Essential Pride Month Picks
Our final list of Pride Month recommendations features a selection of novels from the past couple of decades that have had a massive impact and are well worth a read.
Tipping The Velvet- Sarah Waters, 1998
Sarah Water’s classic 1998 coming-of-age story is of Nan, a Whitstable “oyster girl” in 1890 who, upon getting booked for a show in her local theatre, becomes smitten with the charismatic masher (male impersonator) Kity. Water’s heroine follows Kitty to London, where the more experienced woman schools Nan in the ways of impersonating a dapper dandy onstage. They duo perform as men and become the toast of London’s music halls while simultaneously falling in love. The book was an immediate favourite amongst queer women for its candid portrayal of lesbian desire and deconstruction of gender roles.
The Line of Beauty- Alan Hollinghurst, 2004
This Booker Prize winning novel follows its young gay protagonist, Nick, through the worlds of British upper class politics in the 1980s. It deals with the hypocritical and ambivalent attitude of 1980s posh Britain towards homosexuality and also explores the looming AIDS crisis, the importance of privilege and status in British society, and the ethereal power of beauty.
Under The Udala Trees- Chinelo Okparanta, 2015
This powerful story is set against the backdrop of civil war in Nigeria and follows the love between two girls on the frontline. A girl displaced by the Nigerian civil war begins an affair with a fellow refugee. The girls belong to different ethnic communities, and their taboo love compels them to confront their communities’ prejudices about the other and being queer in a nation that’s eating itself alive.
Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl- Andrea Lawlor, 2017
This hilarious, incisive, sweet and frequently filthy book follows Paul Polydoria, a shapeshifting bartender who can change gender at will, on a riotous adventure through early ‘90s queer America. From Riot Grrl to leather cub and Iowa City to San Francisco, this is a journey through queer theory, LGBT communities and gender fluidity, as well as an homage to early ‘90s counter-culture.
Less- Andrew Sean Greer, 2018
Less is a unique work that follows Arthur Less, a professor who is traveling the world to avoid an awkward wedding and numb his loss about the man he loves. But it is also a rollicking satire and a tale that explores various aspects of aging, orientation, identity and love. It won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
In The Dream House- Carmen Maria Machado, 2019
In this radically and candid and inventive memoir, Machado tackles a dark and difficult subject with inventiveness, wit and an inquiring spirit, as she uses a series of narrative tropes– including classic horror themes– to create a unique piece of work. It chronicles an abusive relationship between two lesbians with unflinching honesty and documents the little indignities. Her roots as a large, Latino woman also goes against the idea of who a “victim” is– somebody who’s female-presenting, meek, slim, white. She talks about the feeling of growing up fat and therefore feeling “grateful for anything you can get” and also about bodily desires.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous- Ocean Vuong, 2019
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is as evocative as it is painful. It’s a coming of age story about surviving the aftermath of trauma. It follows the letters written by a young Vietnamese American to his illiterate mother– her education having ended at seven, when her school in Vietnam collapsed after an American napalm raid. The thrust of the novel is about processing and articulating difficult memories, grappling with the limits of language, and “attempting to break free” by writing. The result is a fractured narrative of a family torn apart and of his first love affair, a tragic relationship with a rough American boy ravaged by drugs.
Shuggie Bain- Douglas Stewart, 2020
This is the story of Shuggie, a young boy in poverty-stricken 1980s Glasglow. The ruthlessness of growing up poor and the limits of love are laid bare as his mother drinks herself to death after her husband deserts her, leaving her with three children in an impoverished mining town. At the centre of all this, little Shuggie is just beginning to perceive, and trying to puzzle out why nearly everyone he meets considers him “no right.” He is different from other boys. Filled with lyrical Scottish slang, visceral descriptions of bodies and the understanding of growing up with an alcoholic parent, Shuggie Bain is one of the most explosive debuts of modern times.