Night And Dark, 30 Oct 2003
By employing a technique that's somehow similar to Robert Altman's cinematic storytelling, ie showing a number of characters whose lives are bound to . . .
Now, this is for y o u to explore.

This grotesquely funny and improbably touching novel shows American gay world on the brink of AIDS. Sex-obsessed, love-starved, and utterly lonely, the men populating this, The City Of Night, continue their struggle for attention - in a way that is both heart-rending and, to some perhaps, brilliantly inspiring.
Be warned, however, this is not light entertainment.

Deserves highest praise., 01 Sep 1999
I just read a real nasty review of this book in an L.A. paper, and the extent of the nastiness made me go out and buy the book, to check out why anyone could become so angry at a book by a very respected writer, Rechy. I understand now. It's a powerful book, and it's disturbing. It makes you think deeply about things, and if you don't want to think about those things--like S & M and a time when life was one endless sex parade--I guess one way to push it away is to attack it. The novel re-creates 1981 exactly as I remember it, sex everywhere--and, then, just whispers, intimations of a "gay illness." That's how it happened, and this book is especially relevant to what is happening today. Beyond that, its gallery of characters is unforgettable, and Rechy at the same time that he's at times brutally honest about his characters is compassionate, especially toward those who were being thrust out of the world that was more and more involved only with youth, allowing only the young in some dance places, bathhouses. The portrait of the older man Thomas Watkins almost brought me to tears; and there's a terrific female character, a gangster's girl, who toughly faces off some punks. The ending leaves you gasping, it's that powerful--and meaningful.

Terrific read, 25 Aug 1999
This is a novel for everyone, gay or straight, who wants to know what 1981, the dawn of AIDS, was like. Its varied cast--including a howlingly hilarious drag queen porn director and a man who's fleeing some aspects of the gay world (read: S&M)--creates a panorama of the times, although it's set in L.A. There are memorable scenes, like the one in the NY orgy room, and the scene at the last, which leaves you stunned. There's also the capturing of what a gay cruising bar is like, and it's exactly right. It's a timely novel, and its at-times graphic view of scenes doesn't keep it from being surprisingly poetic. Days after reading it, I can't get the characters out of my mind, especially young Jesse and the priest obsessed with finding a hustler with a tattooed cross. This is the kind of book you want to start reading again right away.

Essential reading, terrific book, 20 Aug 1999
I can't think of a more relevant novel to today, than this novel about "how it was" in 1981 when sex was everywhere. The author captures that period, makes you feel as if you're there, with all the excitement and also the dangers on the gay scene. He captures exactly how the awareness of "a new gay illness" came into the scene--so quietly. The cast of characters is fantastic--from a young guy celebrating one year of being gay to a priest obsessed with a hustler, to a black cowboy. Rechy makes them all believable--funny and sad in turns; and we end up caring for them even when we wince at some of what they do. Rechy has made a terrific "comeback" into the world of his "City of Night" and "The Sexual Outlaw." No one else could have written as intimately about the world then and made it as relevant to the world now. As serious as the novel's intention is, it is also a very, very hot book.

man, what a disappointment, 17 Aug 1999
i bought this book on the strength of his earlier works but i'd advise the rest of you to save your pennies. it's not a good book and it's far from his best work. yes, it is sex-filled but the characters are flat and you end up not caring about any of them, even if you can keep them straight [as it were]. there are dozens of books that chronicle this time period in a more engaging way. on top of that, it wasn't even hot.

Night And Dark, 30 Oct 2003
By employing a technique that's somehow similar to Robert Altman's cinematic storytelling, ie showing a number of characters whose lives are bound to . . .
Now, this is for y o u to explore.

This grotesquely funny and improbably touching novel shows American gay world on the brink of AIDS. Sex-obsessed, love-starved, and utterly lonely, the men populating this, The City Of Night, continue their struggle for attention - in a way that is both heart-rending and, to some perhaps, brilliantly inspiring.
Be warned, however, this is not light entertainment.

Deserves highest praise., 01 Sep 1999
I just read a real nasty review of this book in an L.A. paper, and the extent of the nastiness made me go out and buy the book, to check out why anyone could become so angry at a book by a very respected writer, Rechy. I understand now. It's a powerful book, and it's disturbing. It makes you think deeply about things, and if you don't want to think about those things--like S & M and a time when life was one endless sex parade--I guess one way to push it away is to attack it. The novel re-creates 1981 exactly as I remember it, sex everywhere--and, then, just whispers, intimations of a "gay illness." That's how it happened, and this book is especially relevant to what is happening today. Beyond that, its gallery of characters is unforgettable, and Rechy at the same time that he's at times brutally honest about his characters is compassionate, especially toward those who were being thrust out of the world that was more and more involved only with youth, allowing only the young in some dance places, bathhouses. The portrait of the older man Thomas Watkins almost brought me to tears; and there's a terrific female character, a gangster's girl, who toughly faces off some punks. The ending leaves you gasping, it's that powerful--and meaningful.

Terrific read, 25 Aug 1999
This is a novel for everyone, gay or straight, who wants to know what 1981, the dawn of AIDS, was like. Its varied cast--including a howlingly hilarious drag queen porn director and a man who's fleeing some aspects of the gay world (read: S&M)--creates a panorama of the times, although it's set in L.A. There are memorable scenes, like the one in the NY orgy room, and the scene at the last, which leaves you stunned. There's also the capturing of what a gay cruising bar is like, and it's exactly right. It's a timely novel, and its at-times graphic view of scenes doesn't keep it from being surprisingly poetic. Days after reading it, I can't get the characters out of my mind, especially young Jesse and the priest obsessed with finding a hustler with a tattooed cross. This is the kind of book you want to start reading again right away.

Essential reading, terrific book, 20 Aug 1999
I can't think of a more relevant novel to today, than this novel about "how it was" in 1981 when sex was everywhere. The author captures that period, makes you feel as if you're there, with all the excitement and also the dangers on the gay scene. He captures exactly how the awareness of "a new gay illness" came into the scene--so quietly. The cast of characters is fantastic--from a young guy celebrating one year of being gay to a priest obsessed with a hustler, to a black cowboy. Rechy makes them all believable--funny and sad in turns; and we end up caring for them even when we wince at some of what they do. Rechy has made a terrific "comeback" into the world of his "City of Night" and "The Sexual Outlaw." No one else could have written as intimately about the world then and made it as relevant to the world now. As serious as the novel's intention is, it is also a very, very hot book.

man, what a disappointment, 17 Aug 1999
i bought this book on the strength of his earlier works but i'd advise the rest of you to save your pennies. it's not a good book and it's far from his best work. yes, it is sex-filled but the characters are flat and you end up not caring about any of them, even if you can keep them straight [as it were]. there are dozens of books that chronicle this time period in a more engaging way. on top of that, it wasn't even hot.

Riotous fun for some, but a bit of a disappointment for me., 05 Nov 2003
I've really enjoyed most of John Rechy's work, particularly Marylin's Daughter The miraculous day of Amalia Gómez, and to a lesser extent, The coming of the night, but The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens, although clever in it's structure, was disappointing. This book just didn't work for me. I can appreciate that many readers will absolutely love the humor and comedy in this, but for me, it unfortunately, just fell flat. Part of the problem is perhaps that Rechy's dialogue just lacked sparkle and sharpness. The narrative works well as a type of "sit-com" situational comedy loosely modeled, of course, Self-consciously modeled on Henry Fielding's 18th-century classic The History of Tom Jones. But I just felt that the dialogue between the main characters lacked sharp acid wit, that we should expect from a writer such a Rechy. His writing seemed rushed and hurried, and I wanted him to take more time with his story; maybe relax and really consolidate his characters more securely in their time and place.

Lyle Clemens is indeed an endearing character, and there's an incredible sexual innocence to his character. Born in Texas, to the beautiful, but forsaken Silvia Love, who takes to drink when Lyle's father dumps her, and her hopes of becoming Miss America are crushed by her fundamentalist mother, and in. Lyle is tremendously naïve and blissfully unaware of his good looks, lustiness and sexiness. People fawn around him like flies - there's Maria, the Mexican beauty, and Rose who teaches him about sex and how to seduce a virgin with confidence. Silvia's best friend Clarita - a rather staid stereotype of an older Mexican-American - who helps to raise Lyle and remains loyal to Silvia. There are lots of other minor characters that meet Lyle and help him along on his adventurous journey through life. Sister Matilda, is a gospel singer who befriends Lyle, the aging starlet Tarah Worth, the crooked evangelists Brother Bud and Sister Sis, and a couple of pornographers who have suspiciously well recognizable names. It's nice that Mr. Rechy has incorporated some gay content into his story with the character of Raul, a gay boy who falls in love with Lyle and falls into the "devilish" clutches of the evangelists.

Generally though, I felt that Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens read too much like an afternoon soap opera, rather than a satire of our contemporary age, which is what the story is supposed to symbolize. I'm sure die-hard fans of Rechy will love this - and they generally due judging by some of the other glowing reviews. But if you want the best John Rechy, I would venture into some of his earlier work, particularly City of Night.

Michael

Night And Dark, 30 Oct 2003
By employing a technique that's somehow similar to Robert Altman's cinematic storytelling, ie showing a number of characters whose lives are bound to . . .
Now, this is for y o u to explore.

This grotesquely funny and improbably touching novel shows American gay world on the brink of AIDS. Sex-obsessed, love-starved, and utterly lonely, the men populating this, The City Of Night, continue their struggle for attention - in a way that is both heart-rending and, to some perhaps, brilliantly inspiring.
Be warned, however, this is not light entertainment.

Deserves highest praise., 01 Sep 1999
I just read a real nasty review of this book in an L.A. paper, and the extent of the nastiness made me go out and buy the book, to check out why anyone could become so angry at a book by a very respected writer, Rechy. I understand now. It's a powerful book, and it's disturbing. It makes you think deeply about things, and if you don't want to think about those things--like S & M and a time when life was one endless sex parade--I guess one way to push it away is to attack it. The novel re-creates 1981 exactly as I remember it, sex everywhere--and, then, just whispers, intimations of a "gay illness." That's how it happened, and this book is especially relevant to what is happening today. Beyond that, its gallery of characters is unforgettable, and Rechy at the same time that he's at times brutally honest about his characters is compassionate, especially toward those who were being thrust out of the world that was more and more involved only with youth, allowing only the young in some dance places, bathhouses. The portrait of the older man Thomas Watkins almost brought me to tears; and there's a terrific female character, a gangster's girl, who toughly faces off some punks. The ending leaves you gasping, it's that powerful--and meaningful.

Terrific read, 25 Aug 1999
This is a novel for everyone, gay or straight, who wants to know what 1981, the dawn of AIDS, was like. Its varied cast--including a howlingly hilarious drag queen porn director and a man who's fleeing some aspects of the gay world (read: S&M)--creates a panorama of the times, although it's set in L.A. There are memorable scenes, like the one in the NY orgy room, and the scene at the last, which leaves you stunned. There's also the capturing of what a gay cruising bar is like, and it's exactly right. It's a timely novel, and its at-times graphic view of scenes doesn't keep it from being surprisingly poetic. Days after reading it, I can't get the characters out of my mind, especially young Jesse and the priest obsessed with finding a hustler with a tattooed cross. This is the kind of book you want to start reading again right away.

Essential reading, terrific book, 20 Aug 1999
I can't think of a more relevant novel to today, than this novel about "how it was" in 1981 when sex was everywhere. The author captures that period, makes you feel as if you're there, with all the excitement and also the dangers on the gay scene. He captures exactly how the awareness of "a new gay illness" came into the scene--so quietly. The cast of characters is fantastic--from a young guy celebrating one year of being gay to a priest obsessed with a hustler, to a black cowboy. Rechy makes them all believable--funny and sad in turns; and we end up caring for them even when we wince at some of what they do. Rechy has made a terrific "comeback" into the world of his "City of Night" and "The Sexual Outlaw." No one else could have written as intimately about the world then and made it as relevant to the world now. As serious as the novel's intention is, it is also a very, very hot book.

man, what a disappointment, 17 Aug 1999
i bought this book on the strength of his earlier works but i'd advise the rest of you to save your pennies. it's not a good book and it's far from his best work. yes, it is sex-filled but the characters are flat and you end up not caring about any of them, even if you can keep them straight [as it were]. there are dozens of books that chronicle this time period in a more engaging way. on top of that, it wasn't even hot.

Riotous fun for some, but a bit of a disappointment for me., 05 Nov 2003
I've really enjoyed most of John Rechy's work, particularly Marylin's Daughter The miraculous day of Amalia Gómez, and to a lesser extent, The coming of the night, but The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens, although clever in it's structure, was disappointing. This book just didn't work for me. I can appreciate that many readers will absolutely love the humor and comedy in this, but for me, it unfortunately, just fell flat. Part of the problem is perhaps that Rechy's dialogue just lacked sparkle and sharpness. The narrative works well as a type of "sit-com" situational comedy loosely modeled, of course, Self-consciously modeled on Henry Fielding's 18th-century classic The History of Tom Jones. But I just felt that the dialogue between the main characters lacked sharp acid wit, that we should expect from a writer such a Rechy. His writing seemed rushed and hurried, and I wanted him to take more time with his story; maybe relax and really consolidate his characters more securely in their time and place.

Lyle Clemens is indeed an endearing character, and there's an incredible sexual innocence to his character. Born in Texas, to the beautiful, but forsaken Silvia Love, who takes to drink when Lyle's father dumps her, and her hopes of becoming Miss America are crushed by her fundamentalist mother, and in. Lyle is tremendously naïve and blissfully unaware of his good looks, lustiness and sexiness. People fawn around him like flies - there's Maria, the Mexican beauty, and Rose who teaches him about sex and how to seduce a virgin with confidence. Silvia's best friend Clarita - a rather staid stereotype of an older Mexican-American - who helps to raise Lyle and remains loyal to Silvia. There are lots of other minor characters that meet Lyle and help him along on his adventurous journey through life. Sister Matilda, is a gospel singer who befriends Lyle, the aging starlet Tarah Worth, the crooked evangelists Brother Bud and Sister Sis, and a couple of pornographers who have suspiciously well recognizable names. It's nice that Mr. Rechy has incorporated some gay content into his story with the character of Raul, a gay boy who falls in love with Lyle and falls into the "devilish" clutches of the evangelists.

Generally though, I felt that Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens read too much like an afternoon soap opera, rather than a satire of our contemporary age, which is what the story is supposed to symbolize. I'm sure die-hard fans of Rechy will love this - and they generally due judging by some of the other glowing reviews. But if you want the best John Rechy, I would venture into some of his earlier work, particularly City of Night.

Michael

Meat As Fresh As The Day It Was Written, 30 May 2005
Written in the early 1960s, this book reads like it could have been written a lot more recently. There's a modernism to the style that keeps it young. The attention to detail and character are strong and riveting. Locations and scenes come to life. It's alive.

bitter sweet moments amidst cold endless ejaculations, 25 Jun 2000
I picked up a dusty old book amongst many others, not expecting much and certainly not with the childish greed brought on by the glossiness of new books and their promise of knowledge and poetry (which then , mostly, fades into a redundant echo of other echoes). What I did expect was an exhausted expose of the degeneracy of urbanism, the tireless decadence of city life hand in hand with the ever-so-popular angst brought on by the opium fumes of existentialist discourse. What I did not expect was this almost overbearing burden of humanness which is only possible with children and those poignant post-Freudian/ Mann-like characters lost in the events, memories and guilt of the past. Rechy obviously loves his characters, he is Sylvia. protectively surveying his 'children'; one gets the feeling that while describing each of his characters with a guilt-ridden abandon of a person attempting to understand whilst not getting involved, he is in fact clothing their naked vulnerability with a veil of dignity ...Kathy, Chi-Chi, Miss Destiny, the queens, the male hustlers, the homosexuals, the sad and the lonely, the marginalised and the fetishised ... Rechy takes us in the darkest hours of the night through the lonesome alleys of cruising grounds and bars to rediscover what has already been established with Neitzche .. that we are all 'Human, all too Human.'

Enduring classic novel., 17 Aug 1998
I have just re-read this novel--I read it as required reading more than ten years ago at Yale. The book has not aged one bit. If anything, it becomes richer, and the characters I remembered came back to life even more vividly, especially Pete the Times Square hustler, and Miss Destiny, the L.A. dragqueen, and Sylvia, the New Orleans gay bar owner always searching for her banished son. So many others spring alive in this moving novel about America at night.

Night And Dark, 30 Oct 2003
By employing a technique that's somehow similar to Robert Altman's cinematic storytelling, ie showing a number of characters whose lives are bound to . . .
Now, this is for y o u to explore.

This grotesquely funny and improbably touching novel shows American gay world on the brink of AIDS. Sex-obsessed, love-starved, and utterly lonely, the men populating this, The City Of Night, continue their struggle for attention - in a way that is both heart-rending and, to some perhaps, brilliantly inspiring.
Be warned, however, this is not light entertainment.

Deserves highest praise., 01 Sep 1999
I just read a real nasty review of this book in an L.A. paper, and the extent of the nastiness made me go out and buy the book, to check out why anyone could become so angry at a book by a very respected writer, Rechy. I understand now. It's a powerful book, and it's disturbing. It makes you think deeply about things, and if you don't want to think about those things--like S & M and a time when life was one endless sex parade--I guess one way to push it away is to attack it. The novel re-creates 1981 exactly as I remember it, sex everywhere--and, then, just whispers, intimations of a "gay illness." That's how it happened, and this book is especially relevant to what is happening today. Beyond that, its gallery of characters is unforgettable, and Rechy at the same time that he's at times brutally honest about his characters is compassionate, especially toward those who were being thrust out of the world that was more and more involved only with youth, allowing only the young in some dance places, bathhouses. The portrait of the older man Thomas Watkins almost brought me to tears; and there's a terrific female character, a gangster's girl, who toughly faces off some punks. The ending leaves you gasping, it's that powerful--and meaningful.

Terrific read, 25 Aug 1999
This is a novel for everyone, gay or straight, who wants to know what 1981, the dawn of AIDS, was like. Its varied cast--including a howlingly hilarious drag queen porn director and a man who's fleeing some aspects of the gay world (read: S&M)--creates a panorama of the times, although it's set in L.A. There are memorable scenes, like the one in the NY orgy room, and the scene at the last, which leaves you stunned. There's also the capturing of what a gay cruising bar is like, and it's exactly right. It's a timely novel, and its at-times graphic view of scenes doesn't keep it from being surprisingly poetic. Days after reading it, I can't get the characters out of my mind, especially young Jesse and the priest obsessed with finding a hustler with a tattooed cross. This is the kind of book you want to start reading again right away.

Essential reading, terrific book, 20 Aug 1999
I can't think of a more relevant novel to today, than this novel about "how it was" in 1981 when sex was everywhere. The author captures that period, makes you feel as if you're there, with all the excitement and also the dangers on the gay scene. He captures exactly how the awareness of "a new gay illness" came into the scene--so quietly. The cast of characters is fantastic--from a young guy celebrating one year of being gay to a priest obsessed with a hustler, to a black cowboy. Rechy makes them all believable--funny and sad in turns; and we end up caring for them even when we wince at some of what they do. Rechy has made a terrific "comeback" into the world of his "City of Night" and "The Sexual Outlaw." No one else could have written as intimately about the world then and made it as relevant to the world now. As serious as the novel's intention is, it is also a very, very hot book.

man, what a disappointment, 17 Aug 1999
i bought this book on the strength of his earlier works but i'd advise the rest of you to save your pennies. it's not a good book and it's far from his best work. yes, it is sex-filled but the characters are flat and you end up not caring about any of them, even if you can keep them straight [as it were]. there are dozens of books that chronicle this time period in a more engaging way. on top of that, it wasn't even hot.

Riotous fun for some, but a bit of a disappointment for me., 05 Nov 2003
I've really enjoyed most of John Rechy's work, particularly Marylin's Daughter The miraculous day of Amalia Gómez, and to a lesser extent, The coming of the night, but The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens, although clever in it's structure, was disappointing. This book just didn't work for me. I can appreciate that many readers will absolutely love the humor and comedy in this, but for me, it unfortunately, just fell flat. Part of the problem is perhaps that Rechy's dialogue just lacked sparkle and sharpness. The narrative works well as a type of "sit-com" situational comedy loosely modeled, of course, Self-consciously modeled on Henry Fielding's 18th-century classic The History of Tom Jones. But I just felt that the dialogue between the main characters lacked sharp acid wit, that we should expect from a writer such a Rechy. His writing seemed rushed and hurried, and I wanted him to take more time with his story; maybe relax and really consolidate his characters more securely in their time and place.

Lyle Clemens is indeed an endearing character, and there's an incredible sexual innocence to his character. Born in Texas, to the beautiful, but forsaken Silvia Love, who takes to drink when Lyle's father dumps her, and her hopes of becoming Miss America are crushed by her fundamentalist mother, and in. Lyle is tremendously naïve and blissfully unaware of his good looks, lustiness and sexiness. People fawn around him like flies - there's Maria, the Mexican beauty, and Rose who teaches him about sex and how to seduce a virgin with confidence. Silvia's best friend Clarita - a rather staid stereotype of an older Mexican-American - who helps to raise Lyle and remains loyal to Silvia. There are lots of other minor characters that meet Lyle and help him along on his adventurous journey through life. Sister Matilda, is a gospel singer who befriends Lyle, the aging starlet Tarah Worth, the crooked evangelists Brother Bud and Sister Sis, and a couple of pornographers who have suspiciously well recognizable names. It's nice that Mr. Rechy has incorporated some gay content into his story with the character of Raul, a gay boy who falls in love with Lyle and falls into the "devilish" clutches of the evangelists.

Generally though, I felt that Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens read too much like an afternoon soap opera, rather than a satire of our contemporary age, which is what the story is supposed to symbolize. I'm sure die-hard fans of Rechy will love this - and they generally due judging by some of the other glowing reviews. But if you want the best John Rechy, I would venture into some of his earlier work, particularly City of Night.

Michael

Meat As Fresh As The Day It Was Written, 30 May 2005
Written in the early 1960s, this book reads like it could have been written a lot more recently. There's a modernism to the style that keeps it young. The attention to detail and character are strong and riveting. Locations and scenes come to life. It's alive.

bitter sweet moments amidst cold endless ejaculations, 25 Jun 2000
I picked up a dusty old book amongst many others, not expecting much and certainly not with the childish greed brought on by the glossiness of new books and their promise of knowledge and poetry (which then , mostly, fades into a redundant echo of other echoes). What I did expect was an exhausted expose of the degeneracy of urbanism, the tireless decadence of city life hand in hand with the ever-so-popular angst brought on by the opium fumes of existentialist discourse. What I did not expect was this almost overbearing burden of humanness which is only possible with children and those poignant post-Freudian/ Mann-like characters lost in the events, memories and guilt of the past. Rechy obviously loves his characters, he is Sylvia. protectively surveying his 'children'; one gets the feeling that while describing each of his characters with a guilt-ridden abandon of a person attempting to understand whilst not getting involved, he is in fact clothing their naked vulnerability with a veil of dignity ...Kathy, Chi-Chi, Miss Destiny, the queens, the male hustlers, the homosexuals, the sad and the lonely, the marginalised and the fetishised ... Rechy takes us in the darkest hours of the night through the lonesome alleys of cruising grounds and bars to rediscover what has already been established with Neitzche .. that we are all 'Human, all too Human.'

Enduring classic novel., 17 Aug 1998
I have just re-read this novel--I read it as required reading more than ten years ago at Yale. The book has not aged one bit. If anything, it becomes richer, and the characters I remembered came back to life even more vividly, especially Pete the Times Square hustler, and Miss Destiny, the L.A. dragqueen, and Sylvia, the New Orleans gay bar owner always searching for her banished son. So many others spring alive in this moving novel about America at night.

The novel of depth, 29 Apr 1998
Late 70's.Four men.Gay sex bar;Rushes.John Rechy approachs them brutaly,cooly,but gently.Yes,gently than amyl.And Rechy will leave readers feel unsubstantial.