Any good gay literature out there? I have recently read Brothers Bishop which I really enjoyed except it had the most disappointing ending War Boy not my thing but it was good Hot Valley - steamy lol well sort of. My best friend lent it me because he said my very first set of notes for my novel read in a similar manner. That'll teach me to forget to dress my male character and send him bareback riding on a black stallion along a beach ---- Is there anything in the Young Adult genre? if not just good stories that are relatively clean?
Are you looking for gay/lesbian or just gay? Annie On My Mind was very good, that's about two high school girls. It's considered a classic in the genre. Brokeback Mountain I enjoyed very much. Anything by Alex Sanchez comes highly recommended. And my very favorite was a book called Sprout by Dale Peck. It was brilliantly written, hard to put down, and had a complex and interesting main character. Highly, highly recommended.
Will read anything but for my book need gay literature I only have two female characters and one is a horse
William S Burroughs's "Queer" is somewhat of a mainstay in gay literature - it is mostly about longing and unrequited gay love. It's fairly clean and a decent read.
Have ordered Queer and Sprout have question why with gay literature on amazon is a secondhand hardback book so much cheaper than a secondhand paperback? Noticed that when I went to try and get myself a copy of Brother's Bishop secondhand paperback was £80
Wikipedia gives a good (though not totally inclusive) list of LGBT themed science fiction and fantasy novels here: LGBT Speculative Fiction
I have read some of the fantasy, I may read that after I have written the book. Or can you let me know which one's you like? I have I think achieved a group of very normal people in an extraordinary world, don't really want to change that idea.
Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and Written on the Body are both really good (though I don't think the gender of the narrator is explicitly identified in the latter).
Here is also the list of the 2010 Lamba Literary Award finalists (and I think winners) in their respective catagories http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/awards-finalists/
Thanks and actually thanks for the sci fi/fantasy link, I was concerned about my religious beliefs writing this book but there is one there from a famous author who shares the same beliefs and I am sure I have read it, but can't remember lol so ordered it. After thinking it might be my least useful list turned out to be most useful
Now if you wish to know of my favorites.... The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley. M.Z. Bradley is well known in "the community" as a friend and supporter and LGBT issues feature often in many of her books, especially her Darkover novels. She is known as a science fiction and fantasy writer, but The Catch Trap is neither. It focuses on a family of trapeze artists during the late depression era and on until the late fifties. It is not one of the "new wave" of gay books that treats queer issues with a modern slant, but her work is endearing, sensitive, poignant and very well written. One of my favs from the "pink shelf."
LOL I will order that as well once I have read the three I ordered to day. It looks like my kind of book. I read Mists of Avalon as a teenager think I enjoyed it I do love that cover. So far of the one's I have read and I realised reading the lists given here have read more than I thought The Brother's Bishop favourite I loved it right up until pardon the pun its very limp wristed ending It just died in the last 3 sentences, Never been so angry and disappointed at the ending of a book. I wanted more
Ha! The Mists of Avalon. Should you ever care to read it again, pay close attention to the portion where Lancelot's affections are under discussion. Miss Bradley deftly implies that Lancelot is not after Gwenhwyfar but in fact has eyes for Arthur himself. Most people miss it because it's not really expected, but read it carefully and there is no doubt that Bradley is saying that Morgan Le Fay is not the only one who's fey.
LOL you know what that is firing synapses someplace, I think my bestfriend had this conversation with me before he came out, he spent time preparing us thing is I already knew.
I have two very big words for you: SARAH WATERS She's an amazing writer of gay/lesbian fiction, often in historical settings. I would reccomend her debut novel Tipping The Velvet in particular, but also The Night Watch Trust me, I recommend her to everyone; this woman will change your life. She's amazing.
If you want something a little...grittier...you might try Mysterious Skin, both the novel by Scott Heim and the adaptation by Gregg Araki (starring Joseph Gordon Levitt in his most impressive role to date). It makes challenging reading/viewing, but both are universally praised for their psychological realism and brutal honesty. Limp wristed they are not.
And for the exact opposite of gritty (how could I have forgotten?) there is Maurice by E.M. Forster. Forster began writing the book in 1913, but the book was published posthumously in 1971. It was given the Merchant Ivory treatment in 1987 starring a snogalicious Rupert Graves. This one: Not this one: The book, in true Forster style, deals as much with Victorian class devision as with the gayity of the protags. But if you're in the mood for some tea, scones, and some, "Air, hellair!" then this is a good read.
And if you didn't get enough Victorianly gay goodness, then there is also: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Published in 1945. (BTW, he's a he, not a she, much to my surprise!) The book treats the subject much more delicately and wraps it in collegiate garb and chummery to the point where one might miss the fact that there is a love affair in the mix. I give these examples as a way of showing how the subject has been treated across time within literature, where not only gays had to hide, but the subject itself was hidden behind words and double meanings. Much subtext has to be read to get an understanding of what is really in play. Again, this book was given the cinema treatment, once as a BBC mini series which was rather overlong and ponderous and again, somewhat recently as a movie staring sometimes cute, sometimes not Matthew Goode.
LOL thats my Mum's favourite gay couple. My brother and I have to be the only kids that had to come out and tell Mum we were straight she was so disappointed with both of us
One more and I promise I'm done! Though not a a novel, there is a film called Another Country which is an adaptation of the play of the same name by the same author, Julian Mitchell Again, we are given lots of Victorian university life backdrops which are charming in the extreme, especially to the eyes of a young American lad like myself for whom these things fall into the realms of magic as taught to me by Walt Disney in the 70's. (Late 60's and Early 70's Disney productions have everything that is intriguing, magical, and steeped in history happening in merry old England, making American children feel as if they were living in a rather cheap knockoff reality.) Anyway... Same trope. Victorian England (or almost so) + gay protag + spectacular university architecture = Wrey loves it! The movie stars a very young Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Cary Elwes. Also, though he is uncredited as an extra, the younger brother of the late Princess Diana, Charles Spencer. (You naughty boy! Your one movie is a gay movie! Tongues will wag.) Spoiler
LOL I have actually seen that one. Don't worry about posting loads its interesting to see what is available and its a nice thread I can't remember when homosexuality became illegal in the UK we had ironically a Queen on the throne because she said not to make being a lesbian illegal because women wouldn't do that. I want to say Victoria. But tale could be apcyrphal (sp??)
@Elgaisma The myth is that Queen Victoria was asked to sign into law an Act of Parliament declaring lesbianism illegal. Apparently Queen Vicky refused to do this as she would not acknowledge that any two women would act towards each other in such a way, so there was no need to pass a law banning something women would never, ever do. Unfortunately it's not true. By the reign of Queen Victoria Parliamentary sovereignty was so well established Queen Vicky could never have refused to sign an Act of Parliament. I don't know where the rumor came from, but I do know (from law school) that it isn't true.
