Contemporary Reads: A Boy's Own Story

Edmund White's novel, A Boy's Own Story, is the account of a gay teenager growing up in America during the 1950s. This Bildungsroman holds that being homosexual is merely about whom we fall in love with. The protagonist/narrator wants above all to love and be loved by a man. And yet he wants to be heterosexual. Although, I grew up in the 1980s and 90s I can utterly sympathise with his struggle as am sure can any other gay readers.

Is this then a book to be solely enjoyed by homosexual readers? Nonsense, this book can be read by people who enjoy The Catcher in the Rye.

Modern Classics: If On A Winter's Night a Traveller

Italian author Italo Calvino's masterpiece is a novel about novels. Or rather, a novel about reading novels. In spite of its apparent complexity shown, for instance, on the alternation between first and second person narrative, the book has a fairly simple structure: the odd chapters concern the novel's reader and the even ones are the first chapters of ten different novels the reader is reading.

I will not explain this further as I do not want to spoil it for readers out there. All I will say is Reader, if you are seeking a book that combines intellect and imagination, please read this.