Will I love Our Lady of the Flowers?

The fact that this queer masterpiece was written entirely in the solitude of a prison cell is only the first of many awe-inspiring truths about the book and its author. The drag queen Divine, a pimp named Darling Daintyfoot and Our Lady populate the book (published in 1943) offering a glimpse into a voluptuous Parisian fringe world. It was the thrilling—at times disturbing—story that first drew me in as a budding writer, but ultimately it was my realization that a book can be at once highly artful and literary as well as deeply erotic. It opened up a new freedom… show more.

One of the first books I bought that could be considered subversive literature, Our Lady still remains as vital as ever as we are plunged into the gay underworld of Paris with its criminal code, juvenile delinquents and male prostitutes dreamed up by the author whilst doing time for burglary, ‘I can muse in comfort on the lovely dead of yesterday, today and tomorrow.’ Genet’s isolation goes beyond that of even the most disciplined author just as his life experience gives the book its fantastic reality that is infused with the odors of poison flowers and spent lust. 

Our Lady… show more.