Leave ‘em Laughing with Gay Fiction for the Holidays
A couple years ago, as I working on my book Sawdust Confessions, I began thinking about my favorite humorous LGBT-related fiction—especially novels. The titles I came up with made for a very short list. Like many people my age, I loved the early works of Rita Mae Brown and Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series. As for classics, I found a lot to smile about in E.M. Forster’s Maurice. But most of the stories that inspired me to write about gay, lesbian, and transgender people in a funny situation were relatively recent plays penned directly for stage, film, or television.
Why are there so few memorable comedic gay novels, I wondered, so I decided to start a discussion board on amazon.com asking book buyers what they considered to be the funniest LGBT-themed novel they’ve ever read. I’ve been surprised by the volume of responses, which continue to flow in more than 18 months after I launched the web thread. Now, as we enter another holiday gift-giving season, I’d like to share a few of the nearly 100 readers’ favorites cited to date. What better holiday present than one that makes the recipient laugh out loud or break into a deeply knowing smile?
The only ground rule for my web thread is that the books recommended must be long-form fictional stories, not collections of humorous essays (at which such writers as David Sedaris and Fay Jacobs excel.) In compiling this list, I also omitted Brown and Maupin. If you’re not aware of their works, drop everything and get thee to a library—or a Kindle—or a brick-and-mortar bookstore.
Almost all of the books named below have been published in the decade since the millennium turned, but a few of the authors have been plugging away much longer. The list begins with the top three vote getters; the rest are in random order, included because of multiple recommendations or especially strong reviews from their nominators. (Books nominated only by their authors also were eliminated.)
1. Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer by Mari SanGiovanni: Marie Santora comes from a prototypical Italian family rich with feuds, ritual harassment and “steaming hot meatballs.” But when Marie’s grandmother passes on, the contents of her will tip the family balance over the edge. Financially independent for the first time in her life, Marie dumps her unfaithful lover and decides to write screenplays. She agonizes over the perfect actress for her work and is relieved to take a vacation to Jamaica with her family. But when the Italian clan arrives in the land of the “Reggae Boyz,” the results are explosive, with love found, lost, and lurking everywhere.
2. Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan: Along with Keenan’s Putting on the Ritz, this book received multiple votes for hilarity. As respected author/reviewer Ruth Sims put it, “They’re my go-to books when I’m down .... They always make me laugh.” In Blue Heaven, Gilbert is a lovably amoral twink. And Philip, the narrator, isn’t much better because he always lets Gilbert get him into trouble, including but not limited to mob warfare over Gilbert’s faux marriage to a woman, Moira, solely for the lavish wedding gifts. “If Laurel and Hardy had been young, gay, and good-looking,” says Sims, “they would have been Gilbert and Philip.”
3. How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater by Marc Acito: Penned by a former columnist whose work appeared regularly in Letters from CAMP Rehoboth, this multi-vote getter is a deliciously funny romp about an overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager’s larcenous quest for his acting-school tuition. It’s set in 1983 in a sleepy bedroom community outside of Manhattan. There, 17-year-old slacker Edward, incapable of holding down a job, turns to his misfit friends to help him steal the money. Disguising themselves as nuns and priests, they scheme their way through embezzlement, identity theft, forgery, and blackmail before discovering the true meaning of friendship.
Divas Las Vegas by Rob Rosen: What happens when you find out that Grandma’s vase mistakenly sold at a yard sale is worth tens of thousands of dollars—and somebody else is about to cash in on it? In Rosen’s book, you hop on a plane with your best friend and race to Las Vegas to get it back. There you become involved with sexy blackjack dealers, divine drag queens, and troublesome law enforcement officers. (Divas, which was one of the best sellers among comical gay books in 2010, has often been paired with and compared to Sawdust Confessions by amazon’s LGBT humor buyers.)
The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody: In 1702, when pirates attempt to abduct a doctor to tend to their wounded, they end up settling for his attractive fiancée, Celia Pierce, the town seamstress. For Gayle, daughter of the wounded pirate captain, Celia’s presence is a welcome and shapely distraction. As Celia and Gayle navigate the perilous territories of gypsies, prostitutes, mercenaries, and slave traders, they forge a partnership born of necessity that Gayle hopes will veer away from danger—and instead lead to her bed.
The Gay Haunt by Victor J. Banis (originally published under the name Victor Jay): Banis is a veteran mystery author, and this older story has become something of a classic comedy, sometimes described as a gay Blithe Spirit. A man’s gay partner dies and he decides to go straight. He becomes engaged to a woman, but his late lover’s ghost has different ideas for him.
Selfish and Perverse by Bob Smith: The author was one of the first openly gay comics to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and this novel is a romantic comedy about a man trapped in his job as script supervisor for a low-rated late-night sketch TV show. He falls for a handsome, science-nerd, Alaskan boy but is also attracted to a Hollywood movie star, freshly paroled after a drug bust. When the three end up at the boy’s Alaskan home, hilarity, love, and debauchery ensue. According to one of the multiple readers voting for it, this story features “some of the most wonderfully drawn characters I have ever met in the pages of a book.”
The Perils of Praline by Marshall Thornton: After he falls for a contestant he watches on a reality TV show, Peter “Praline” Palmetier leaves his home in rural Georgia to search for the man in Hollywood. There he encounters a collection of startling, sexually ramped-up characters, including a “studly steward,” a conservative talk show host, the “Godfather of the Gay Mafia” and a casting assistant who tries his best to steer Praline clear of trouble.
Minding Therapy by Ros Johnson: Daryl Stone, a wisecracking therapist at a mental health center, is feeling burned out not only at her job but also in her personal life. Daryl probably should see a shrink herself, but she prefers to rely on pop culture, talk shows, and food for answers. Therapy is for other people—or is it?
Other strong contenders include Last Chance at the Lost and Found by Marcia Finical; The Night We Met and Straight Lies by Rob Byrnes; Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger; Idaho Code, and From Hell to Breakfast by Joan Opyr.
Happy reading, and happiest holidays!
Bill Sievert’s top 10 LGBT comic novel “Sawdust Confessions” is available on Amazon and elsewhere; Email Bill Sievert