Thanks, Frank. It's a pretty complicated story...
When one dies of AIDS, it's really of the various things the immune system can't attack, and it's fairly common for a sort of brain fungus to contribute. So yes, Bruce had a fungal infection, but his original story of getting it from eating an ancient Chinese egg has not, to my knowledge, been substantiated. Interestingly, when he was first taken to hospital with symptoms, long before he or anyone else announced anything, the doctor immediately diagnosed HIV.
A lot of reviewers make a big deal about his not having gone public about his sexuality or his HIV status, but I incline to be charitable when another person's privacy is involved, and there is also some evidence that he was protecting his parents in some way. You remember how it was in 1988--a lot of misinformation about HIV and AIDS.
Anyway, the dear friend who showed me where he'd buried Bruce's ashes, Patrick Leigh Fermor, just turned 96, and is doing very well. We read a writer like Chatwin partly through the narrative of the Byronic early death, but I can't help thinking of all the ways he might have grown and developed if he had lived. He was a remarkable talent, even if much of his work is left in some kind of unfinished state....
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