The traditional lists have not provided any clear outstanding book this year...
In the TLS, fifty-seven writers make their selection from around the world. These are the gay books nominated:
The secret lives of Somerset Maugham (Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2009, 624p), which reconstruct an immensely successful writer's life in term as adroit, suggestive, eloquent and sad as the best of his own work (Roy Foster).
John Carey's compelling, revealing and very readable William Golding - The man who wrote 'Lord of the flies' (Faber & Faber, 2009, 592p). This is 'official' biography but nothing seems to have been off the record (Seamus Heaney).
Michael Bloch's enjoyable biography of James Lees-Milne (John Murray, 2009, 416p) (Simon Jenkins).
The long tradition of the Irish acting out, and up, in the US is powerfully evoked by Colm Toibin in his short novel Brooklyn (Scribner, 2009, 262p) (Paul Muldoon, also mentioned by Bernard O'Donoghue and Graham Robb).
Finely researched and documented, Ulrich Raulff's Kreis ohne Meister (C.H. Beck, 2009, 544p) examines the literary, historical and political afterlife of Stefan George, a fascinating study of myth and ideology (George Steiner), unfortunately not yet translated.
The New York Times, among their 100 notable books of the year, mentions:
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 2009, 528p).
Blake Bailey's Cheever - A Life (Knopf, 2009, 784p).
Edmund White's City Boy - My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s (Bloomsbury, 2009, 304p).
Brad Gooch's Flannery - A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little, Brown, 2009, 464p).
Thomas Mallon's Yours Ever - People and Their Letters (Pantheon, 2009, 352p).
The Economist:
William Golding - The man who wrote 'Lord of the flies' (John Carey, Faber & Faber, 2009, 592p).
The secret lives of Somerset Maugham (Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2009, 624p).
The Financial Times:
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell published in English this year, after winning the Prix Goncourt in 2006 (translated by Charlotte Mandell).
Brooklyn (Colm Toibin, Scribner, 2009, 262p).
Hitler’s Private Library - The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy Ryback (Bodley Head, 2009, 320p).
Animal Spirits - How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism, by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (Princeton University Press, 2009, 264p), not really gay, but the title of which echoes Keynes.
Caravaggio: The Complete Paintings, by Sebastian Schütze (Taschen, 2009, 480p): a new catalogue raisonée in large format, published to mark four centuries since Caravaggio’s mysterious death while on the run for murder in 1610.
Sprout, by Dale Peck (Bloomsbury, 2009, 288p), for young adults.
The New Yorker:
Flannery, by Brad Gooch (Little, Brown, 2009, 464p)): the quiet life behind Flannery O’Connor’s fantastic fiction.
The Collected Poems and Unfinished Poems, by C. P. Cavafy, translated from the Greek by Daniel Mendelsohn (Knopf, 2009, 624p and 144p): Modern Greek’s great master.
Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín (Scribner, 2009, 262p): emigration, love, and homesickness.
The Band of Thebes very wisely asked gay writers to name their best books for the year. Fifty-seven have answered. They provide many interesting perspectives. Read the post. Vestal McIntyre's first novel Lake Overturn (Harper, 2009, 448p) gets several mentions and is the most cited book in the lot. The translations by Daniel Mendelshon of the poems of Cavafy gets two mentions (The Collected Poems and Unfinished Poems, by C. P. Cavafy, translated from the Greek by Daniel Mendelsohn, Knopf, 2009, 624p and 144p). In the non fiction category, Christopher Bram's Mapping the Territory - Selected Nonfiction (Alyson, 2009, 300p), also gets several mentions. Stephen McCauley, without any shame, mentions a book by Sebastian Stuart, without disclosing that Sebastian is his room mate, partner, companion, significant other, husband, whatever...
The best books I read this year are in French: Biasi's Gustave Flaubert - Une manière spéciale de vivre (Grasset, 2009, 494p), a lively, knowledgeable portrait of the great French writer not avoiding any facets of his life (more here); Jean-Luc Steinmetz's excellent new edition of Lautréamont in La Pléiade (Oeuvres complères, Lautréamont, Gallimard, 2009, 796p) (more here).
My great disappointment is the absence of news about Adam Mars-Jones's sequel to Pilcrow, his overwhelming novel of 2008.
I leave the conclusion to James O'Neill who says to The Band of Thebes: "I regret to say I haven't read any books this year, save Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (again). There are a few gay bits in that, by they're mostly hidden in the Latin."
2009.12.13
In the TLS, fifty-seven writers make their selection from around the world. These are the gay books nominated:
The secret lives of Somerset Maugham (Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2009, 624p), which reconstruct an immensely successful writer's life in term as adroit, suggestive, eloquent and sad as the best of his own work (Roy Foster).
John Carey's compelling, revealing and very readable William Golding - The man who wrote 'Lord of the flies' (Faber & Faber, 2009, 592p). This is 'official' biography but nothing seems to have been off the record (Seamus Heaney).
Michael Bloch's enjoyable biography of James Lees-Milne (John Murray, 2009, 416p) (Simon Jenkins).
The long tradition of the Irish acting out, and up, in the US is powerfully evoked by Colm Toibin in his short novel Brooklyn (Scribner, 2009, 262p) (Paul Muldoon, also mentioned by Bernard O'Donoghue and Graham Robb).
Finely researched and documented, Ulrich Raulff's Kreis ohne Meister (C.H. Beck, 2009, 544p) examines the literary, historical and political afterlife of Stefan George, a fascinating study of myth and ideology (George Steiner), unfortunately not yet translated.
The New York Times, among their 100 notable books of the year, mentions:
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 2009, 528p).
Blake Bailey's Cheever - A Life (Knopf, 2009, 784p).
Edmund White's City Boy - My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s (Bloomsbury, 2009, 304p).
Brad Gooch's Flannery - A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little, Brown, 2009, 464p).
Thomas Mallon's Yours Ever - People and Their Letters (Pantheon, 2009, 352p).
The Economist:
William Golding - The man who wrote 'Lord of the flies' (John Carey, Faber & Faber, 2009, 592p).
The secret lives of Somerset Maugham (Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2009, 624p).
The Financial Times:
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell published in English this year, after winning the Prix Goncourt in 2006 (translated by Charlotte Mandell).
Brooklyn (Colm Toibin, Scribner, 2009, 262p).
Hitler’s Private Library - The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy Ryback (Bodley Head, 2009, 320p).
Animal Spirits - How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism, by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (Princeton University Press, 2009, 264p), not really gay, but the title of which echoes Keynes.
Caravaggio: The Complete Paintings, by Sebastian Schütze (Taschen, 2009, 480p): a new catalogue raisonée in large format, published to mark four centuries since Caravaggio’s mysterious death while on the run for murder in 1610.
Sprout, by Dale Peck (Bloomsbury, 2009, 288p), for young adults.
The New Yorker:
Flannery, by Brad Gooch (Little, Brown, 2009, 464p)): the quiet life behind Flannery O’Connor’s fantastic fiction.
The Collected Poems and Unfinished Poems, by C. P. Cavafy, translated from the Greek by Daniel Mendelsohn (Knopf, 2009, 624p and 144p): Modern Greek’s great master.
Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín (Scribner, 2009, 262p): emigration, love, and homesickness.
***
The Band of Thebes very wisely asked gay writers to name their best books for the year. Fifty-seven have answered. They provide many interesting perspectives. Read the post. Vestal McIntyre's first novel Lake Overturn (Harper, 2009, 448p) gets several mentions and is the most cited book in the lot. The translations by Daniel Mendelshon of the poems of Cavafy gets two mentions (The Collected Poems and Unfinished Poems, by C. P. Cavafy, translated from the Greek by Daniel Mendelsohn, Knopf, 2009, 624p and 144p). In the non fiction category, Christopher Bram's Mapping the Territory - Selected Nonfiction (Alyson, 2009, 300p), also gets several mentions. Stephen McCauley, without any shame, mentions a book by Sebastian Stuart, without disclosing that Sebastian is his room mate, partner, companion, significant other, husband, whatever...
***
The best books I read this year are in French: Biasi's Gustave Flaubert - Une manière spéciale de vivre (Grasset, 2009, 494p), a lively, knowledgeable portrait of the great French writer not avoiding any facets of his life (more here); Jean-Luc Steinmetz's excellent new edition of Lautréamont in La Pléiade (Oeuvres complères, Lautréamont, Gallimard, 2009, 796p) (more here).
My great disappointment is the absence of news about Adam Mars-Jones's sequel to Pilcrow, his overwhelming novel of 2008.
I leave the conclusion to James O'Neill who says to The Band of Thebes: "I regret to say I haven't read any books this year, save Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (again). There are a few gay bits in that, by they're mostly hidden in the Latin."
2009.12.13
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