Fave Gay Lit?

[Broadwayboobs]

My first and still my favorite gay novel is "The Front Runner" I even have a signed copy. It was also the first novel I read where I sobbed. I still do when I read it.

Another one of my favorites is "The Catch Trap" by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It made me want to join the circus

[SonofRobbieJ]

Tales of the City will always be a work that profoundly changed my life. I understand that it's soapy and not 'great literature', but it sort of formed the way I look at my life and my relationships. It encouraged me to make my own family in life (even though I come from a great, supportive birth family). Because of the scope of the novels and the wonderful truths about friendship and love I felt they gave to me, I've been able to re-create my own version of that in my life. And when Shit hit the fan for me big-time, that family came through in a way I never would have expected...although I probably should have.

[Addison D.]

As central as 'Front Runner' was to me when I was young, I have never picked it up again. I'm almost afraid to find out that it's not the perfect gem I remember.

Has anyone read either of the sequels--'Harlan's Race' and 'Billy-Boy' (Billy's Boy'?) ?

And did anyone ever make a film adaptation? There used to be talk about Paul Newman owning the rights, but I don't know if that was true--not that it would matter now...

[TheatreDiva90016]

"Yeah, I am a big fan of tipping the velvet, myself. Heh."

Uhm, ew. LOL

[Broadwayboobs]

Addison, I had read both sequels to Front Runner, but they both were anti climatic for me. There were rumors years ago that Paul Newman and Jan Michael Vincent were going to do the movie, but it never happened.

[FindingNamo]

I was against the Paul Newman casting because the coach is explicitly described as being very hairy chested. Which I noticed. And thought about. A lot.

[Broadwayboobs]

Namo, you were hoping for Burt Reynolds?

[FindingNamo]

That would have satisfied me! But I think I wanted Redford.

[Broadwayboobs]

EXCELLENT choice!

[CarlosAlberto]

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin is my all time favorite.

But I also loved my trashy gay fiction as well. I was a big fan of E. Lynn Harris' work.

[JoeKv99]

I dunno. Paul just looks like a track coach to me.

[FindingNamo]

Yes. A track coach. Not the track coach described in the novel.

[SonofRobbieJ]

If I remember my gay lit cum movie history, wasn't it Redford who wanted to Direct The Front Runner?

It's still a viable property. Ruffalo as the coach? Michael Fassbender? Dare I say...Clooney? Too old?

[EricMontreal22]

SonofRobbie--in Bram's Emminent Outlaws he makes a great case for Tales of the City being counted as great lit, the way Dickens is. Granted, finding out Bram is friends with Maupin made me question some of it, but it's still a compelling read, and one that rang true for me.

I read The Front Runner only a few years back, kinda presumptiously just because I knew it was a huge selling gay novel and seemed kinda forgotten--I also knew about the movie controversy. I really loved it, almost despite myself. I guess there would be no way to film it now except as a self conscious period piece (all those communal meetings with the dog, etc), though I wish Newman had been involved in one (Namo is right though, the lack of chest hair--one of the few reasons I don't see Newman as the ideal male--is important). I've never tracked down the sequels, mainly just as the descriptions don't sound very appealing.

[SonofRobbieJ]

I still think The Front Runner could work...and the basic story could be updated to today. Though setting it in the 70's isn't the worst idea either.

[Addison D.]

Please, God, No to Clooney. He just sets my teeth on edge. And not in a good way.

Eric--presumably one of the other big objections to Newman as an 'ideal' mate is his being dead??

[EricMontreal22]

Well yes--and would have been too old in his last 25 years on this Earth. :P

I find the idea of Clooney in the role oddly repellent too--and I'm not quite sure why.

[hermajesty]

I've read several of the aforementioned novels and am writing a comedy one at present; working title..'Camping in the Community'.

[HorseTears]

Just got Alan Hollinghurst's latest from the library. Looking forward to it. The Line of Beauty's going to be hard to beat, though.

[EricMontreal22]

I've gotten a few people on this board into Hollinghurst--he's kinda one of my obsessions (even in The Spell, his most underated work, when he misquoted Madonna I could get past it :P ). Stranger's Child is one I wish had gone on much longer--I was a bit annoyed by some of the last section, but loved some parts so much that it didn't matter. I'd really loe to her what you think of it when you're done, and offer my opinions.

I read Line of Beauty first, but I think the one that's stuck with me the most is Folding Star. Paris Review (which I didn't even think existed anymore) recently had a great, LONG interview with him about his influences and writing methods that is worth any fan picking up. Of course it also goes into the ridiculous ourage that, as a few UK papers claimed, "Gay Sex won the Booker" when Beauty won.