The great GAY American novel

Rubyfruit Jungle, but of course.

The great gay American novel to me would be "Moby-Dick"--especially the chapter "A Squeeze of the hand," which is all about the Eden that men find on board a ship when they all stand together and squeeze sperm (i.e. from a sperm whale).

Another Country, by James Baldwin. Touches on gay life, bisexual life, interracial relationships, all of it. Still relevant and beautifully written.

Not necessarily about gay life, but I'm going to add Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. It has certainly left its mark.

Dancer from the Dance

R2, that scene, in which the sailors crack open one of the head cavities of the whale and release torrents of spermaceti all over themselves and the deck of the ship, is amazing. There’s also the scene in which one of the sailor’s dresses up in the skin of the whale’s dick. Subtlety, thy name is not Herman Melville.

Moby Dick is also pretty homoerotic when Ishmael and Queequeg share a bed in the opening chapters. But yeah, the sperm squeezing scene is pretty over-the-top (linked below).

As for a serious answer, what about Giovanni's Room?

[quote]As for a serious answer, what about Giovanni's Room?

I thought about that, r7. It's a great book. But it's about an American in Paris, where Another Country is specifically a critique of (then)-modern America and how it doesn't work for people with alternative sexualities, couples of different races, and quite a bit more. The ending — with a gay Frenchman coming through customs to New York, thinking he's solved his problems by coming to America — is devastating.

In all honesty, The Beautiful Room is Empty.

Another vote for Another Country. Baldwin was incredible.

Dancer from the Dance

The Lost Language of Cranes

The Lost Language of Jeanne Crain

Faggots by Larry Kramer should be in the running.

r2 = Antoine Merriweather

Ed White's Nocturnes for the King of Naples

Holleran's Dancer from the Dance

on the pron side: A Sand Fortress by John Coriolan to which as a gayling I masturbated endlessly

The Front Runner

The City and the Pillar for the men.

The Well of Loneliness for the ladies.

Just the thought of Huck and Jim all alone on that raft. Under the stars at night. All them manly urges. Oh, my! I get a fit of the shivers, I do!

Dancer from the Dance

Certainly the best gay novel ever written, and among my favorite novels ever written.

How Long Has This Been Going On - Ethan Mordden Like People in HIstory - Felice Picano Both published in the mid 90s. Competing for the gay “Gone With the Wind”. Spanning gay life in America from the 50s - 90s (Mordden), 60s - 90s (Picano).

A Confederacy of Dunces has the gayest sensibility of any novel in the past 50 years. (Written in the early 60s but not published until 1980.). A few gay characters, and they’re minor at that, but the book has the most wicked gay sense of humor I’ve ever read.

[quote]How Long Has This Been Going On - Ethan Mordden Like People in HIstory - Felice Picano Both published in the mid 90s. Competing for the gay “Gone With the Wind”.

Mordden's book was infinitely better than Picano's.

r22, are you including the gross-out jokes (mostly about farts) as well as the campy stuff about Judy Garland and Doris Day fandom?

Tales of the City and sequels

The Dreyfus Affair by Peter Lefcourt

The Great Gatsby

Breakfast at Tiffany's

On that note, In Cold Blood would make an interesting inclusion to this list.

The Lord Won’t Mind.

This. Obviously.

It [italic]should[/italic] be Wingmen, though it's a quite little-known novel. But it's pure epic excellence, and I hope more people read it.

Rushes by John Rechy

Eighty-Sixed by David B. Feinberg

Mysteries of Pittsburgh?

[quote] The Lord Won’t Mind.

Genuine erotic, and enjoyably trashy, yes.

But "great"??

r22 Oh Fortuna!!!!! Why hath you forsaken me? New Orleans in general has this same kind of vibe, long gay history. They can't make a movie out of it. Too original.

Kerouac On the Road

Interview with the Vampire

Oh, for fuck's sake, R39.

[QUOTE] Dancer from the Dance. Certainly the best gay novel ever written, and among my favorite novels ever written.

Andrew Holleran has a new novel coming out next year tentatively titled “The Kingdom of Sand.” His first since 2007.

Giovanni's Room is a better novel than Another Country, but since it's about the expatriate experience I agree that disqualifies it as the Great Gay American Novel.

So I would agree it's Another Country. Most of the other novels here seem too dated (even the ones that spoke to my generation, like The Lost Language of Cranes), but Baldwin's novels do not.

More about Holleran's new "The Kingdom of Sand."

City of Night by John Rechy. At least if we're talking hustling.

The Pizza Boy (He Delivers), a novelization by Vonda McIntyre.

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote.

City of Night was beautifully written.

I don’t like Larry Kramer but Faggots represents arguably the peak of gay sexuality and freedom and every inch is permeated with gayness. Maybe Dancer from the Dance too. But the explicitness, obsessions and social life portrayed in Faggots is epically gay. Captures what I consider much of the essence of gay life at its peak.

How do you not like Larry Kramer?

As a personality, I dislike Kramer. I respect his accomplishments but as a human being he was awful. His behavior/personality happened to fit the need specific to time and place. But he was nasty, cruel and borderline mentally ill. It happened to work well for us gays at that time.

[quote]But he was nasty, cruel and borderline mentally ill.

If he hadn't been, then his Hollywood credentials might have gotten him the acceptance he desperately wanted from the prettiest New York City "A" Gays. And he would not have written FAGGOTS to call them all faggots and blast them for being shallow.

Dancer from the Dance and Faggots both came out in 1978 and portray similar milieus. But it’s always fascinated how they are SUCH different books. I mean, it really shouldn’t since Holleran and Kramer are completely different authors. It’s an interesting exercise reading them back-to-back.

Larry Kramer could be immensrly unlikeable, but calling the man that spearheaded the movements to get people to give a fuck about gays dying, and without who we might STILL be waiting for proper meds, as a terrible human being is a bit of a stretch.

Then let's put it this way, R53. Larry Kramer often made people forget that he was not a terrible human being.

Brokeback Mountain by Proulx

This one sounds pretty fabulous.

[quote]Brokeback Mountain by Proulx

It's not a novel.

R57 I know. Just wanted to see who would point out first.

Moby Dick

Just the title alone ...

I'm with R21 and R23, for How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden. I really loved this novel when I read it, and still do.

And the Band Played On.

That’s not a novel, R61.

Just about, R62. Randy Shilts took a very loose approach to research and to facts. "And the Band Played On" is a patchwork of fact and sensational fiction.