I’m looking for books that have a very specific vibe. Years ago, I read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and fell in love with it. Recently, I read Wound by Oksana Vasyakina and fell in love with that too, for all of the exact same reasons. I’m now desperately searching for books that scratch the same itch.
Anyone have any recommendations for queer memoirs or autofiction (or novels that read like a memoir or autofiction) that are kind of dark or bleak on the surface but also a beautiful work of art too? I think one of the things I loved so much about both of these books is that both authors are also poets. So their prose was super lyrical. Both of these books were just kind of heartbreaking and haunting but also stunning and I really want more.
Any recommendations for books that check some or all of these boxes would be much appreciated.
by snatchthepower
4 Comments
Darker, but the novel What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell I believe falls into the same universe. He also started out as a poet. And I happen to deeply love both that novel as well as ‘On Earth.’ On an even darker note (but still truly stunningly beautiful, and oddly hopeful!) is the memoir ‘Close to the Knives’ by David Wojnarowicz, who was a queer artist/sex worker/activist during the AIDs crisis, which contains some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. (And I’m positive he was an influence on both Vuong and Greenwell; in fact I think the buffalo motif in ‘On Earth’ is a nod to a Wojnarowicz work). Anyway hope any of those leads help 🙂
I adore that book. Starting with the title, it’s just beyond beautiful. Hard to find something that compares to it.
I am so happy to recommend to you
All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt
“When Seán Hewitt meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe mental illness, they soon come face-to-face with crisis.
All Down Darkness Wide is a perceptive and unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender and honest portrayal of what it’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one’s deep depression. As lives are made and unmade, this memoir asks what love can endure and what it cannot.”
I’ve also read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous a year or so ago and was captivated by the beauty of the prose and the events that happen in the book. I cannot stop thinking about this book.
And All Down Darkness Wide was a similar experience for me. The author is also a poet, the prose is very beautiful in my opinion. And I also love that besides the story of his relationship with Elias, the author also delves into the life of historical queer poets and how being queer has affected them.
I cannot recommend this book enough, it is definitely one of my all time favorite reads.
As a friend of Oceans this makes me very happy. 😃