NY Times Book Review finds the gays notable

The New York Times just released their year-end list of the "100 Notable Books of 2007", and, while they didn't crack the prestigious top ten, two gay novels managed to make the cut!

The first, André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name, is about a 17-year-old Italian boy and the love affair he has with the 27-year-old American graduate student who has come to live with his family in the Italian Riviera. I can’t argue with the book’s inclusion too much; I respected Call Me By Your Name when I read the novel several months back, and came away with the impression that Aciman was a magnificent writer, though perhaps not the right one for this particular story. Many reviewers (gay ones in particular) praised Aciman, who is straight, for so accurately portraying the mindset of a gay teenager, but the story left me cold. I seem to be in the vast minority, however.

The other gay novel that made the list was Thomas Mallon’s Fellow Travelers. Set against the backdrop of the McCarthy-era anti-gay (and Communist) witch hunts, the novel tells the story of a duplicitous State Department official and the male college-graduate intern who falls for him. I haven’t read the novel, but it’s already been placed atop the perpetual stack of "must read" books I keep on my bedside table.

For a decidedly queerer angle on the year in literature, be sure to check back in a few weeks for our comprehensive look back at the year in gay books.