Here are 2 books that The Octopus fans have personally recommended if you like
The Octopus.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
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 play.
Among other topics, he explores the nature of masculinity and masks (projected personas), varied sexual drives, vulnerability, and the possibility of love.
Bold and inventive in style, City of Night is the groundbreaking 1960s novel about male prostitution. Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling 'youngman' and his search for self-knowledge among the other denizens of his neon-lit world. As the narrator moves from Texas to Times Square and then on to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power. On his travels, the nameless narrator meets a collection of unforgettable characters, from vice cops to guilt-ridden married men eaten up by desire, to Lance O'Hara,…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This one-act stage play and the accompanying short story cover the same material, inspired by an actual murder trial. The conception and the execution of this story are absolutely brilliant.
The competing gender attitudes are at the heart of the story and constitute an early feminist study. The contrasting viewpoints and attitudes of the men in the story versus the women who see more clearly is what makes this story so powerful.
This is a small masterpiece. I can’t recommend it enough.
First performed in 1916, "Trifles", by American playwright, actress, and novelist Susan Glaspell, is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of American theatre. Written early in the feminist movement, "Trifles" is a one-act play that explores how women act in public versus how they are in private. Loosely based on the real-life story of the murder of John Hossack and the suspicion that fell on his wife as the possible murderer, Glaspell's play compares the official investigation of the murder by the men in charge with the unofficial investigation conducted by their wives. The wives find evidence…
