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Suggest a good gay novel

justaguy

justaguy

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Im feeling like doing some reading and Ive decided I would like to read something involving gay characters with a good story. Any suggestions? Give a run down of the plot without giving away the ending and award it a rating out of 5.
 
A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White, publish Picador

A Catcher in the Rye type story. A tale of one young teen's sexual awakening, and the way he goes through life leaving a trail of experiences and exploits. Be warned, he does something with an adult, and you do feel it is totally inappropriate.

Rating ***** for the timelessness 1950's-60's-ness about it all.
 
I can tell you 3 not so popular Spanish titles, though I have no idea if the first two were translated into English.

Cruzando el limite by Hecheres Beltran
Yestergay by Miguel Fernandez
End of Course by Jesus Generelo
 
As a naïve, and tender hearted teen by chance..or, was it synchronicity... I selected John Rechy's, City of Night.....a precursor to my own journey...recommended for its earthiness....and willingness to explore the seedier side of life....not for the romantic personality....it's cheap, and slutty reading but for a teen beginning to come to terms with his homosexual orientation it was very helpful in providing with more than a little insight on what I would face finding my way through life.

here's a summary from the John Rechy site:

http://www.johnrechy.com/city.htm
 
As a second thought Edmund White's, Genet is also a good read...a biography on the life of Jean Genet....as a young man I was introduced to Jean Genet novels, and realized that my own journey had similarities.....especially the type of young man I was drawn too...well worth reading, and I may add that Jean Genet's life is a lesson on how best to overcome ones adversities without surrendering to fear....of failing...
 
My first foray into Jean Genet's works was Our Lady of the flowers exciting my interest for the characters would appear in my life, not too many years later...Genet’s was raised by foster parents sent to a reform school at a very early age followed by a life of crime, an unsuccessful gangster, and rent boy. With some twenty-seven convictions to his credit, Genet under French law, would have been sentenced to prison for life had not the celebrity authors, Jean Paul Sartre and Jean Cocteau intervened to obtain a pardon for him from the President of France.

Here's a paragraph from an Internet sourced review of Our Lady of the flowers

At the center of the story is a trio of characters: Darling Daintyfoot, a masculine gay pimp, Divine, his drag queen lover and Our Lady of the Flowers, a thief and murderer. There is also the book’s narrator who refers to himself as Jean, so we are perhaps to assume that the book is at least semi-autobiographical. The reader spends most of her time with two characters; first, with Jean in prison as he writes his story and comments on the things happening around him, and also with Divine as he (she) plays the part of betrayed/scorned lover. These two characters have clear similarities, including doubts about self-image and sensitivities to jealousy.
Click to expand...
 
Damn it! I was just about to suggest Out Lady of the Flowers! Oh well, its a good read so I will second it.

I will also support the Edmund White selection, but I love him a lot - read all his works if you have the time!

Running with Scissors is a good read, but again its a memoir - so not a novel really.


This thread also reminded me that I downloaded a collection of 50 gay novels considered the best by the person who uploaded them - they are in .mobi, but happy to send them over to someone if they want them or just a list of them (someone of them I don't agree with, but on the whole its fine. Everything spoken about so is in the folder).

- - - Updated - - -

Oh Trams Like Us by Joe Westmoreland is a good read
 
...It is uncanny how a series of novels read when I was 20 provided me with so much understanding of what I would face, and am facing, today when coping with rebellious young men...I am content to cope with one, at a time...for the dynamic rebel can suck the energy out of one....like you, JohnnyAnger I highly recommend Genet's works for their wisdom...with an existentialist slant that encourages one to dig beneath the surface of each of his characters.
 
If PreTTyPeTe were here, he would suggest The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren. It's an amazing and heart-wrenching story written in 1971, but it is just as relevant today.

Dedication:

Dedicated to all the athletes who have fought for human rights in sports, and to the young gay runner I met at a party, who gave me the idea for this book.
 
A quirky coming-of-age novel called My Side of the Story by Will Davis, about a typical teenager and his hijinks and shenanigans. It's mostly fairly light and comedic, but the protagonist is frustrating and sometimes hard to like, and some of the situations do leave you with quite a foul taste in your mouth.

Good read, I reckon.

-d-
 
gsdx said:
If PreTTyPeTe were here, he would suggest The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren. It's an amazing and heart-wrenching story written in 1971, but it is just as relevant today.

Dedication:

Dedicated to all the athletes who have fought for human rights in sports, and to the young gay runner I met at a party, who gave me the idea for this book.
Click to expand...

I will give it a go - I'm surprised I have not come across it before I have to say. More so as I have written a bloody thesis on the experiences of gay men in sport!
 
Origination

It's as sci-fi story very gay friendly by author R E blakesly.

Check it out, I can't wait for his next book
 
Almost all the fiction I read has gay characters. Picking out a book for people, a few variables come to mind:

~How much erotic/sexual content? (Some novels that aren't considered erotica still have a lot of sex.)

~Type of plot? I read a lot of mystery, so I can be more helpful there.

~How much focus on AIDS? Pre-1980s books obviously won't have it, but 1985-95 are likely to have it as a central theme rather than just a fact of life. The mysteries tend not to have much, if anything, about AIDS.

~Pre/post Stonewall? Earlier stories may have a lot of negativity. I just finished one set in the 1940s -- a good story, but a lot of contempt for gays in some characters.

~Some books are easier to read -- more conventional structure and writing. Most of the books I've listed here are the easier sort.
​

I tend to look for good writing, not necessarily a great plot. IMO, a good author can make most plots worthwhile. I'd make a more specific recommendation if the above factors are known.

Favorite authors - I will probably buy these without knowing anything about the story -- in random order:

Brian Mallory -- young men/coming out issues

Joseph Hansen -- mostly the David Brandsetter Mystery series, but he has a few others.

Lev Raphael -- mystery series; also deals with his home relationship

Anthony Bidulka -- mystery series

Richard Stevenson -- mystery series

Greg Herren -- mystery series (light). He also writes erotica.

Michael Thomas Ford -- less gay focus than others on my list

Larry Duplechan -- semiautobiographical series

Patricia Nell Warren -- The Front Runner and the two sequels

William J. Mann -- Where the Boys Are; others in that series. More sex in these.


Others:

Christopher Bram -- plots vary widely. Hold Tight was quite good (gay navy man set up in a brothel to help find spies -- WWII).

Fred Hunter -- mystery/adventure series - fun, with much silliness

Others that I enjoyed, but aren't more standard novels for a variety of reasons:

Peter McGehee (heavy AIDS theme; semi-autobiographical, with the second of two books being published by his estate.)

Matthew Rettenmund -- fun, can't explain now.

You can find links to the Goodreads page for these by browsing my book list
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5299691-dilo-keith?shelf=#ALL#
I haven't put in ratings or content tags for most, but you'll see whether or not I've read them -- many marked to get or to read. Click on "read" on the left to limit the list.
 
Hey guys. Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like my reading appetite will be satisfied for the next while. These sound really good :)
 
Sitting in a mall having lunch (a chicken kebab) with a copy of Chaos by Edmund White that I just got out from my local library. They only had this one and Jack Holmes and his Friend in stock. The kebab is nice, but a bit salty. I got the combo with chips and a drink.
 
Its monday here BTW. The mall is starting to fill with lunchgoers as its bleedin hot outside ...
 
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