Rating: 
Summary: Undercover of the Night
Review: The only context in which I had heard of this book was as the inspiration to the Rolling Stone's song "Undercover of the Night". Thank you, Mick Jagger, for having good taste in literature. The book was a fascinating journey not just through america, but through the life and mind and soul of a young man whose life doesn't match that of the norm. Rechy's writing really lets you understand in depth perhaps not reached before. A masterpiece!
Rating: 
Summary: The second book I've ever read!
Review: This book hit me like a million bricks. As a sexually confused 18 year-old male who never reads I actually believed I was present in the situations. I know this book has changed the way I look at life, I suggest anyone, gay or strait, to read this fascinating novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent voice
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. Rechy's characters are so distinctive and individual, they've become like actual people to me. The voice is so real, the book is almost visual, like watching a movie, or life even, rather than reading a book. And there's no sentimentality about these characters. At some points, the otherwise likable narrator is downright cruel. Excellent, excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Literary classic
Review: This novel was on our required reading list in an American lit. course at Yale. I had heard it was about male prostitution in the cities of America--and so I wondered why we were reading it as one of 10 novels required. At first I was taken aback by the characters, hustlers, men in drag, the people who surround them. Then I was pulled in by the power of the novel, which soon pushed it far beyond the restrictions of its subject, far beyond the sexuality, beyond the designation of "gay novel." It's a novel about America, and loneliness--and it speaks about identity not only gay identity, but the discovery of one's self. The ending, during Mardi Gras, is unforgettable, and the discoveries about "love" are challenging and continue to resonate. Why hasn't there been a great movie made from this famous novel?
Rating:
Summary: Classic City Still Burns Bright
Review: Though it's been forty years since its publication, John Rechy's "City of Night" still packs an emotional wallop. The novel's storyline is well-known: Rechy writes of one young male hustler who wanders from El Paso to New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans meeting and experiencing male customers, drag queens, tough men and "nellies." While partaking of this life, he is also observing the pain and joy of a world filled with "youngmen" and those who are no longer young. Will he find meaning in any of it? Will he come to terms with his sexual orientation? The answers are not clear. But in the end it doesn't really matter. The prose is powerful, the dialogue poignant and, at times, hilarious. This is a remarkable and unforgettable book that should be read by everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Classic City Still Burns Bright
Review: Though it's been forty years since its publication, John Rechy's "City of Night" still packs an emotional wallop. The novel's storyline is well-known: Rechy writes of one young male hustler who wanders from El Paso to New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans meeting and experiencing male customers, drag queens, tough men and "nellies." While partaking of this life, he is also observing the pain and joy of a world filled with "youngmen" and those who are no longer young. Will he find meaning in any of it? Will he come to terms with his sexual orientation? The answers are not clear. But in the end it doesn't really matter. The prose is powerful, the dialogue poignant and, at times, hilarious. This is a remarkable and unforgettable book that should be read by everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Classic City Still Burns Bright
Review: Though it's been forty years since its publication, John Rechy's "City of Night" still packs an emotional wallop. The novel's storyline is well-known: Rechy writes of one young male hustler who wanders from El Paso to New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans meeting and experiencing male customers, drag queens, tough men and "nellies." While partaking of this life, he is also observing the pain and joy of a world filled with "youngmen" and those who are no longer young. Will he find meaning in any of it? Will he come to terms with his sexual orientation? The answers are not clear. But in the end it doesn't really matter. The prose is powerful, the dialogue poignant and, at times, hilarious. This is a remarkable and unforgettable book that should be read by everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Rechy's story set me free
Review: When City of Night was published in 1963, I was a 19 year old freshman in Cincinnati. I recall having to keep this scandalous book hidden, except for those precious moments alone with it...and his story told me of a world I had only hoped might really exist. The effect was visceral, sexy, fightening, and it made my spirit soar. In 1965 this book helped lure me to California. Although decades have trooped by, I took a chance last year and decided to re-read City of Night, although hesitatntly, fearful that it might disappoint now, so many years later. But, like the first time, I couldn't put it down. In many ways, it was a different book for me, this time around; some portions were like old friends, other parts seemed strange and new, as if I had never read them at all. Other parts that had gripped and taunted me in 1963, were now fellow travelers. Times change and so do we. City of Night was a groundbreaking novel in 1963 that, I am certain, changed many lives. Whether or not it still has that power is no longer as important. City of Night remains a powerful novel and a graceful composition, from an author who loves the language enough that he wastes no words in the telling of his story. This book is a classic, and should be required reading (at least for every gay man). The very fact of its publication was extraordinary at the time, and a look at the literary controversy surrounding its publication is eye-opening...and chilling!
Rating: 
Summary: If this is great literature, so is Drummer.
Review: When I first came out to my family, my mother gave me this book, thinking that it would teach me how to be gay. Instead, if I had been able to take it seriously, it would have scared me back into the closet.The main character sees everything, does most of it, and learns nothing. He behaves arbitrarily, without motivation; even at the climax, his thoughts, words, and actions just happen. At best, it provides some interesting snapshots of a lost and unlamented subculture based on oppression and internalized homophobia. If you want to read about that part of history, get a nonfiction book by some other author.
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