Favourite Queer Literature

Rowan Tree 🌳

maybe this time i'll win :)
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Have you any queer literature that you loved or would recommend to others? I try to read quite a bit of queer fiction in proportion to the other books I read and would love to know what you guys have loved. Fiction or otherwise.

A few of mine:

Blood Relatives by Stevan Alcock.
A boy growing up in punk-era Leeds, documented alongside the Yorkshire Ripper's attacks. It's all in Yorkshire dialect and it's completely brilliant.

How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston.
Jennifer Johnston isn't a queer writer and the book doesn't advertise itself as a gay novel, but it's about two boys from different backgrounds growing up alongside one another in eastern Ireland and eventually fighting in WWI. The description doesn't do it justice really, but her writing is spare and beautiful and her reputation as one of the great modern Irish writers is justified.

Guapa by Saleem Haddad
A gay man living in an Arab country trying to maintain his life as the world is in turmoil around him. I don't know if some of you have read this or not, but I adored it.

The Absolutist by John Boyne
Boyne's writing goes so far beyond The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I find some of his novels quite sensational (addictive but almost ludicrous), but this is easily my favourite. A man visiting the home of his dead wartime lover in Norwich juxtaposed with their time at war.
 
The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin springs to mind.
I started it and never finished. It's still upstairs.

I'm on the last few pages of The South though so might pick it up again next.

The Blackwater Lighthouse is AMAZING but I'm hesitant to include it because the bulk of what happens is through the lens of the sister of the brother who has contracted AIDS.
 
i love fun home by alison bechdel.

Agreed, the musical is absolutely lovely as well.

Giovanni's Room and The Argonauts come straight to mind but also Call Me By Your Name because I'd just finished LIVING it when I read it.
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I'm quite normative these days so I have nothing to contribute but Chlammy's mentions all go on the list
 
Agreed, the musical is absolutely lovely as well.

Giovanni's Room and The Argonauts come straight to mind but also Call Me By Your Name because I'd just finished LIVING it when I read it.
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giovanni's room is on my to buy list and same about the other one (but it was the movie for me).

twinsies!
 
I loved Call Me By Your Name so much. It made me sob so much at the end, an air hostess had to check I was alright.

I’m about a quarter of the way through Find Me and, yes, so far, it’s not a patch.
 
Any of mine would do the trick.

I'm not one to blow my own horn, but I have been given one-star reviews on Goodreads by a homophobe that downvotes anything LGBTQ.

My favourite (of my own) is my most recent one.

Bitches by David Richards.

The 'Lovely' Old Dears is another popular one, and it's free on Amazon until Wednesday to get you through those isolation blues.
 
Any of mine would do the trick.

I'm not one to blow my own horn, but I have been given one-star reviews on Goodreads by a homophobe that downvotes anything LGBTQ.

My favourite (of my own) is my most recent one.

Bitches by David Richards.

The 'Lovely' Old Dears is another popular one, and it's free on Amazon until Wednesday to get you through those isolation blues.

Oooooh - we're in the same secret facebook group
 
The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin springs to mind.

I liked this but it felt a bit dated.

Intimacy Idiot - Isaac Oliver - funny short stories and essays about being gay in New York

The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters - there are a few of her books that qualify but this one is my favorite
 
I LOVED Blood Relatives.

Off the top of my head, recent queer reads that I loved

You will be safe here by Damian Barr

An honest man by Ben Fergusson


The life and loves of Lena Gaunt by Tracy Farr

Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal

Just ordered these two and Giovanni's Room.

Excited. :disco:
 
My current top 3:

1. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
2. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
3. Maurice by E.M. Forster

Currently reading What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell.
 
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I forgot loads by the way. I love all of Edouard Louis' books (hi @jivafox ) bien sur - though I suppose some (maybe all?) are semi-autobiographical. History of Violence is my favourite of his.

Years ago I read Blue Days, Black Nights: A Memoir of Desire by Ron Nyswaner (director of Philadelphia) and really enjoyed that too.

Anyway, yeah, loads of queer lit I like.
 

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