Our reader asked us for "recommendations for gay fiction that is NOT erotica and also not just coming out stories?" Here are a few suggestions from our staff.
I read My Real Childrenby Jo Walton last year, which would certainly qualify. Jo Walton really is a great author, I am really enjoying the stuff she puts out these last few years. My Real Children shows a sort of a Sliding Doors concept, or perhaps a long study of the butterfly effect here, pivoting a life at the acceptance or denial of a marriage proposal. I would also recommend that someone interested in gay fiction check out the ALA's Stonewall Book Awards, which feature librarian's top choices in LGBT lit. —Carmen Nigro, Milstein Division
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon features a titular character who is gay. Sam Clay's experiences as a gay man in pre and post-World War II America are not erotic in any way. Give it a whirl. I would also recommend the Last Herald-Magetrilogy by Mercedes Lackey. The main character, Vanyel Ashkevron, is a shay'a'chern, slang for gay in his milieu. Tayledren is anything but a gay-friendly world and this complicates Vanyel's rise to the pinnacle of magic in the kingdom of Valdemar. —Joshua Soule, Spuyten Duyvil
Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boysis a wonderful, language-obsessed novel that is set during the 1916 Easter Uprising in Ireland. O'Neill deftly mixes politics and the love that develops between two boys as they are slowly drawn into the conflict. John Rechy's City of Nightis sort of a gay version of Kerouac's On The Road—a stream-of-conscious narrative about a male hustler's adventures as he travels across the country and encounters various men. The novel influenced Gus Van Sant in the writing of his screenplay for My Own Private Idaho. —Wayne Roylance, Selection Team
Ariel Schrag's best known for her graphic memoirs, but her witty, tender and frolicsome novel Adam is definitely worth checking out. It tells the story of a teenage California transplant eager to meet the love of his life in hard-partying New York City. —Miriam Tuliao, Selection Team
I recommend Everything Leads to You, a YA novel, by Nina LaCour. A story about a teen girl who falls in love with a teen girl and the focus is not their sexuality. Follow Emi as she finds the answer to an old letter left behind from a old-Hollywood actor. Sunny LA, Hollywood, love, and destiny intertwine in this mystery. —Anna Taylor, Children’s Programming
I am currently reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, which is kind of like a gay The Sun Also Rises—expats in Paris, heavy drinking, romantic love. Written in 1956 and very progressive for its time, it's about a young American man who falls in love with an Italian bartender. —Kyle Butler, Strategy
Truman Capote's Other Voices Other Rooms comes to mind. A girlish adolescent boy surrounded by a cast of grotesque characters in the south befriends a tomboy and a drag queen, seeks a relationship with his mysterious father, and comes to terms with his sexuality. A thoughtful tome on the weirdness of families and the winding path toward individuality. —Nancy Aravecz, Mid-Manhattan
I still tell people about Andre Aciman's novel Call Me By Your Name. Brief and literary, it's an exquisite remembrance of a summer romance in an Italian beach town—the summer of the character's first love. What I like about the book is not just the pace and the mood, but that Aciman conveys the sounds, smells, and tastes of summer in a way that makes me as a reader long to be there, and nostalgic for that same period in my life when I was discovering what love is. It was also the only book in my book group that had every received universal thumbs up from the members. —Christopher Platt, Sites and Services
No Se Lo Digas a Nadie (Do Not Tell Anyone) es una autobiografía ficticia del autor peruano Jaime Bayly, cuenta la historia de Joaquín, un joven que lucha para hacer frente a sus tradiciones familiares, su adicción y su problema de identidad sexual durante su niñez. A fictionalized autobiography of the Peruvian author Jaime Bayly that tells the story of Joaquin, a young man who struggles to cope with his family traditions, his addiction and his sexual identity as a child. —Alexandra Gomez, Selection Team
Sing You Homeby Jodi Picoult! Such a beautiful novel (written by one of my favorite authors) accompanied by a lovely musical soundtrack, many interweaving stories told in each character's very different POVs and enough drama to keep you interested the whole book through. —Jessica Divisconte, CLO Office
Though she's equal parts memoirist and fiction writer, Michelle Tea writes great stories about being young, working class and surrounded by mall culture and consumerism, and navigating relationships with both men and women. —Jenny Baum, Jefferson Market
I would recommend the author Jeanette Winterson--her novel The Passion is one of my favorites that includes elements of historical fiction, magical realism, and romance. - Susie Tucker Heimbach, Mulberry Street
Confessions of a Mask by Japanese writer Yukio Mishima could reductively be called a "coming out story". Yet this 1949 novel presents a much more complex picture of a young man confronting his emerging sexuality and sadomasochistic fantasies against the backdrop of World War II. - Thomas Knowlton, MyLibraryNYC
The works of Vera Brittain should also be interesting for the reader. She is an activist, but saw other priorities (pacifism mostly) as being more universally important. Start with Testament of Youth. Also, try Fun Homeby Alison Bechdel - Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Library for the Performing Arts