The novella about a writer's infatuation with a teenage boy was followed by James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room," the story of an expatriate's struggle with his sexual identity, and "Our Lady of the Flowers," Jean Genet's fantasy about a male prostitute in the Parisian underworld.

Two classic French novels finished fourth and fifth: Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" and Andre Gide's "The Immoralist."

The list was compiled by Publishing Triangle, which consists of more than 250 gay and lesbian writers, editors, agents and publishers.

The criteria for what constitutes a "gay novel" were hazy. Titles apparently could make the list if the author was gay, if the book had gay subject matter, or the text was simply open to gay interpretation.

As a result, the judges disagreed, for instance, over the inclusion of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick."

"Each of these books contributes to the understanding of the outsider mentality," said one of the judges, novelist Dorothy Allison, whose own "Bastard Out of Carolina" made the list. "'Moby-Dick' is very much about the survival of the different. And that's pretty much the situation for gay and lesbian people."

"You could say that about a leper colony, too," countered fellow judge M.E. Kerr, a novelist. "You have to consider the writer's intention. If you're supposed to choose a gay novel, I should think that it's not just because it has a group of men or women interacting."

The exercise was a response to the Modern Library's list last summer of the century's best English-language novels. That list was widely criticized as a stodgy compilation of white male literature. The Modern Library is a division of Random House.

"That list got me thinking about what novels by gays and lesbians were overlooked," said Charles Flowers, chairman of the Publishing Triangle.

The Publishing Trangle list covers the best novels ever, not just those of the 20th century. There are far more women and nonwhites, and all languages were eligible.

Fourteen judges were on the Publishing Triangle selection committee, among them John Loughery, art critic for the Hudson Review, and Anthony Heilbut, author of a prize-winning biography of Mann.

If the Modern Library could be faulted for disregarding alternative voices, the current list could be cited for excessive loyalty to those voices.

Few critics, for instance, would call "Giovanni's Room" a better novel than "Remembrance of Things Past" or rank Patricia Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" (No. 36) above "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (No. 40) and Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women." (No. 43).

"Many elements went into the voting," Flowers said. "Social influence. Cultural influence. Literary quality. I don't believe there's a single objective standard."
salon.com | June 8, 1999

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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