Talk Softly

“Offers an almost microscopic look at a group of people suffering from the virus as well as those around them … Talk Softly is and will remain a captivating story of both forfeiture and triumph.” –Micah McCary, Bookslut


“Talk Softly is the story of how compassion can take over a life … One cannot read this book without wanting, in the most gentle way, to do better, live better, and be better. Her story has stayed very much with me, a fine spirit to have around.” –Susan Minot


“Talk Softly is a beautifully written memoir of a ‘noisy life,’ intricately structured, heartbreaking as well as joyous, and tense as a thriller. With its wide cast of characters—from cultural icons to the even more wondrous portraits of Archie and Brazilian John and Pamela and many others (people seldom, if ever, written about)—it is a deeply moving portrait of our time. I keep thinking that this is what civilization means.” –Michael Ondaatje


“Cynthia O’Neal has written an amazing memoir. On one level it’s about her bittersweet marriage to the charismatic actor Patrick O’Neal. On another its how beautiful, gallant Cynthia went from being an enabler to a truly exceptional healer at Friends In Deed, the AIDS crisis center in New York … This is a book about kindness, compassion and patience. As Cynthia says, ‘Were all here just doing the best we can with the predicament that is life.’” –Patricia Bosworth


“This utterly winning book seems to sweep up the most devastating years of the AIDS epidemic and simply hold them, as if Cynthia O’Neals embrace is so capacious that she can somehow contain the suffering of every man and woman during those murderous times, the terrible erasures and also the unforgettable instances of courage and tenderness and loyalty. Nothing has escaped her gaze, and nothing seems outside her enormous, indelible compassion.” –Mark Doty