply closeted bureaucrat tries to "convert" gays, a scientist at the Institute fails to conceive a child with her bisexual lover, and most everyone seems to be risking his or her life through unprotected sex and drugs. As one doomed but perceptive character observes, "I work for an Institute that cures faggots, I'm sleeping with the director of the Institute and I'm selling drugs for you. What's the sense in that?" Polajnar may become something of a Baltic Irvine Welsh, and Don't Kill Anyone, I Love You could find a niche audience, especially among younger gay and bisexual readers. Recommended for larger academic and public libraries and essential for gay studies collections. Jim Dwyer, California State Univ., Chico Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.