stealthy gay characters

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Until I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I had no idea one of the major characters was gay.

Anybody recommend any other good literary fiction from the last few years that features gay male characters? Thanks.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Why would you know he was gay before you read it?

i was going to reccommend this is the Little Known Gems thread but i think it may be actually fairly well known in the US. "Resentment" by Gary Indiana - one of the best books of recent years.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure this is 'stealthy', but I've heard excellent things about Jamie O'Neill's 'At Swim, Two Boys'

― mck (mck), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm mine isnt stealthy either!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Sam Delany to thread?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

All of Chabon's novels feature a gay character, or at least a young man moving in that direction. I think he does a pretty good job with it, though I'm not sure why it happens in every one of his novels. (There are only 3, so I guess it's not a massive streak.)

― Zech, Wednesday, 28 January 2004 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Dale Peck has gay characters... oh wait. You wanted books you'd actually want to read...

― Jessa (Jessa), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Forget the "stealthy" part. I was failing at an attempt to be cute, I guess.

Jess, you are so right.

Let me rephrase: you go looking in the gay fiction section of the big bookstores and you encounter a lot of lamebrained ghetto books. The popular thing going on in the scene now is young adult books (Rainbow Boys, etc.) which are fine, I'm sure, but not what I'm looking for.

So how about I amend this to a search for good novels with gay characters. Recommendations? (How about in the last 5-10 years?)

― Robomonkey (patronus), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Rainbow Boys!! Tell me more!

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Ethan Mordden's Buddies trilogy (which has, uh, four books) is sooooooo good.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Good novels with gay characters? Genet! I've read every translated Genet novel, and they're brilliant. I'm not gay, so I imagined the women in "Our Lady of the Flowers" as women; loved it.

This guy can make smelling your own farts sound poetic. And he had the best euphemisms for bodily functions ever. To piss is to pluck a rose; to shit is to post a watchman (from his habit of doing a dump on the carpet when he was robbing a house).

― R the bunged up with jollop of V (Jake Proudlock), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

For the Chabon fans, Newsarama just posted six pages of comic art from the delayed "The Escapist" series.

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

wait, is there one in summerland?

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 30 January 2004 03:28 (twenty-two years ago)

is summerland worth reading? i have it in a huge "to read" pile.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 30 January 2004 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked Summerland but it REALLY needed a firm cutting-out of extraneous matter.

But I like books for youngsters. And books about Baseball. And books about parallel universes. And books by Michael Chabon. So you might want to ask someone less biased.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick Carraway anyone?

― Huck If I Know (Horace Mann), Friday, 30 January 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Rainbow Boys--here's Amazon info. High school soap for gay kids, relatively popular with all (gay) ages.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Friday, 30 January 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks guys, but again, looking for books from the last 5 years or so. That's 1999 to now.

Good books, gay characters, recent. Thx.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Friday, 30 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, I meant Nick Carraway (from Gatsby) in the context of stealthy gay characters.
It's never explicitly stated, but there are hints if you're looking really (too) hard for them.

― Huck If I Know (Horace Mann), Friday, 30 January 2004 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to restate my recommendation for Resentment - read it, its incredibly good.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 30 January 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

huck I was going to mention that myself. Yes it's fairly obvious when you go back and look for it.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 30 January 2004 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Just read about Zigzagger, which sounds like it has potential. And a friend recommends Ronald Donaghe as an entertaining writer.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 20:52 (twenty-two years ago)

the new biog of Liberace is amazing - apparently he was gay. ANd so was Rock Hudson? Can you believe it? Those two?

― queen G of copacabana, Saturday, 7 February 2004 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

haha!

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 7 February 2004 17:21 (twenty-two years ago)

What about Bob Crane?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 7 February 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room is narrated by a gay man. I just started it and I'm really liking it.

I'd also recommend the works of Robert Rodi. Closet Case was a scream, and Fag Hag is also funny, although I never could figure out whether or not he actually liked the character. What They Did to Princess Paragon is skippable unless you want to get inside the head of the Hal Sparks character on Queer as Folk.

― Catty (Catty), Monday, 9 February 2004 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

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