Reviews

City of Night by John Rechy

positivenrg95's review against another edition

Couldn’t get on with the style, found picking it up to be a chore

timothyjmcl's review against another edition

4.0

It’s easy to see why this book was groundbreaking in 1963, but it’s difficult not to apply current values when reading it today. For example, characters we would understand as trans today are referred to in the book as “drag queens” and frequently misgendered. And the sex scenes seem relatively tame by today’s standards. But, the penultimate chapter has some very profound things to say about the gay male experience that certainly hold true today.

schopenhauers_poodle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

dmknyc's review against another edition

Pick it up again later 

maltestrik's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

mittland's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

a new all time favorite. never wanted it to end. will be revisiting.

tsefalofor's review against another edition

5.0

reading all of 'JEREMY - something' put me on the verge of tears - i feel - He ("I told him my first name") has so little dialogue up until the late parts of New Orleans that even though we intimately 'know' him from his thoughts and feelings i don't have a grip or a sense of his outward (mask) presentation, how he is interacting with any of these Figures at all until there's that line - he says something then, 'I laughed crazily', and then the speech to the two men ('I'm as lonely and frightened as you') and then his conversation with Jeremy it's the perfect cathartic denouement of everything that comes before - his reticence, his silence, his mask, his tough act. but later tonight i fell into tears because a plug wouldn't go into the powerpoint (this is figurative imagery...) and yesterday i did because i spilled a vase of flowers and so maybe it wasn't just the Beautiful Prose (beautiful though it is, John) and in fact i'm realising that everything that's going on is thanks to 'Darling' - my sleepiness and illness and sensibilité - which is a source of high humiliation because i think God What A Cliché. can't even have an original symptom... but isn't it part of my act (to myself... none of this concerns other people - i have a few more acts for them but this act is just for me) and my feminine posing? or my rejection davon? like "I told him my first name" speaks of fruitfully, 'Our' masculinity. i definitely need to read some more girly books, like ... there's something on the shelf, L.T. & co. lately in my reading it's been a lot of masculine investigations, all well and good, and interesting, but over here i'm having girly conniptions. if anyone knows some girl books thanks. i think City of Night is incredibly competent, and i know i said that with disparaging tones about the very last book i read (that in 2 days... this in a month and a half... but this means nothing BTW) but here i mean it well - it has an incredible confidence. with all the funny grammar and DECLARATIONS and tense-changing (i mean) and zinging around you never feel a single drop of nervousness or eagerness to please, this is what he's doing and you go along with it. i'm remembering - was it The Fourth Angel? or After the Blue Hour - in my review i said something like his repetition frightens me, but now reading a third novel of his (though not in order) i can go better with the flow of his glass-beads-mad-clowns-youngman-sexact-remove-the-mask-masculine-queer movements. i'd like to read After the Blue Hour again, Stanty haunts my thoughts for sure, and the visual conjurings of it are so strong, maybe stronger than this ... or maybe because i only want to see it as a movie (dir. Robert Atlaman 1973) (or Todd Haynes ??? thinking of Safe... actually - important decisions to make) but in any case. i wish i'd made some notations and underlinings while reading but stupid Baby Bauhn (sorry... sorry) restricted me, until - about 40 pages from the end - i went and bought a physical copy, so maybe i'll go back through soon. need to sit with him for a while. i've thought about sending him a fan-email... does a 91-year-old man use email? i listened to him talking on a radio show/podcast a little while ago, but i think it was from 2012 or 2013... now his currency of youth is verschwinden. i'll just trail off, though, because that's all my thoughts for tonight. . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. .

small addition: again, late in the book, when he's running through memories of all his Encounters, and listing - (something like) "I think of Pete, the Professor, the fat man, Dave, Barbara, the man who almost begged me to clip him, the man on the beach, Miss Destiny, Trudy and Her Beads, Mr King, ... " i thought who? i have almost memory of Mr King or what role he played. maybe i was just distracted when i read that part but i thought it was strange that in this part retrospectively he thinks repeatedly and specifically about Mr King and i don't remember who he was (the name, yeah, but). maybe it's intentional, what funny tricks our memory plays, who sticks firmest in our mind, out of all the hundreds and hundreds of Figures Who Pass Through [His] Life, which one little sentence, which off-hand remark, which accusatory gaze does... i thought the Professor's malenurse was a great character, it would have been nice to have had more thoughts about him. and that same pathetic, tragic feeling (as? just anytime when a character does anything and you think Why, why, why?) as [spoiler alert] "I told him my first name" finally kisses jeremy goodbye. that moment is incredibly sad.

now, You: if you arrives pas à t'endormir, if your Consternation is Too Large, or if your eyes are crippled by Blue Light (thanks), ... or if the space behind your lids is simply Just Too Immense, ... how about a banana? this is speaking to the future. this is speaking to one learning from the past. try a banana

jendiz_'s review against another edition

If I could give this a zero rating I would like just noooooo

sexyradagast's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mmbancone's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0