READING ROOM

Five Great Gay Books To Give Your Dad For Father’s Day Presents

Today Queerty’s rolling out a new monthly book column, Reading Room, that will be a place for us to recommend (and hopefully discuss) new and classic titles we think shouldn’t be missed.

Sunday is Father’s Day, and if you’re anything like us it probably slipped your mind. So we’ve selected five books that either center on gay dads, gay sons, daddies and other father figures. Grab a copy for your pop today.

 

Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?
By Dan Bucatinsky

What It’s About: Whether it’s when his daughter tricks him into smelling his finger (you’ll never forget this one) or cruising “CuteGaySalesGuy” when Daddy has to take his kid “potty,” Bucatinsky’s stories detail the L.A. couple (he and partner Don Roos are the wit behind Web Therapy, starring Lisa Kudrow, and other comedies) and their baby-rearing adventures.

Daddy Quotient: While parents telling stories about their little ones can get old fast, you’ll be laughing your ass off to about two gay dads with two wonderful adopted kids.

One Body
By John Irving

What It’s About: The story is centered around a bisexual man attracted to men, women, and transgender women. So while there may not be a traditional father-son plot point, it certainly explores ideas surrounding masculinity and gender.

Daddy Quotient: Irving has told strange tales of fathers or the fatherless, but this one is more personal. He recently explained in a discussion with fellow author and friend Edmund White that he was partially driven to write the book for his son, Everett having a gay son made me want to write this novel sooner rather than later; I remember wishing that Everett could read In One Person while he was still in his late teens or early twenties.” So think of it as a gift from a father to a son.

 

A Sense of Direction
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus

What It’s About: Lewis-Kraus is determined to live a life different than his father’s, who remained closeted until midlife, so he starts out on a series of pilgrimages. The final one includes the author, his father, and his brother on a mass migration to the tomb of a famous Hasidic mystic in the Ukraine. High stress and hijinks ensue—with plenty of insight into what it means to resist one’s family “heritage” and find some answers.

Daddy Quotient: An irascible gay rabbi for a father? You betcha there’s plenty of daddy issues here to unravel.

The Swimming-Pool Library
By Alan Hollinghurst

What It’s About: While this is book that made Hollinghurst into an sensation and one of our classic gay authors, it might not be right for all dads: It’s got some sex. Okay, a lot of sex. While 25-year-old Will, the protagonist, has plenty of issues with his father and grandfather, the main story revolves around his relationship with a man “of fantastic seniority,” 85-year-old Lord Chalres Nantwich.

Daddy Quotient: It’s a daddy-son bond that has inspired many a fantasy, by exploring the intimacy (and complications) of a May-December romance.

Assisted Loving
By Bob Morris

What It’s About: Subtitled “True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad,” Morris is a gay son who gets to tag along with his 80-year-old father, Joe, who is now single and still plenty horny. At the same time, Morris obsesses with his own problems as a flabby, middle-aged guy looking for love in Manhattan’s youth-obsessed gay scene, while also turning into a bit of a yenta for fun-loving dad.

Daddy Quotient: This breezy memoir will get you thinking about how much your own perceptions of Dear Old Dad are colored by your own expectations—and why parents aren’t the only ones who feel disappointed when their family member doesn’t quite adhere to those psychic constraints.

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