Gay Authors/Books that Inspire Me: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

In autumn 1943, the unnamed narrator (a gay writer, so we assume it’s Capote himself) befriends Holly Golightly. The two are tenants in a brownstone apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Holly (age 18–19) is a country girl turned New York café society girl. As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men, who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and expensive presents; she hopes to marry one of them. According to Capote, Golightly is not a prostitute but an "American geisha”. 

Holly likes to shock people with carefully selected tidbits from her personal life or her outspoken viewpoints on various topics (patterned after Christopher Isherwood’s Sally Bowles in The Berlin Stories). Over the course of a year, she slowly reveals herself to the narrator, who finds himself fascinated by her curious lifestyle.

No writer creates more interesting characters than Capote. He strikes the notes between quirky, uncommon people and their actions and simple touching stories. His characters aren't quite lovable (not people you would want to invite over to dinner with the folks) but they are nevertheless very human and often touching, not off-putting. Breakfast At Tiffany's is much grittier than the rather sanitized Audrey Hepburn-George Peppard film version.

Gay Authors/Books that Inspire Me: The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín, a gay author and the Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Studies at Princeton University, is one of my favorite storytellers. His prose is superlative and his imagination captivates me. One of his best works, in my opinion, is his collection of short stories called The Empty Family. 

These exquisitely written stories, set in present-day Ireland, 1970s Spain and nineteenth-century England, are about people linked by love, loneliness and desire. Tóibín is a master at portraying mute emotions and intense intimacies that remain unacknowledged and unspoken. His characters are often difficult and combative, compelled to disguise their vulnerability and longings until he unmasks them.

https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Family-Stories-Colm-Toibin/dp/143919596X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535650916&sr=8-1&keywords=the+empty+family 

Gay Authors/Books that Inspire Me: A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

A Single Man is the story of George, a gay, middle-aged expatriate Englishman now teaching at a California university. Consumed with grief of the recent death of the young man he has lived with and loved, George resolutely persists in the routine of his daily life, which includes becoming very close with one of his students. Behind his British reserve, tides of grief, rage, and loneliness surge—but all this emotion reveals a man in love with being alive despite all the everyday injustices. 

This is an undeniably overwhelming, unnerving, brilliant book. I found it a moving portrayal of a gay man in maturity and also a meditation on life as an outsider. Isherwood writes about love, loss, acceptance, and grief in a way that is as profound as it is engrossing. It eloquently speaks a message of accepting the uniqueness of each individual and living each day as if it is your last. Each time I read it I discover something new and wonderous. 

https://www.amazon.com/Single-Man-Novel-FSG-Classics/dp/0374533873/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1535045914&sr=8-2&keywords=A+Single+Man

Gay Authors/Books that Inspire Me: Maurice by E.M. Forster

Forster completed Mauricein 1914, but it was not published until 1971. It tells the story of Maurice Hall, an undergraduate at Cambridge before World War I who discovers that he is homosexual. The manuscript was found in Forester’s rooms at Cambridge after his death in 1970. “Publishable,” a note on the manuscript in his own handwriting said, “but worth it?” Acclaim for the novel on its publication firmly answered Forster’s question, but perhaps it was fortunate that it didn’t come out until general attitudes toward homosexuals became more enlightened.

Forster was one of the greatest writers of our time, a true craftsman of the modern novel. And Mauriceis one of his most powerful works. It’s an extraordinary work to have been written when it was, honest, compassionate, and sympathetic, with rich and beautiful prose that was common in all of Forster’s novels. Mauriceis rich in its subtle intelligence, beautifully controlled in its development, deeply moving. It is a masterpiece of an exceptional artist working at the peak of his creative powers. 

It is a book I’ve read several times, and will no doubt continue to read again and again.

https://www.amazon.com/Maurice-Novel-M-Forster/dp/0393310329/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534524720&sr=8-2&keywords=maurice 

Book Review: Less by Andrew Sean Green

Reviewer: Alan Chin

Publisher: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company (May 2018)

Pages: 261
★★★★★

A Magical Adventure

Arthur Less is a little-known novelist about to turn fifty. He receives a wedding invitation from his ex-boyfriend of nine years, a younger man who he is still in love with. He decides it would be too painful to attend the wedding, yet if he doesn’t it will be an admission of defeat to his ex and to all their friends. What to do? Accept a handful of half-baked literary events scattered around the globe so he’ll be out of town when the wedding occurs. What could go wrong?

The answer, Arthur Less finds as he journeys to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan, is everything!

A romance, a satire on Americans abroad, a musing on success, aging, and the human heart. Lessshows a man blundering through a low point in his life, and along the way he continually raises the curtain on our shared human comedy.

Being both an aging writer and a world traveler, I became engrossed in this Pulitzer Prize winning novel on page one, and had to slow my reading because I wanted to savor the experience for as long as possible. I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a book this much. Greer seamlessly blends humor with sharp poignancy. The writing is elegantly laced with wit, as much as the story is fortified with wonderfully interesting characters.  

Less goes on my shelve containing all the beloved books I read over and over.

https://www.amazon.com/Less-Winner-Pulitzer-Prize-Novel/dp/031631613X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533231704&sr=1-3&keywords=the+imperfectionists

Gay Authors/Books that Inspire Me: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Death in Veniceis Thomas Mann's novella concerning the dangers of sexual obsession. Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous middle-aged author travels to Venice. He takes up residence on Lido Island, and during dinner one evening at his hotel he sees a family at a table nearby and becomes fascinated by the beauty of their adolescent fourteen-year-old boy named Tadzio. His interest in Tadzio at first enlivens in him an uplifting and artistic spirit, however as the days pass his interest grows into an unhealthy obsession. As the weather in Venice turns hot and humid, an outbreak of cholera overtakes the city. Gustav, feeling his health to be in decline, decides to travel to a cooler locale, however a mix up with his luggage, draws him back to the hotel and Tadzio, which he inwardly rejoices. Though Gustav never acts on his feelings regarding the boy he nevertheless feels himself drawn down a path of ruinous inward desire. A classic depiction of emotional suffering, Death in Venicebrilliantly depicts the tragic intensity of inner psychological torment.

In my opinion, the true subject of his story is the artist’s search for perfection and the impossibility of ever possessing it. At the moment he achieves absolute fulfillment, the artist’s life is snuffed out. It is a story where the quest for perfection leads to physical and moral decay. He knows he must escape the putrid atmosphere of a city steeped in cholera, but instead of fleeing to save his life, he is held captive there by his own desire. He cannot bear to absent himself from the Tadzio. Thomas Mann leaves the cause of death open. Does the protagonist succumb to the disease, or is he simply not able to live without the beauty he has fallen in love with?

A masterpiece in both plot and language. In my opinion, it is a must read for anyone interested gay fiction. Mann is one of the greats, and this is perhaps his greatest story.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Venice-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486287149/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1532625088&sr=8-2&keywords=Death+In+Venice 

Gay Authors/books that Inspire Me: Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley

First love is never easy for a gay boy. But when the new kid in town is secretly being abused by his father, first love may be the only thing that can save him. Two teenaged boys living in a countryside setting, commit themselves to one another and are assaulted for it by an abusive father and the blistering meanness of rural bullies. But through the force of their passion for each other—and with a confirming grace that love comes from the universe itself—they and their hopes are miraculously saved.

A heartwarming love story marred by violence which seems all too real. I love this story, both for its beautiful prose and its compelling story where love overcomes all, even death. It is heartbreaking and also uplifting. It is a well-crafted story that flows exquisitely into a breathtaking ending. Grimsley shows the power a simple story can fashion.

The story’s power and poetry continues to astound me every time I read it. It is my favorite in Grimsley’s impressive stable. 

https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Grimsley-Dream-1995-01-24-Hardcover/dp/B001IP6MDA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1531933348&sr=8-2&keywords=jim+grimsley+books