Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I searched for a topic along these lines but finding none decided to start one.

I've been compiling a list of all the LGBTQ themed books in the list, along with those that feature gender change even if not necessarily trans (hence, Orlando). It can be tricky as queer authors do not always include such themes in the list books and I am not as well read to make a judgement, more often than not.

So this is a work in progress, feel free to add titles you know of or suggest the removal of a title:

Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
Crash, J.G. Ballard
John Banville, The Untouchable,
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
William S. BurroughsJunky
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs, Queer
William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys
Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World
Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Patricia Duncker, Hallucinating Foucault
David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
As Maurice is not on the list, E.M. Forster can be counted out, I think?
André Gide, The Counterfeiters
André Gide, The Immoralist
Any more Gide titles?
Alan Hollinghurst, The Folding Star
Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library
John Irving, The World According to Garp
'A Single Man' is not a list title, any queer books from Christopher Isherwood that are on the list?
Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall on Your Knees
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
Ryū Murakami, Almost Transparent Blue
Iris Murdoch, The Bell
Robert Musil, The Confusions of Young Törless
Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys
Marcel Proust, Remembrance Of Things Past or In Search Of Lost Time
Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
Rilke has some queer stuff, cannot speak for the list title, though.
João Guimarães Rosa, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
Colm Tóibín, The Master, how about the other Tóibín title?
Fernando Vallejo, Our Lady of the Assassins
Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Sylvia Townsend Warner, Summer Will Show
Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
Edmund White, The Beautiful Room Is Empty
Edmund White, A Boy's Own Story
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson, The Passion
Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body
Virginia Woolf,Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
Any other Woolf titles?
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

As far as themed:
John Banville, The Untouchable
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Heavy Undertones:
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Minor themes and incidents:
Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
José Saramago, Caim
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

Yes on Myra Breckenridge.

Patricia Duncker, Hallucinating Foucault
Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice
André Gide, The Immoralist
André Gide, The Counterfeiters
William S. Burroughs, Queer
William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs, Junky
Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls
Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve

Possibly:
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen

Thank you both, I can't believe I forgot to add Wilde even though I read him and even made a note, post-edit, to add him.

The Secret History indeed has a queer character but it plays such a small part in the story that I will not be adding it. There are undertones as well but it's not enough to warrant being added to this list as I am aiming for canonically queer, in which there is a centrality of focus, so to speak, regarding queer characters as such.
I am also on the fence regarding Interview with the Vampire, it has been such a long time since I read it.

Yes, Kafka on the Shore should be on here. And I think Mrs. Dalloway as well.

Amanda wrote: "Yes, Kafka on the Shore should be on here. And I think Mrs. Dalloway as well."

Thanks, Amanda. It's been a while since I read Mrs. Dalloway so I was unsure.

I will add it right away.

I decided to also include a list of 'Heavy Undertones' for those titles that are suggested as such or that readers are unsure if they qualify for canon but have enough going on for them to be a category of sorts.

It might be useful to readers.

Which reminds me, any trans material, at all?

Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami belongs on the list, the main character and several others are bisexual.

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa.

Pale Fire by Nabokov and The Bell by Iris Murdoch would also qualify.

In Virginia Woolf's The Waves there are six main characters who talk in alternating monologues and one of them is gay. His sexuality is openly discussed and in my opinion he's the best lgbtq character created by Woolf, but being one of six narrators, his part in quite small.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay has two main characters and one of them is gay, it would definitely qualify.

In William Burroughs Junky there were so many characters and I don't remember any major focus on queer themes, but it's been a while since I read it so maybe I'm mistaken.

This would make a good Listopia list although it would be pretty hard to manage.

Nocturnalux wrote: "Which reminds me, any trans material, at all?."

The only list books I read that had (secondary) trans characters are Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

Nocturnalux wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Yes, Kafka on the Shore should be on here. And I think Mrs. Dalloway as well."

Thanks, Amanda. It's been a while since I read Mrs. Dalloway so I was unsure.

I will add it right aw..."

As far as Trans material goes, other than those already mentioned, the main chracter of Myra Breckinridge is a trans woman and the author- Gore Vidal- is queer. I thought the actual representation was super iffy. I notice it's already on your list though.

Can confirm that The Confusions of Young Törless on your list is overtly queer.

I remember Crash by Ballard being his list book with overt LGBTQ content, can't recall this being the case in others by him but may be wrong.

If you are including " heavy overtones", that is what would qualify Brideshead Revisited imo. It is not not overtly queer, but is held up as a queer literature classic none the less.

I haven't seen anyone bring up Our Lady of the Assassins yet, which is explicitly about a romantic/sexual relationship between two men. Or, Fall on Your Knees where a WLW relationship between a main and secondary character is central to the book's plot (and the author is an out lesbian).

One of the main POV characters in Cloud Atlas is queer as well. Whether this is enough for this list is up to you.

I'll add more if I can think of them.

Amanda wrote: "As far as Trans material goes, other than those already mentioned, the main chracter of Myra Breckinridge is a trans woman and the author- Gore Vidal- is queer. I thought the actual representation was super iffy. I notice it's already on your list though."

I do not think there is any list book authored by a Trans person. At least not by one that has actually identified as such.

Representation is indeed an issue here. I decided to include all queer-centric list titles without my passing judgment on them, knowing full well that readers may very well encounter less than savory material here. Readers may find these representations interesting if only from an historical point of view (or not, which is entirely valid as well).

There are quite a few tangentially queer characters that do not impact the plot enough to qualify and those are overwhelmingly negatively portrayed. I am almost certain Basie, the iffy sailor in Empire of the Sun is meant to be gay and he is a good example of this.
Other times the character's queerness is so marginal that I also opted not to include them; I am almost certain Bonamy in Jacob's Room is gay but it barely mentioned.

Amanda wrote: "One of the main POV characters in Cloud Atlas is queer as well. Whether this is enough for this list is up to you.

I haven't read it myself- and will give it top priority now- but if it is canonically gay and a major character is involved then I think it counts so I am adding it, if only tentatively.

Thank you all for contributing.

I am indeed also considering a list for heavy undertones as that will be very interesting. There is fertile ground there.

Nocturnalux wrote: "Amanda wrote: "As far as Trans material goes, other than those already mentioned, the main chracter of Myra Breckinridge is a trans woman and the author- Gore Vidal- is queer. I thought the actual ..."

Thanks for adding my suggestions :), I think this list is a great idea, especially considering it's pride month right now (and a much more indoorsy one than usual).

I also just realized I forgot some that haven't been brought up yet: The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker (I see The Color Purple is already here but this one applies as well), and Goodbye to Berlin by Isherwood for sure. Possibly also Regeneration since Seigfried Sassoon is a main character and he does discuss his sexuality in it.

Nocturnalux wrote: "without my passing judgment on them, knowing full well that readers may very well encounter less than savory material here. Readers may find these representations interesting if only from an historical point of view (or not, which is entirely valid as well). ..."

This was practically a trigger when I read what you wrote here. The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade definitely qualifies in this department. The group of men does what they do with both females and males.

Amazing topic! I was looking for something like this before and it's finally here. Thank You. On The Art of Fielding there's a gay "dangerous affair" between two important characters and would totally fit on this list.

The World According to Garp features a trans-character.

E. Lynn Harris is an author who wrote contemporary urban fiction. All of his books feature gay black men. He was one of my favorite authors as a teen.

Ellinor wrote: "The World According to Garp features a trans-character."

Thanks, added.

Jasmine wrote: "E. Lynn Harris is an author who wrote contemporary urban fiction. All of his books feature gay black men. He was one of my favorite authors as a teen."

That's great but the author is not on the list and this is a subset for list titles.

One could maybe make an argument for The Fox by D.H. Lawrence. He doesn't outright say that the two main characters are lesbian, but in my personal opinion it's implied. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks could also be included, however, I don't think that particular character's identity figures heavily in the plot. I don't want to give too much away because spoilers... :) I just want to endorse At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill. Because of The List, that is now one of my absolute favorite books. Beautiful story!