The Books Briefing: The Propulsive Power of Desire

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman defies a major convention of queer literature. In a genre often defined by frustrated yearning, and after a long summer of lustful internal monologues, the novel’s two protagonists do finally get what they desire—however fleetingly.

The nature of longing also pervades the plots of by Emma Cline and by Alison. Such desires do not go away with age. The writer Claire Dederer reimagines female middle age in , with refreshing frankness. , by the novelist Jamie Quatro, describes a married woman’s lust for men who are not her husband. The protagonist’s , and the reader begins to understand that, more than she wants any man, she simply wants to feel the sensation of yearning.