John Rechy

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The Coming of Night by John Rechy

John Rechy's new novel is a return to the themes and scenes of his classic, best-selling City of Night and a bittersweet memorial to a lost world -- gay Los Angeles in the moment before AIDS. It is 1981, a summer night, and an unscripted ritual is about to take place. Young, beautiful Jesse is celebrating one year on the dazzling gay scene and plans to lose himself completely in its transient pleasures. He is joined by Dave, a leatherman bent on testing limits. A young hustler, an opera lover lost in fantasies of youth, a gang of teenagers looking for trouble -- as the Santa Ana winds breathe fire down the hills of Los Angeles, stirring up desires and violence, these men circle ever closer to a confrontation as devastating as it is inevitable. Lyrical, humorous, and compassionate Coming of the Night proves again that as a novelist and chronicler of gay life John Rechy has no equal. "The question Rechy asks is still potent: Would you die for sex? Rechy's sizzling literary response Coming of Night is as exciting as it is chilling." -- Pamela Warrick, Los Angeles Times; "[Rechy] very nearly touches greatness . . . feeling his way toward that place within each of us where the ecstatic teeters on the edge of psychic abyss. . . . A substantial artist." -- Frank Browning, Salon

The Sexual Outlaw : A Documentary by John Rechy

A masterpiece of Gay literature, broke so many taboos before its time.  I remember reading this novel in the late 70s before AIDS became prevalent, when so many queers walked the back streets and alleys not to mention bathhouses in there search for free sex and lust. This is a monumental exploration into the psyche of homosexuality and being wanted by all means .necessary. I cant wait for the movie! -- Anonymous Review

I had heard about this book, and it seemed to make some people angry and some people said it was great. I hadn't read it until I saw that the SF Chronicle listed it as one of the "100 Best Non-Fiction of the Century" and I thought, wow. So I read it, and was surprised to find how timely the book is, how it speaks about the same issues confronting gay men right now, and speaks about them intelligently--and, also, it's a very sexy book, that describes three sex-crammed days and nights by its main character roaming through streets, alleys, under piers. The book deserves to be rated high on "best" lists. It sure ranks in mine. Terrific writing, too. -- Anonymous Review

This remains the most powerful manifesto of gay power, as well as being a document of oppression. Graphic sexual encounters are strongly depicted. Between each main section, an essay comments on a wide range of gay life--from gay bars to the gay pride parade, bodybuilding, hustling, S & M, gay relationships with women, laws, vice cops. Although many of Rechy's ideas have now been embraced by others, the book remains as startling, bold, and original as when it first appeared. A gay "Fire Next Time." -- Anonymous Review

John Rechy is recipient of the Pen-USA-West Lifetime Achievement Award  and winner of the William Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement through Triangle Publishing

John Rechy

This website was designed by Lucas Crown with the authorization and cooperation of John Rechy.

Excerpt from the biography:

In April, 1999, Rechy received his second Lifetime Achievement Award, the William Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award from The Publishing Triangle, at the New School in New York. The announcement of the award quoted Edmund White's description of Rechy as "one of the most heroic figures of contemporary American life" and "a touchstone of moral integrity and artistic innovation."

In his introduction of Rechy at the presentation, Author and Critic Michael Bronski said, "[He] super-radically and forever altered how mainstream American. culture wrote about, saw, experienced, and conceptualized homosexuality... All of [his] novels are vital to both gay and American literature ... What [he] has given for more than 30 years is a wonderful and terrifying gift. . a vision of a complicated, complex, and wonderful world... He has given us life and literature." And Critic and Author Jameson Currier wrote in the April 2, 1999 "New York Blade News," "Perhaps more than any other American author in the 20th century, his writings have helped shape the sexual consciousness of several generations of gay men..."

John Rechy

From The Knitting Circle

Excerpt:

During the Second World War he served for the U.S. Army in Germany.

He returned to New York and became a drifter and hustler. This period inspired much his early writing. He wrote a letter to a friend about his experiences at the New Orleans Mardi Gras, and this developed over four years into his first novel City of Night, (1963). The short story Evergreen Review also grew out of this.

His novels are mostly not primarily gay-themed although they contain gay characters. However, his representation of gay life is often bleak, and he has stated that the backstreet lifestyle of gay men has contributed to anti-gay hostility...

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