Books You Love!

Well the results are in! You told us what books you loved, and we are happy to report that not only are you all literate, you also have good taste. Below is a snap shot of reader comments:

I've always been a fan of Christopher Baum's Gods and Monsters, but when you write, "the one you turn to again and again because it speaks to you on a visceral/emotional/personal level", I have to go with Tony Kushner's, Angels in America. Mr. Kushner presents some even more amazing, distinctly gay insight in his work, A Bright Room Called Day, but overall, I would not classify it as "queer-themed".

-Jonathan

The Lord Won't Mind, by Gordon Merrick
Young Man From the Provinces by Alan Helms
The Motion of Light in Water, by Samuel Delaney
The City and the Pillar, by Gore Vidal
Intimate Companions, by David Ledick

-Michael

(Editor’s note: Samuel Delaney memoir so vividly describes late 1950’s New York City that it makes me want to build a time machine. I would go back in time, and like Delaney, have insightful dinners with WH Auden and Albert Einstein, in-between mass gay orgies in fabulously skuzzy, movie theaters in Time Square. That is living!)

Loving in the War Years by Cherríe Moraga

-Ronak

My favorite book is Querelle by Jean Genet, with his Miracle of the Rose as a close tie. I read each about once a year. I love the passage in Querelle where Genet describes one of the character’s walk, “as if a ferocious dog were also walking between his legs.” Miracle of the Rose is such a poetic masculine masterpiece that it really is an inspiration for facing the world.

-Ricardo

Oscar Moore’s A Matter of Life and Sex came out at a time when I left home for the first time and was living in another continent, alone, at 19 so it stands out more than the other books. It made me want to be a rent boy (under my own impossible to uphold terms of course) and at the same time want to get a job, so that I would never have to be a rent boy. It’s hedonistic description of a middle-class boy defying his family’s social mores to go out on a limb and do whatever he wanted to spoke volumes to me at the time. A classic for any age.
My Brother - Jamaica Kincaid
The Bacchae - Euripedes
The Swimming Pool Library - Alan Hollinghurst
The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
Before Night Falls - Reinaldo Arenas
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
The Man Who Fell In Love With the Moon - Tom Spanbauer

-Curt

Jean Genet’s Our Lady Of The Flowers.
It's just poetry. Poetry masquerading as prose,
beautiful words heartbreakingly rendered.
Simply gorgeous.
My runner up is titles are The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and/or the Andy Warhol Diaries by Andy Warhol by Andy Warhol.

-Joel

(Editor’s note: my favorite quote from Andy Warhol’s Dairies:

Sunday, September 10, 1978
...Truman (Capote) had told me we'd be having caviar and potatoes, but instead he had bad quiche. Truman was listening to records. Donna Summer, I think. The guy from California had joints and he and Bob (Colacello) and Truman smoked them, and Truman said that after the joint he would be really exciting and interesting but he wasn't. I was talking about the Gay Bob doll. Robert Hayes had one at the Factory, it's a doll that comes out of a closet and it's wearing an earing and a necklace and a plaid shirt and blue jeans and a handbag and a big cock, and I guess I said the wrong thing because everybody there was named Bob, but if you ever want to get anybody anything, get them that, it's so funny.)

The Farewell Symphony by Edmund White. Mr. White’s best book, because his ornate prose is injected with real harrowing emotion.

-Jason

The first that still speaks to me is The Whole World Was Watching by Romaine Patterson, it was truly moving and a great read. The next one is actually Permanent Partners: Building Gay and Lesbian Relationships That Last by Betty Berzon, this was high on my self help list and still holds true to its advice. Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, by Paul Monette, was a life changing book for me it solidified my sensitive to others as a young adult.

-Chris

The Salt Point by Paul Russell

Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham

The Uncanny X-Men (The Collected Phoenix Saga issues 131-136)

-Harold

(Editors note: Well I guess you could consider mutants a queer metaphor, and Kitty Pride is a great drag name.)

The Color of Summer by Reinaldo Arenas, the only queer book that gives Thomas Pynchon a run for his money. A Post-Modern novel without the emotion or heart or humor taken out, which is a rare thing.

-Will

Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas. I fell in love with Reinaldo Arenas and still miss him
Landscape Memory by Matthew Stadler. This novel has a fuzzy bygone innocence and is cleanly sensual.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, because it mentioned big mean straight weeping purple dicks

- Troy

(Editor’s note: straight weeping purple dicks? Oh my! I don’t remember that part!)

(Editor’s note 2: I used to love Bret Easton Ellis because his early novels revolved around angst ridden gay characters who listened to The Smiths and wore Armani sweaters over their Public Image Limited T-shirts, which pretty much summed up the entire male population of my undergrad creative writing program at Emerson .)

Hornito by Mike Albo. A perfect encapsulation of the late 90’s lower east side gay scene. Crowbar Anyone?

-AW

The Young and Evil by Parker Tyler and Charles Henri Ford. I revisit The Young and Evil quite often because it still seems so shockingly accurate in modern times. It's a surrealistic tale of two young gay men who move to New York City in the early 1930's and get sucked into the decadent Bohemia of the times. It's also a bit of a sadomasochistic love story that ends in an unexpected way. The prose itself is scattered and half-baked at some points, which can make it hard to follow. But it adds up to a compelling, idiosyncratic and sometimes shocking image of gay life in NYC, pre-pre-pre Stonewall. But what keeps me coming back is that I know characters like this in NYC today that live the same lives. The book is timeless, and I'm sure it wasn't intended to be so. I actually got to meet an almost 90-year-old Charles Henri Ford at his apartment in the attic of the Dakota building in 2002. But that's another long, long story.

-Josh

Traitor to the Race by Darieck Scott. Mr. Scott takes on race, sex, fame and politics with a style that is simply stunning

- Michael

To confine my choices to one book is a little daunting. Plus, most of the gay-themed work I have read, I have yet to re-read. So many books have been instructive at different time in my life, eg.
Evelyn Waugh's Bridgeshead Revisited.
Tennessee William's Moise and the World of Reason.
Reinaldo Arenas's Before Night Falls.
Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name;
David Leavitt's Lost Language of Cranes;

Jeannette Winterson’s Written on The Wind.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando;
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst knocked my socks off when I first read it, and his later book, Line Of Beauty is masterful. I think the latter book might have the edge.

-Roger

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. I totally remember identifying with Gene since he was horribly jealous of Finny and in love with him at the same time. He did anything to please him...even things that he was terribly frightened of...and in the end it leads him to do something that results in Finny's death...and he still is in love with him at the end...and doesn't ever find peace.
House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. Poor Miss Lily Bart spending all of her money and credit to look good. Constantly trying to do the right thing in order to improve her self. Hmmm, sound familiar? Dying of overdose or something in the end. You would think that I would have learned something from this book.

-Rodney

My favorite queer themed book would have to be Not Wanted on the Voyage, by the brilliant Canadian writer Timothy Findlay. The book is basically a retelling of the bible story Noah’s Ark, but from the perspective of many of the heretofore unmentioned characters in the original, such as Noah's wife cat. A fabulously queer Lucifer even makes a appearance. This book is pure queer gold not only because many of the individuals and creatures in this novel have questionable sexualities, but also because of the uncanny breadth of perspective contained in each character. Findlay includes creatures thought to be 'mythical' (such as unicorns and dragons) who end up 'extinct' through acts of pure human evil! Timothy Findlay is a true genius and a truly Canadian gay icon!!

-Zachari

Mary, a literary magazine published quarterly, is currently seeking submissions for both our print and web publications. Submissions are welcomed in prose, poetry, or essay format. Our mission is to showcase Queer/Gay writings of artist merit.Submissions should not be any longer than 5,000 words, and can be submitted electronically at maryliterary@gmail.com

Writers whose work is accepted will be awarded a small honorarium.