Gay boys books in bondage

[jawnbc]

100 best gay and lesbian books of the (20th) century (not really; see below)

1. Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
2. Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin
3. Our Lady of the Flowers, by Jean Genet
4. Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust
5. The Immoralist, by André Gide
6. Orlando,by Virginia Woolf
7. The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall
8. Kiss of the Spider Woman, by Manuel Puig
9. The Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar
10. Zami, by Audre Lorde
11. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
12. Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes
13. Billy Budd, by Herman Melville
14. A Boy's Own Story, by Edmund White
15. Dancer from the Dance, by Andrew Holleran
16. Maurice, by E.M. Forster
17. The City and the Pillar, by Gore Vidal
18. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
19. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
20. Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima
21. The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers
22. City of Night, by John Rechy
23. Myra Breckinridge, by Gore Vidal
24. Patience and Sarah, by Isabel Miller
25. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein
26. Other Voices, Other Rooms, by Truman Capote
27. The Bostonians, by Henry James
28. Two Serious Ladies, by Jane Bowles
29. Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison
30. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
31. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
32. The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
33. A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood
34. The Swimming Pool Library, by Alan Hollinghurst
35. Olivia, by Dorothy Bussy
36. The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith
37. Aquamarine, by Carol Anshaw
38. Another Country, by James Baldwin
39. Cheri, by Colette
40. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
41. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
42. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
43. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott [published 1868]
44. The Friendly Young Ladies, by Mary Renault
45. Young Torless, by Robert Musil
46. Eustace Chisholm and the Works, by James Purdy
47. The Story of Harold, by Terry Andrews
48. The Gallery, by John Horne Burns
49. Sister Gin, by June Arnold
50. Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall, by Neil Bartlett
51. Father of Frankenstein, by Christopher Bram
52. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
53. The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood
54. The Young and Evil, by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler
55. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson
56. A Visitation of Spirits, by Randall Kenan
57. Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein
58. Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, by Ronald Firbank
59. Rat Bohemia, by Sarah Schulman
60. Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
61. The Counterfeiters, by André Gide
62. The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson
63. Lover, by Bertha Harris
64. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville [1851]
65. La Batarde, by Violette Leduc
66. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
67. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
68. The Satyricon, by Petronius
69. The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell
70. Special Friendships, by Roger Peyrefitte
71. The Changelings, by Jo Sinclair
72. Paradiso, by José Lezama Lima
73. Sheeper, by Irving Rosenthal
74. Les Guerilleres, by Monique Wittig
75. Child Manuela (The Novel of Maedchen in Uniform), by Christa Winsloe
76. An Arrow's Flight, by Mark Merlis
77. The Gaudy Image, by William Talsman
78. The Exquisite Corpse, by Alfred Chester
79. Was, by Geoff Ryman
80. Therese and Isabelle, by Violette Leduc
81. Gemini, by Michel Tournier
82. The Beautiful Room Is Empty, by Edmund White
83. The Children's Crusade, by Rebecca Brown
84. The Story of the Night, by Colm Tóibín
85. The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles), by Jean Cocteau
86. Hell Has No Limits, by José Donoso
87. Riverfinger Women, by Elana Nachman (Dykewomon)
88. The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, by Tom Spanbauer [beyond racist]
89. Closer, by Dennis Cooper
90. Lost Illusions, by Honoré de Balzac
91. Miss Peabody's Inheritance, by Elizabeth Jolley
92. Rene's Flesh, by Virgilio Pinera
93. Funny Boy, by Shyam Selvadurai
94. Wasteland, by Jo Sinclair
95. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, by May Sarton
96. Sea of Tranquility, by Paul Russell
97. Autobiography of a Family Photo, by Jacqueline Woodson
98. In Thrall, by Jane DeLynn
99. On Strike Against God, by Joanna Russ
100. Sita, by Kate Millet

What about Stone Butch Blues? Any David Leavitt? The Front Runner?

Comments

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

-who comprised this list?
-no Faggots by Larry Kramer, or Better Angel (forgot the author, predates Maurice)
-if the bolded ones are one's you've read, then does that mean you've never read To Kill A Mockingbird. Ugh. I'm horrified.

[jawnbc]

I pinched it from Max's blog--dunno where he got it.

I saw too much of Kramer in NYC in the 80s to ever wanna read Faggots.

And be horrified. You've probably never read Cat's Eye by Atwood. . . . (I see your Am Lit and raise you 1 Can Lit)

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't read that. But I have read Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid's Tale...three times! AND, I own a collection of her poetry. She's also the second author I recommend to anyone looking for an author to read (after John Irving, though her writing is smarter).

I see your Canadian lit, and raise you, be-yotch! PS: nice butt wiggle on your "history of Irish pop songs" lip-synch video, though the sock, while a good effect on the members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, was a bit disturbing. TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

Faggots was written by the pre-whiny Kramer. I can't recommend it enough. (Although there's always an element of reality to his whining.)

[jawnbc]

I may revisit it then....

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

I found it like digging through the fossil record. It's cool because it's kind of like the finding the diary of a whole lost generation.

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love that book. Very open and honest.

And if I might say, he's not whiney. He's fucking scared shitless and angry as hell. And by now, probably a bit crazy from the anger. I guess I would be too if I was as smart, coherent, aware as he is and seeing what he saw - the severe lack of action in the face of seeing all his friends decimated -back in the eighties and early nineties.

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

You are, of course, correct. I've found his tone at times to be about 5% hyperbolic. However, no one has ever had the guts to say what he's said and that we so much needed to hear.

[jawnbc]

Well I was speaking of his in-person performativity. He wasn't the only person whose social circle was decimated in NYC in the 80s, but you would've thought so by the way he acted. And his condescension. And his quitting groups when the consensus wasn't shared by he (so much for "community").

Message too often ruined by tedious, repetitive rhetoric.

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

Word.

(ps: mind if I add you to my list?)

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

Right on. Books and bears are my favorite things. That and new skis.

[jawnbc]

I am humbled. I think Cat's Eye is her most heartfelt; Alias Grace her most accomplished.

As for the video, well one does what one must to keep Oirish culture alive.

*blush*

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try to read that over the summer.

[querrelle.livejournal.com]

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/1in10/99/06/100_years.html

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[deafdyke.livejournal.com]

Leavitt's lost his luster since Lost Language of Cranes. I'm also surprised that they chose In Thrall. (Shulman should rank similarly to DeLynn.) No Burroughs, obviously, and no Maugham, Bowen, Jewett, Angela Carter, LeGuin, or Sylvia Townsend Warner. Several have two works listed. I can understand James and Baldwin but Jo Sinclair? that's skewed.

[deafdyke.livejournal.com]

In addition to Kramer they also overlooked Nella Larsen's PASSING. Perhaps the novel was too obtuse?

[jawnbc]

Clearly a bogus list. But kinda sorta fun. I would've put After Delores for Schulman--though it limps home at the end. And some Ethan Morrden.

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

I liked After Delores, but I really liked Girls, Visions, and Everything.

[deafdyke.livejournal.com]

oops, I see they already had Schulman. Oddly enough, they didn't include her contemporary Jennifer Levin (who has also seemingly disappeared) or Gale Wilhelm (a largely forgotten yet influential openly lesbian writer of the '30s) or Bannon.

I've read all of Atwood's work, including her early stories and poems. I'm surprised The Handmaid's Tale didn't make the cut.

[superbbluewren.livejournal.com]

For some time at the back of my mind has been a desire for a list of good gay fiction, beyond Edmund White and some of the obvious (and not so obvious) classics that I have read. I would be interested to know how the list was compiled. I understood from the introduction to my edition that Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" was not a gay novel. I intended to read the entire work, but never progressed beyond Swann's Way. Any gay references were too subtle for me!

Thanks for posting the list. There's a lot to explore!

[jawnbc]

I'd recommend "The Blackwater Lightship" by Colm Toíbin. My fav gay novel. Cheers

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Kramer's Faggots is actually quite funny. It was my first exposure to his work and I still laugh when I think about the UWS queen who hosted an orgy with rent boys and became upset when one of them came on the Chinese gold flocked wallpaper.

One of my friends from the CUNY Grad came up with a better interpretation for The Well of Loneliness, and I'm surprised boichick didn't bring it up as she was in the same seminar. It is Lisa's contention that Stephen is not a lesbian, but rather is a pre-op FTM transexual - only Hall's (and our) vocabulary was limited at the time and therefore she couldn't voice Stephen's true nature.

As to Durrell's Alexandria Quartet I'm afraid I was unable to make it through the first novel. Shocking, actually, given my love of the period and of the colonial theme. I mean c'mon, it's Cavafy-ville, and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.

And excuse me, Christopher Bram? Oh no, oh no you didn't!

[deafdyke.livejournal.com]

I recall the Well argument er, well, but it still qualifies as a gay/lesbian Top 100 work.

And oh--but Bram's Father of Frankenstein was *such* a stunning work of fiction! One almost thinks it really happened :)

[jawnbc]

I really, really liked "Surprising Myself" and thought "Angel Clare" had some heart. Good storytelling, if not great literature.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Oh dear - you're reading the wrong Bram.

[tim-e-bear.livejournal.com]

Hmmm - have read 1-8, 11-18, 20-22, 24-26, 29-31, 33-34, 38, 40-41, 48, 52, 55, 62, 67 (though 67 really only works if you know that some of the characters are based on real life queer folk - the text alone, I'm not sure you could read it that way..., 79, 82 (prefer Nocturne for the King of Naples), 84, 88 (yes, I had problems with 88 too), 93 and 95. I DO read too much...

er, FALL ON YOUR KNEES by Anne Marie McDonald? Where is it?

[tim-e-bear.livejournal.com]

oh, and THE WHISTLING SONG and DISTORTION by Stephen Beachy. Burroughs without the pedophilia, wife-murder and Nike-shilling (Burroughs didn't die soon ENOUGH for me). Oh, and how about LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN by the recently late Hubert Selby Jr.?

[jawnbc]

It came out in 2001 (21st century). But you're right, it's awesome.

[tim-e-bear.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're right. I'd forgotten that - for some reason, I'd thought it was a year or two before. Oops...

[le-lapin.livejournal.com]

[tim-e-bear.livejournal.com]

Well, Melville wrote these long letters to Walt Whitman that are hard to read as anything other than 'I'm obsessed with you and your woofiness'. Of course, let's not get started on the Whitman matter... ;)

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I remember reading "Rubyfruit Jungle" when I was twelve. Funniest damn thing I ever read. I love Rita Mae Brown.

[jawnbc]

It's great and so is she. Her writing about life with Martina Navratilova are also excellent.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Oh I loved the story about her shooting out the windows of Martina's car when Martina broke up with her. I love crazy-ass acts like that.

[champdaddy.livejournal.com]

even an illiterate like me read The Front Runner... are they ever going to make the movie?

[jawnbc]

I dunno. Every few years there's some talk of it, then it drops off again.

[stoplabelingme.livejournal.com]

That's the first time I've ever seen my boy Evelyn Waugh honored on any list of best anything. I love him! Searched for Scoop for ages and found it in that crappy book store in Penn Station. Thanks for the know.

[jawnbc]

Hello!

[guysterrules.livejournal.com]

Good lord. Where is Maupin?

[jawnbc]

Good lord! How did we all miss that?

Thanks Terry!

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

I count only one brunch novel. Heavy on the early lesbian sturm & drang action, perhaps, but those ladies WERE making history.

[jawnbc]

Oh you're right. No Dancer from the Dance or Nights in Aruba?

Ok this list is officially poo-poo.

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

It's just some person's list. I found myself going "uh-huh" a lot. I think that's the problem with declaring things to be "Top" whatever. Subjectivity is cool. Like one guy on my friends list didn't do a top ten albums of the year; he did "some albums that rocked my little world in 2004" and they amounted to six. How lucid is that?

Where is the Ann-Marie MacDonald?

[studlybastard.livejournal.com]

Geez, Louise, how can you have a list of the top 100 queer books and *not* have Ann-Marie MacDonald listed?
Not that I am her bimbo love-slave.
That's just in my dreams.

Re: Where is the Ann-Marie MacDonald?

[jawnbc]

c'est pas ma faute--and her books are both 21st century, no? But it's not my list! Please do not smote me, or crush me into tiny bits!

Re: Where is the Ann-Marie MacDonald?

[studlybastard.livejournal.com]

ahhh, you're safe for now, lad, but for the record, Fall on Your Knees was published in 1997.

And yeah.... I know it isn't your survey. It's just a fun way to generate dialogue.