The sum of these chronicles is a manifesto of survival. But they also are a portrait of a man giggling through a graveyard. There is a sense of joyful gratitude that permeates even the darkest chapters, a throughline of cheeky optimism that makes the tragedy bearable and the humor uproarious.

My Fabulous Disease divulges King's intimate triumphs and misfires along with glimpses of his Southern family coming to terms with a gay son, his harrowing drug addiction and eventual recovery, and a lifetime spent skating on the cracked ice of HIV.