at swim, two boys: gay novels

I too like Jeanette Winterson. Especially 'Written on the Body'.

WHY did you like this Martin? I found it really bleh and then I read about Edmund White and I wasn't surprised.

I read Alan Hollinghurst's 'The Folding Star' and god that was boring.

Help me - I want to go the gay way but all the books seem rub.

John Rechy's City of Night is a bit corny and dated now, but it's hard-hitting ! Gritty! Really fun! And much better than anything else he's written. It 's a hustler's voyage through the seedy gay underworld in the major American cities in the 50s.

Finally read Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar, loved it. Elegant tale of first love between two teen boys in the 50s.

James Purdy-Eustace Chisholm and the Works or In a Shallow Grave Creepy, gothic (in the Flannery O'Connor sense), romantic in a lush, pre-Stonewall sort of way. My favorite writer.

Let me second its worth, but Arthur, you're making it sound like a hesistant and shy coming-of-age novel when it's much more of a something-happens-one-night situation that ends up obsessing one protagonist for years to come while the other person puts it out of sight, out of mind. Also, surely it was more the 30s. ;-)

It is -- Samuel Delany's take on sword and sorcery, with a heavy gay/transgressive context and content. It works better as exploratory metaphor, I guess, but the third book, which draws parallels between ye olden plagues and AIDS, is if heavy-handed still very dreamlike and strange, with a strong ending.

Arthur -- yeah, I thought that the whole idea was the one guy who can't get over it eventually serves in the Army during the War, then ends up in Hollywood. There was some collection of Vidal's early short stories or something that recently came out, couple of good ones in there I seem to recall, though in part that's due to context (one was about the bright young thing being expelled from college due to being caught with *gasp!* another young man! -- in an age where the lesbian/gay center on campus is right below my feet where I work, that type of story just shows how much has changed at least in some areas).

The gay aspect of Dhalgren (my favourite novel) and the Neveryon quartet seems too small for me really to think of them as gay novels, Ned.

& yeah, anthony's list is really really good.

Queer -- Burroughs

Giovanni's Room & Another Country -- Baldwin

The Falconer -- Cheever

All of the Victorian novels if Eve Sedgwick is to be believed...

Anthony, what's Selvadurai's Funny boy about...please?

I've been thinking about it recently. There's a story in it about a young boy who when his extended family gather every Sunday unbeknownst to the adults goes and plays with the girls. He stars as the bride in their favorite game of wedding. My cousin's son who's six is currently going through a major princess phase. Snow White, the Sleeping Beauty, the Little Mermaid, he loves them all. He confided in some friends that he really was a princess! When we watched Beauty and the Beast together, he told me that he wouldn't marry him if he was a beast. Very sensible I would have thought.

so, The Gallery (1947) by John Horne Burns, anyone? Quite a shooting-star bio.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/magazine/john-horne-burns-the-great-gay-novelist-youve-never-heard-of.html

^I'm reading The Gallery and man the two gayest chapters are all-timers.

I could barely finish it a few months ago but yeah those chapters.

A couple of recs:

William Maxwell - The Folded Leaf
Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
Gore Vidal - The Judgment of Paris

'The Line of Beauty' is fantastic

Looking for recs during this sedentary time!.