Here's a list of some of the best gay fiction:
The Long Firm Jake Arnott
Around the Houses Amanda Boulter
A Home at the End of the World Michael Cunningham
Crocodile Soup Julia Darling
Calendar Girl Stella Duffy
Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
Rough Music Patrick Gale
Carol Patricia Highsmith
The Line of Beauty Alan Hollingworth
Trumpet Jackie Kay
Tales of the City Armistead Maupin
At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O'Neill
The Monkey's Mask Dorothy Porter
Brokeback Mountain Annie Proulx
Desert of the Heart Jane Rule
Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai
Story of the Night Colm Tobin
Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeannette Winterson
Pretty good fiction by anyone's standards. One or two of these I've mentioned elsewhere as being particular favourites: At Swim, Two Boys, Brokeback Mountain and In The Line Of Beauty. Add to the list Middlesex and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. The rest are yet to be discovered, shall we say.
How many have you read and what did you like best?
9 comments:
I've only read Oranges are not the only fruit, plus a couple of her other books,including The Passion. Believe it or not, my company's library had Winterson in its collection! (Plus the entire Toni Morrison collection when she won the Nobel Literature Prize back in 1993). I've also seen the TV adaptation of Oranges.
I heard of Brokeback Mountain from your blog, and I've read some of Jackie Kay's work, but not this particular book.
For years, Jane Rule's Desert of the Heart was mentioned whenever lesbian fiction was talked about. It was made into a movie called Desert Heart.
I'm glad you didn't publish the list before the NaNo briefing yesterday. Or else, I would've spent some money at MPH getting some of them. Altho, I wonder if MPH has any of them on its shelves?
Now I have a list of books to find, some of which are totally new to me. Thanks Sharon!
Chet - I think MPH should have some of them at least and others you can order.
Nizam - I'm glad. I also would like to read the books on this list I haven't read yet. BTW it was nice to see you Saturday. Think you're going to do the Nanowrimo this year?
Didn't know fiction could be gay (except in a figurative sense.) What is so distinctive about gay writers anyway ? what about the bigger straight read (not responsible for any mental images !) :)
Porty - these are books with gay characters - most of them written by gay writers.
Good reads are good reads, I agree, regardless of the sexual orientation of characters or writer.
I dunno.. I think the idea of homosexuality being a distinction is strange. It's like saying "Joy Luck Club" or "Wild Swans" is a "Chinese Read". Sexual orientation is being used as a selling point. A book may be about characters but whether or not a character or author is gay shouldn't be used as a selling point. I mean, so what if a character or author is gay ? why's it such a big deal ? should there be a category in the local bookstores called "Gay fiction" ? :) oh hey, we could make so many other categories --"blind reads" (Helen Keller stories ?) um.. "deaf reads", "crippled reads", "ugly reads", "short reads".. the list goes on.
Good point Porty and in fact there is another very good article in the Guardian today which makes pretty much the same point. Enjoy!
Sharon, is there a definition of "gay literature"? Does it include all literature with a gay character in it, or by a gay author? Or does it include only literature that incorporates a gay political agenda or themes and issues of concern to gay people or focus on the experience of being gay?
The only one of the titles I have read is BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which was stunning and something I will never forget. However, I did find her depiction of homosexual love -- extremely brutal and violent -- distasteful, dated and cliched. Perhaps the rationale is that her characters were macho cowboys who could only get physical by hurting each other first?
Anyway, I wonder how they will deal with that in the movie version of BROKEBACK. Will Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal beat each other up?
Dunno that there is any one definition, 3rd Chimp. Interesting question, anyway.
Brokeback Mountain ... yes the violence surprised me too ... but there is such understated tenderness ...
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