The Best Lesbian and Gay Reading

By BOOTH MOORE

June 7, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Nothing generates discussion like a Top 100 list. This week, the Publishing Triangle is announcing a list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels in an effort to broaden readership of gay literature and promote discussion.

“The 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels is not just another list,” says Charles Flowers, chair of the Publishing Triangle. “We hope this list will provoke debate about how to define a ‘gay’ book and the implications of such a category.”

The list was selected by a 14-member panel, including lesbian and gay writers Dorothy Allison, David Bergman, Michael Bronski, M.E. Kerr and Jenifer Levin. Novels were judged on their literary merit, influence and significance to lesbian and gay readers and writers.

Founded in 1988, the Publishing Triangle is an association of lesbians and gay men in publishing with more than 250 members. This month, the Triangle is inviting readers to respond to the list, which is printed in full on the Internet at https://www.publishingtriangle.org.

Here are the Top 25:

1. “Death in Venice”’ by Thomas Mann

2. “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin

3. “Our Lady of the Flowers” by Jean Genet

4. “Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust

5. “The Immoralist” by Andre Gide

6. “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf

7. “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall

8. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” by Manuel Puig

9. “The Memoirs of Hadrian” by Marguerite Yourcenar

10. “Zami” by Audre Lorde

11. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde