Will I love City of Night?

Rechy captures the seediness of this arena of public streets, parks, and run-down movie theaters, and vividly depicts the tawdry side of the cities his character visits.

He creates hallucinatory passages of poetic stream of consciousness that capture the inner and outer world of his protagonist. While sex is omnipresent, he is suggestive, not explicit, in describing sex acts. He focuses more on the human emotions, interactions, and relationships.

Rechy has a knack for taking a scene of riveting crisis and expanding its moment of dramatic climax into a sustained meditation on the complexities of the subtle human interactions at… show more.

A thinly fictionalized account of a young male prostitute based on the life of the writer. This was written years before Stonewall, yet presents an unflinching portrayal of the range of male sexual desire that would be cutting edge even today. No excuse is given for sexual activity that most would see as peculiar because the author makes clear that, in his estimation, none is required. He never says as much, but it can be inferred from every line on every page.

I especially love how he can describe men who are utterly insensitive and emotionally shut down, and what… show more.

The search for the self is an act of self-indulgence and that search and that act is on full display in this 60s gay classic. I adore Rechy’s prose, it’s just so different and beautiful, and although this is an old story, much of its loveliness and loneliness and promiscuity has never changed. I read City of Night and reread it for the tender, cracked characters who keep looking so patiently into every dark corner.