Gay Authors and Gay Characters

Are you grossed out by the title? Too bad. You’re losing some extremely good literature, Romanian and international. But it’s okay, most probably people were feeling the same way towards the first female authors and female characters. So, in time we’ll get to a point when you won’t be grossed out by the title anymore.

So far I’ve read two books built around gay guys - the first one, in English, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera and the second, in Romanian - Cimitirul (The Cemetery) by Teleșpan. They both got me through all emotions and at the end, I wanted to throw the books at the walls, that’s how great their ending was. What I loved the most in both were the honesty, humour and irony. Let me explain.

The first one is about a world where there is this service called Death-Cast and these people called you to let you know that in the next 24 hours you will inevitably die. So people could enjoy their last 24 hours, they have all sorts of apps and sales and free-entrances, among them ‘the last friend’ sort of a Tinder for people who were going to die. That’s how Rufus and Mateo met. And talking about irony, these boys (17 - 18 years old) go to karaoke. What song do they choose? American Pie by Don McLean.

Bye, bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

And them good ole’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye

Singin’ THIS WILL BE THE DAY THAT I DIE.

This was one of my favourite songs anyway, but after this moment, I get goosebumps twice when I listen to it - once because it’s a great song and once because it reminds me of that great book. And now I will get goosebumps 3 times because I will link it to The Cemetery with Adrian who loves music and this lyric could be a motto for him.

Did you write the book of love

And do you have faith in God above

If the Bible tells you so?

Do you believe in rock and roll?

Can music save your mortal soul?

And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

I read The Cemetery about one month before I’m moving to a new house in London and at about five months, not illegally, but voluntarily with a very cool organisation, offering me the opportunity to understand how the UK works and continue my development in the NGO area. I’ve been through job hunting and I would also get countless offers that had nothing to do with me. It was very relatable. I liked that I recognised many places in the book too - I’ve been to some of them, some others I saw written on buses or I’ve heard them on the train or tube. I want to visit Wormholt.

This entire book I felt as if I was chatting with Adrian. I’ve read at home with my cup of tea next to me and on the bus. At home, Adrian was in front of me, he had a cup of tea too (it was green tea, I hope it was okay with his diet), and in the bus, we were at the top floor, in front of the window, and he was on the chair on my right telling me about his day, sharing his philosophies, complaining about the drama in his life etc. Now I’ll miss him ‘cause I won’t find out what else he is doing, but I hope he’s okay.

Both of these books I’m talking about are also written extraordinarily. I wouldn’t call myself a literary critic, but I finished my first year as a Literature student, so I got some concepts and theory. They Both Die at the End is written from multiple perspectives and the story builds up slowly, gradually, you find out everything you need to, all your questions find an answer, your heart stops beating a few times while you read (but that’s fine), and the ending is absolutely perfect. I had two options - 1. it ends exactly how it says (they both die at the end) or 2. the exact opposite - and for the first one, I had two more ways in which that would happen - Rufus/Mateo is talking about something and suddenly something happens and one of them just says ‘that’s how we died’ (which would have been strange given that the person was dead) or someone else would tell how the boys died (which would have been the okay option between these). If any of these scenarios would have been real, I would have said it was an okay book. But none of these happened and that’s why I’m saying it’s an awesome book.

In The Cemetery, you only have a first-person narration from Adrian’s perspective. However, there’s no room for questions, unlike other first-person narratives - because Adrian is looking for some answers, we get them too. Whatever the ending leaves you with some questions, but that’s the idea with open endings. The characters are built very well. As I was saying, I felt as if I were chatting with Adrian. You find out about everyone all you need to get a general idea and you don’t get lost in useless details. This narrative stops your heart too, mostly as you come closer to the end. I read the last 7 pages without breathing. I snapped out of it right before the last page and I felt my heart was about to explore. But when I finished reading I felt at peace. I love it when a book is real and honest. Literature reflects life, life is sometimes dramatic, but it has her own balance that also needs to be reflected in literature. Teleșpan succeeds to do this.

Thinking about these books, I figured some things I feel sorry for. I feel sorry that there are so many homophobes (and misogynistic people, and racists and other mis- and -phobes and -ists) that will never enjoy some of the great books in the world. I feel sorry that people from the LGBT community need to go through all sorts of trauma because it’s so hard to accept that they are also humans. I feel sorry there are so many Romanians refusing to read Romanian Literature. I feel sorry there aren’t more Romanian authors translated into English and other languages and that they can’t be read by more people. I feel sorry there isn’t more support for writers. However, I like to hope and ‘when you hope, you do it! When you dream, you just dream!’ (Teleșpan, p.115, translated by me).