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 »
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 »
Here’s something you might have missed–this queer reader almost did: Edmund White has written a novel that may well be his best. Take a moment for that to sink in.
Our Young Man is the epic gay novel Edmund White
Edmund White’s Our Young Man Might be his Best. Read More »
Let’s face it: short story collections can be a tough sell. Even the best of them include a few clunkers. Some even throw in some unpublished fragments: bits of what might have been a novel (novella?), but didn’t quite flesh
The Dream Life of Astronauts: Nine Superb Stories from Patrick Ryan Read More »
If you’re looking for a good summer read, consider James Magruder’s Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall. It follows the stories of the residents of a Yale dormitory in the school year of 1983-1984. In all the there are
Love Slaves of Hadley Hall is a Good Beach Read. Read More »
Although a novel, Darryl Pinckney’s Black Deutschland reads like a memoir. The style is simple, direct, conversational, flawless. It’s the the story of an American abroad: a visitor to Berlin in the final days of the wall. His journey from
Black Deutschland is Flawless. Read More »