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This novel from 1992 is being reissued by New Directions in May, and it is hilarious, very sad, and constantly teetering on the brink of being genuinely offensive. But it isn’t offensive! It depicts the fraught, competitive, and co-dependent relationship between gay men and women in a way that not many writers of either group have been able to pull off. I don’t know that many writers at all have attempted to depict this relationship as a primary goal in their texts—it does come up as a consequence of other plots and themes—but that’s what this book is “about.” I was going to add one of my favorite lines from the book here, but out of context it does indeed seem offensive, even if I promise it’s narrated from the perspective of an Emma Bovary character, so you just have to get the book and see for yourself.
Jun 6, 2024
Related Recs
5d ago
read this recently and it’s been mad long since I reaaaaally dug a book like this. so frank and truthful and didn’t feel contemporary- sometimes contemporary gay literature can be a little too I Made You a Cookie But I Eated It vibes but this was so visceral and enriching and wow. Highly recommend
May 10, 2024
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I heard this book was funny but the dialogue is like a Wes Anderson movie if the characters were even more crass and everyone important was a cagey woman doing very gay shit. (That comparison may be in part because I'm listening at x1.5 speed.) The ridiculous is almost impossible to parse from the bleak and either way it's visceral enough to occasionally startle you awake like the chirp of an urgent email notification from your boss obliterates a weird sex daydream or a stranger interrupts your Sunday morning walk by screaming nonsense at you on the street.
Feb 29, 2024
Top Recs from @lauren-oyler
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Made from “immature pine cones”—great phrase—this is just what it sounds like. I encountered it for the first time in Tbilisi, and it seems like it’s sort of hard to find outside the region (as far as I’ve tried), but it’s worth it. I’d never thought about immature pine cones before, but they’re delightful in texture and size.
Jun 6, 2024
👃
These are the most French perfumes you can possibly imagine: niche and completely over-the-top in terms of scent, price, and packaging (sorry, flacons). They have a collection of perfumes inspired by paintings, which are printed on the bottle. For other scents, you can replace the cap—which I think must always come with a tassel around the neck—with a small classical bust, which I believe is also theoretically aligned with the perfume’s notes. This costs an additional 100+ euros or something, so I did not do it on my bottle of Invasion Barbare, which I bought only partly for the name. It makes you smell like George Clooney and stays on for about 20 hours.
Jun 6, 2024
🏊
Even if you’re not a huge fan of lap swimming, indoor pools are often really special examples of national architecture—my favorites are from the first half of the twentieth century—and it’s surprisingly interesting to observe the pool etiquette of different cultures. Italians, while somewhat impatient and in-your-face on land, are incredibly courteous and respectful of relative speed in the water; they’re gracious and accommodating if you need to pass them. In Milan I always make a point to go to Piscina Cozzi, which had a huge Maurizio Cattelan mural on the back wall featuring a tacky Ophelia in red lipstick. It was there in October of last year, but I think they’ve since taken it down, which is a shame, but apparently he swims there, too.
Jun 6, 2024