favorite novel?

OK, I'll start a topic. What is your favorite coming out novel? My two faves are A Boy's Own Story and The World of Normal Boys. It's hard to choose between the two. I'm fond of A Boy's Own Story because it was my first book of that kind, and I really identified with it's confessional tone. But The World of Normal Boys is much more positive, and I admire the main character, Robin, for his strength. ABOS is definitely the more poetic of the two. But I also like the immediacy of TWONB, the way it puts you right in the story and reminds you of what it was like to be 14 and gay.

Sorry, I just can't decide between the two.

Am I allowed a little post here? I'm not a gay man (though I sometimes wish I was) but a straight mum of a gay man, and I'm forever looking for books for my (31 year old) son to read as he has a limited budget so I like to 'do' the 2nd hand bookshops on his behalf from time to time. (Not that he's only capable of reading about other gay men - he has a pretty broad range of literary tastes.) I also have some (I think) great 'gay'-focused books in my own collection - some of my favourites being At Swim, Two Boys, The Lost Language of Cranes (brilliant) and an interesting little n/f book about the gay world in Victorian times (I'm a bit of a social historian too) called Strangers by Graham Robb.

A couple of books I read several years ago and enjoyed (and now wish I could find again to pass on to my son) were coming-out ones (at least, they were teenage gay angst ones. I can't actually remember now whether the protagonist did come out or not, during the course of the books), both by the same author (and I'm hoping touchstones will tell me who that was in a minute) called Sucking Sherbet Lemons and Stripping Penguins Bare. Aha! According to touchstones, the author was Michael Carson.

Hope that's of interest to somebody. I don't feel I really have the qualifications to join the group so I'll slip back now into the mainstream book world. Bye!

Just to add to Booksloth's message, there is a third book in Michael Carson's 'Benson' series - 'Yanking Up The Yo-Yo' (for some reason this book - http://www.librarything.com/work/500940 - isn't 'touchstoning'.

Also I'm waiting to confirm this but I'm sure Carson's book 'Brothers In Arms' - http://www.librarything.com/work/497858 - is the same book as Sucking Sherbet Lemons just re-titled. (I can't 'touchstone' Brothers because it brings up the wrong author.)

Thanks for that Murmurs. Shame about the alternative title - I thought the titles were brilliant! I'll be checking out all three sometime soon.

Yes, the books I mention in post #3 are the same.

The 'official' Benson trilogy comprises

Sucking Sherbet Lemons
Stripping Penguins Bare
Yanking Up The Yoyo

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carson )

My favorite gay novel is, hands down, Maurice by E.M. Forester. It provides an interesting view into the world of gay men in Victorian England and has one of my most favorite ending scenes of any book I have ever read.

Just had a look at this discussion, and found that Michael Carson has release a title Benson at sixty
btw as im new to groups in LT do posts like that above happen often?

Sadly, all the time. Being a member of a literary site is no guarantee of having a brain or any manners. Click on 'more' under the post and you can 'flag' it as inappropriate. After a certain number of flags (I think it may be 4) the message will disappear though unfortunately, LT has yet to devise a way to make that also happen to the moron who posted it. (Actually that's not quite true, the member has been suspended.)