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Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read'

Str8MeatBlog

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What do you think of this list just published in this anthology by Alyson books?
I would say The Farewell Symphony by Edmund White deserves to be there too.

edited and introduced by Richard Canning
http://www.alyson.com/

I SAMUEL and II SAMUEL - after 960 BC
reviewer Aaron Hamburger

GILGAMESH - between 668 and 627 BC
reviewer David McConnell

POEMS - c.600 BC - Sappho
Maureen Duffy

THE SYMPOSIUM - c.384 BC - Plato
Shaun Levin

LETTERS - 1798 and later - Horace Walpole
Duncan Fallowell

MOBY DICK - 1851 - Herman Melville
Vestal McIntyre

LEAVES OF GRASS - 1855 and later - Walt Whitman
Philip Clark

A SEASON IN HELL - 1873 - Arthur Rimbaud
Kevin Killian

THE BOSTONIANS - 1886 - Henry James
Regina Marler

A SHROPSHIRE LAD - 1896 - A. E. Houseman
Mark Merlis

DE PROFUNDIS - 1895-97; published 1905 and 1962 - Oscar Wilde
Fenton Johnson

CLAUDINE AT SCHOOL - 1900 - Colette
Alison Smith

DEATH IN VENICE - 1912 - Thomas Mann
Christopher Bram

THE FLOWER BENEATH THE FOOT - 1923 - Ronald Firbank
Brian Bouldrey

MRS. DALLOWAY - 1925 - Virginia Woolf
Jane DeLynn

TIME REGAINED - 1927 - Marcel Proust
Felice Picano

MORE WOMEN THAN MEN - 1933 - Ivy Compton-Burnett
Lisa Cohen

POEMS - 1935 and later - Constantine Cavafy
David Plante

NIGHTWOOD - 1936 - Djuna Barnes
Eric Karl Anderson

THE LETTERS OF VITA SACKVILLE-WEST TO VIRGINIA WOOLF - 1922-41; 1985
Vita Sackville-West, reviewer Carol Anshaw

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED - 1945 - Evelyn Waugh
Bob Smith

MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN - 1951 - Marguerite Yourcenar
Edmund White

CAROL The Price of Salt - 1952 - Patricia Highsmith
Stella Duffy

IN THE MAKING - 1952 - G. F. Green
Peter Parker

FORBIDDEN COLORS - 1953 - Yukio Mishima
Randall Kenan

HOWL AND OTHER POEMS - 1956 - Allen Ginsberg
David Bergman

GIOVANNI'S ROOM - 1956 - James Baldwin
Douglas A. Martin

FIRST LOVE AND OTHER SORROWS: STORIES - 1958 - Harold Brodkey
Noel Alumit

A TASTE OF HONEY - 1958 - Shelagh Delaney
John Weir

A SINGLE MAN - 1964 - Christopher Isherwood
Patrick Ryan

PARADISO - 1966 - Jose Lezama Lima
Richard Reitsma

EUSTACE CHISHOLM AND THE WORKS - 1967 - James Purdy
Jonathan Franzen

MY FATHER AND MYSELF - 1968 - J. R. Ackerley
Andrew Holleran

BETRAYED BY RITA HAYWORTH - 1968 - Manuel Puig
R. Zamora Linmark

THE WILD BOYS: A BOOK OF THE DEAD - 1971 - William Burroughs
Kathy Acker

THE PERSIAN BOY - 1972 - Mary Renault
Jim Grimsley

TOO MUCH FLESH AND JABEZ - 1977 - Coleman Dowell
Bradley Craft

DANCER FROM THE DANCE - 1978 - Andrew Holleran
Matias Viegener

THE CANCER JOURNALS - 1980 - Audre Lorde
Tania Katan

THE COLOR PURPLE - 1982 - Alice Walker
Mark Behr

A BOY'S OWN STORY - 1983 - Edmund White
Robert Gluck

ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT - 1985 - Jeanette Winterson
V. G. Lee

TO THE FRIEND WHO DID NOT SAVE MY LIFE - 1990 - Herve Guibert
Alistair McCartney

THE TERRIBLE GIRLS - 1990 - Rebecca Brown
Carol Guess

THE MAN WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOON - 1991 - Tom Spanbauer
Larry Duplechan

TAKE ME TO PARIS, JOHNNY - 1993 - John Foster
Rob Beeston

PALIMPSEST - 1995 - Gore Vidal
Paul Reidinger

ALLAN STEIN - 1999 - Matthew Stadler
Blair Mastbaum

GHOST DANCE - 2004 - Douglas Wright
Richard Canning

BURNING DREAMS - 2006 - Susan Smith
J. D. Glass
 
I have only heard of two of those books and the one that I read took me over two years to force myself to read.


I am sure there are some better works.
 
why is Moby Dick a gay/lesbian novel?

Its been years since I read it and I couldn't stand it, but I believe two of the men were really close friends. Not gay, but for the time maybe that was their way of saying they were.
 
Its been years since I read it and I couldn't stand it, but I believe two of the men were really close friends. Not gay, but for the time maybe that was their way of saying they were.

oh...hmm...I've never read...but that feels like it's a stretch...haha
 
A pretty interesting list.

I'm sure that many of us have read books which we think should be added to the list.

I think I'd add two right off the bat. Marie Renault's Fire From Heaven, which was her first book about Alexander c. 1976 and Quatrefoil by James Barr c. 1965.

It would be nice to hear what you would add.

Roger
 
Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story about Growing Up Gay by Aaron Fricke

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Rock-Lobster-Growing-AlyCat/dp/1555836070"]Amazon.com: Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story about Growing Up Gay (An AlyCat Title) (9781555836078): Aaron Fricke: Books[/ame]
 
Belgian writer Herman Brusselmans described reading MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN as "like taking a bite of sand". I read the novel and I think the description is appropriate.


Well it's definitely not a fast-paced action sort of history-novel of the Robet Harris type, that's for sure... Yourcenar's writing often tends a bit much towards the meditative and reflective, and the novel presupposes quite some knowledge or at least interest in Roman antiquity (both the life-style as well as in some of the monuments described).
So even though it was a rather slow read I liked the book very much. Mostly for the excellently drawn-out reflections on some of the great monuments of Hadrian's time, and the second half of the book which touches upon the relationship between the emperor and Antinous was at times quite touching. Even if one supposes Hadrian went a bit mad after his lover's death.
 
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