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.

Contemporary Reads: The Bloody Chamber

This is a book of fairy tale-inspired stories by author Angela Carter (1940-1992). Make no mistake, this is not a children's book and you will find no fairies in it either. What you will find, though, are werewolves, vampires, erlkings and other beasts. You will also find extremely corageous women, fragile grannies and blind benefactors.

Angela Carter was a writer with a fantastic imagination and her death a great loss for English literature. I recommend you read Helen Simpson's introduction of the book. Please click here.

Other books I have read from this author: The Infernal Machines of Dr Hoffman and Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales.

Great Classics: Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is a delightful novella by Henry James. Its protagonist is a flirtatious American girl in Europe who is courted by a savvy man called Winterbourne. This tragedy can be read back to back in one sitting but take your time reading it to best appreciate James's beautiful prose.

Modern Classics: Lolita

This wonderful novel by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov deals with the obsession Humbert Humbert develops for a 12 year old girl called Lolita. Apart from Nabokov's unique grasp on style - amazingly, English was his second languange - I was totally fascinated by the story.

The story is one of obsession and possession. HH possesses a young vulnerable lass. His obsession has no limits and will take the protagonist/narrator to transgressions beyond what is legally and morally acceptable in modern Western civilization.

This is a book that pushes many a boundary and one finds oneself enjoying the dark humour and the rich narrative style in spite of its troublesome subject matter. Lolita is a masterpiece and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone.