Yesterday it was announced that Jericho Brown’s The Tradition won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Rarely has a collection displayed the depth and breadth of poet’s talent as well as this volume does. Blackness plays a big role in
Jericho Brown’s The Tradition Wins the Pulitzer Prize. Read More »
Girl, Woman, Other is an important feminist novel. It tells the stories of twelve women in an experimental style that is both readable and entirely fitting for these characters. Reading this Booker Prize-winning novel is an edifying experience. But it
Girl, Woman, Other is Surprisingly Entertaining. Read More »
In some respects the literary award season isn’t all that different from the film award season. The most recent releases have an advantage. And sometimes those released earlier are forgotten. As this year’s queer lit award season approaches, queer reader
Don’t Forget Patsy. Read More »
It’s astonishing how good How We Fight For Our Lives is. Though the title implies a polemic, Saeed Jones’s latest book is oh, so much more than that. It is a lyrical memoir: an important book that will be read–and
Read How We Fight for Our Lives. Read More »
In September it was announced that Ocean Vuong had been awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Award”. Queer Reader has never described an author as a “genius”, but in this case the word is entirely appropriate. Ocean Vuong is a brilliant
Why Ocean Vuong Matters Read More »
It’s awards season again. Soon lists will be released of the best books of last year. We will know shortly whether Stephen McCauley, the author of so many consistently superb novels, will be rewarded for his efforts. It remains a
Stephen McCauley’s My Ex-Life is the Best Novel of 2018 Read More »
Edmund’s White’s The Unpunished Vice is a serendipitous journey through a lifetime of reading. It begins with a lyrical, almost mystical discovery:
I remember toddling into my mother’s room, where she was taking a perfumed bubble bath in the late
Edmund White’s The Unpunished Vice is a Bibliophile’s Delight. Read More »
This queer reader approached How to Survive a Plague hesitantly. Might it just be too difficult to return to that painful time: a time when so many friends were dying of AIDS? Well, perhaps the biggest surprise in David France’s
How to Survive a Plague is a Page-turner. Read More »
To paraphrase Tolstoy, great novels are not all alike. Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, for example, is like no other novel. It is an epic novel that follows several characters over decades. But what sets A Little Life apart
A Little Life is Like No Other Novel. Read More »
Fans of openly gay stand-up comedian, Bob Smith will be delighted with his new book, Treehab. It’s filled with humorous stories and brilliant one-liners. Nevertheless, there is a dark shadow hanging over these dozen essays, because Mr. Smith reveals
Treehab is Bob Smith’s Gift to Us. Read More »