Customer Reviews (2)

A Serious Book, But Always Enjoyable
Anyone who wants to learn about Los Angeles should read this novel.Inventively narrated, with alternating chapters that follow the lives of three drifters, "Bodies and Souls" features a broad range of characters that for the most part can only be found in LA.Many of the chapters can be read as standalone short stories.Some are hilarious, others quite poignant; all are beautifully written.The great mystery of the book is trying to figure out why one of the main characters is obsessed with a preacher woman and what he is planning. As the story progresses, and as more characters are introduced, the reader will wonder how the author will tie the various threads of his narrative together.That Rechy manages to link this cross-section of lives is testament to his abilities as one of this country's greatest living writers.

Rechy's most accompolished novel; why is this out of print?
As per the above statement this book is emotionally devastating at times. Clearly the author's most focussed and encompassing novel, summing up most of the themes of his other novels. ... Read more

Product Description

When John Rechy’s City of Night first appeared in 1963, it was greeted with equal parts fanfare and horror. The unapologetically sexual story of a young gay hustler shocked readers with its frank treatment of a subject most knew about but chose to pretend did not exist. Yet more shocking was Rechy’s revelation that the book was largely autobiographical. For a street hustler to reach literary fame and widespread acclaim was unheard-of, especially if he was gay. Rechy continued to publish explosive novels, including Numbers, The Sexual Outlaw, and Rushes—even as he continued hustling seedy Hollywood Boulevard—and soon became an integral part of the new literary elite that included Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and Christopher Isherwood. In this enlightening biography, Charles Casillo provides an absorbing picture of the outlaw writer, examining the dichotomy of Rechy’s life as both a respected author and professor and a tough-as-nails sex worker. Working closely with Rechy himself as well as his family, friends, admirers, and colleagues, Casillo presents a complex portrait of a man who found sexual liberation through prostitution and used it to create a vivid and influential artistic legacy.

The work of John Rechy: Bodies and Souls, City of Night, Coming of the Night, The Fourth Angel, Marilyn’s Daughters, Numbers, Our Lady of Babylon, Rushes, The Sexual Outlaw, and The Vampires.

Charles Casillo is a Los Angeles–based freelance writer. He is the author of The Marilyn Diaries, a novel about Marilyn Monroe.

Customer Reviews (13)

Informative, personal and unpretentious
Whether you are a fan of John Rechy's writing or have never even read a sentence of his, this book is an enjoyable and informative read. Rechy broke many barriers and continually strived to do so throughout his writing career.There have been many imitators but few who will ever come close to his originality.If you are a fan of gay literature - hell, if you are just a fan of literature - you owe it to yourself to know Rechy's work and this book offers not only an excellent introduction, but is a valuable resource for all the legions of Rechy fans who became (and continue to become) fascinated by the man behind the words.Casillo manages to provide that delicate balance between admiration and critical analysis without ever pandering to the reader or his subject.His prose is simple, precise, thoughtful and never pretentious.I highly recommend this book for all readers.Read it, then really treat yourself and pick up a few of Rechy's novels along with a few of Casillo's.You won't be disappointed.

not a biography, rather a bit of a loving massage
a pleasant read, but the author gives the impression that the burp mr. rechy let loose back in 1983 carries massive cultural significance.

Will the Real Rechy Please Stand Up?
Charles Casillo's biography "Outlaw: John Rechy" proves that since the 1963 publication of City of Night, Rechy's life pales in comparison to the lives explored by his daring and complex protagonists and supporting characters. Nevertheless, this biography attempts to track the course of Rechy's life as an introverted but artistic child who grew up into the "sexual intellectual" who pushed the boundaries of sexual expression as a fiction writer.

In part one, titled "Seeds," Rechy's biographer lays out Rechy's family history and Rechy's early life in El Paso. He tells us of Rechy's grandparents settling in El Paso, Texas after fleeing Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The reader is introduced to Roberto Sixto, Rechy's Scottish-Spanish father, an aspiring musician who ultimately failed as such, which preceded his second marriage to Guadalupe Flores, a loving Mexican woman who would become Rechy's mother and Rechy's muse. A violent father, sexual confusion and ethnic alienation riddled Rechy's childhood. As an overachiever in school with artistic longings, Rechy sought refuge in stage performance and writing. As a teenager, he longed to escape El Paso by attending college. After quitting college, Rechy entered the military, which suffocated any possibility for him to explore his (homo)sexuality. He later returned to college. This time, he attended college in New York--the city where the "sexual intellectual" would be born.

"Exploring Night," the second section, tells the story of how Rechy carved out his identity as a rough trade hustler in the underground scene in New York that would become his inspiration for City of Night. In New York, and later in Los Angeles, Rechy met the individuals who would become immortalized in his now classic novel. For example, "Pete" and "Miss Destiny" became characters loved by readers that Rechy found to represent the loneliness and distance that he felt as a child and into maturity.

The third installment, "A Screaming Need," describes the publication of City of Night and the response it received from critics and readers. Despite literary success, Rechy continued to find refuge in the streets as a rough trade hustler. His experiences included links with famous writers and wealthy intellectuals who primarily saw Rechy as a less-than-intelligent trade who couldn't possibly have written the novel that exposed the underground life of hustling. The most notable experiences, of course, described Rechy's several run-ins with the law during his sexcapades. Rechy performed his masculinity as a hustler just as his hustling experiences became the fodder for his latter writings which included Numbers. As he grew into a respected writer, Rechy continued to find hustling the source of life to drive away the loneliness and distance that had plagued him since childhood amidst poverty, alienation and an intolerable and demonic father. As a result, death and loneliness became central in his fiction, as laid out in "This Day's Death."

The last section of the book, "Sexual Intellectual," tells the story of how Rechy's sexual identity and intellectual identity merged after Rechy continued to hustle in the streets only after finding a secure job as a professor of writing. Rechy then faced a struggle between true love (with Michael Snyder, who changed his life for the better) and a fierce hunger to continue hustling. However, as the 1970s unfolded, Rechy found the hustling underworld to have changed, which alienated him. Rechy continued to write in the 1980s and into the 1990s. After the tragic loss of his beloved mother, Guadalupe, Rechy wrote The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, an homage to her that became the premier novel in Chicano/Latino Literature. In 1997, Rechy finally became honored as a literary trailblazer when he received the PEN Center USA-West award in 1997.

Casillo has certainly succeeded in weaving interviews with family members, Rechy interviews and novel excerpts to unfold this interesting biography that proves complex to tell in a span of 300 pages. The disappointments included Rechy's choice to remain silent on a specific discussion of sexual abuse suffered as a child. Also, Rechy remains vague on how he came to embrace his femininity as a gay man considering that he built a persona that promoted a narcissistic butch/top/trade role. Sometimes the book appeared ahistorical since Rechy's life in the public eye became relative to the changing times in America between the 1930s and 1980s. Nevertheless, Casillo carries his role as a biographer carefully instead of a role as historian (I tend to conflate both roles in the excellent writing of a biography).

Yet, the end result is a biography that will delight readers who are now being introduced to Rechy's work. For Rechy scholars however, the biography leaves us with many questions about "The Legend": What is the actual root of Rechy's literary genius? How is Rechy the subject instead of an object of his life? How has Rechy's fiction stood the test of time since the times changed without him (as revealed in the biography)? Does his work describe the changing of the times?

How can we get away from psychoanalyzing Rechy's life considering his Oedipal childhood and Rechy's obsession with his mother? The most interesting of questions to me is: Will Rechy ever consider presenting his true self through a memoir? John, remember that memory is sacred. To dismiss an autobiography is to dismiss someone's memory and consider it irrelevant for an understanding of the self. Some food for thought.

A Spellbinding Read!
I read this book voraciosuly - a comprehensive, fascinating study which sheds a lot of light on one of the most mysterious most interesting characters in the history of American fiction!!

I enjoyed this book so much I carry it with me and pull it out on the train to read it at whim!

A GREAT READ!

Skin Deep
I think the statement in the preface is interesting - about biographers being "literary liars" - because despite the author's "honest intentions" I think he was compromised by John Rechy's direct contribution to the project as a "primary source". One is left with the impression that everything has been filtered through the sure and certain knowledge that Rechy will read the book himself.

Consequently, the portrait is more flattering than Rechy might deserve. Outrageously so, in the case of the quote where he is ranked alongside Norman Mailer and said to "outshine" Philip Roth and Gore Vidal. Even accepting that Casillo is a fan, it's preposterous. Jaw-dropping even. What a load of baloney!!

The pandering to his subject continues through the portrait of Rechy's mother. I found it extremely unsatisfactory - shallow and one-dimensional. Casillio presents her through the rose-coloured recollections of others - not least, Rechy's own. And never really attempts to scratch the surface of a complex - even bizarre - relationship.

Sadly, it's the same story with Rechy himself. Is he really as superficial and lacking in self-awareness as this biography suggests? Has he learnt nothing during his 70+ years on Earth? Or is it just down to a superficial treatment of the subject? Rechy's self-obsessed narcissism is handled with kid gloves. Casillo does not examine it in any depth. Though he does occasionally make half-hearted attempts to excuse it.

Ultimately, for me, this book raised more issues about the authenticity of biography than anything else. As a genre I find it increasingly dissatisfactory.

If you can get past the blarney and the misplaced reverence you may find the book interesting in terms of a gay history. But if you are expecting an insightful, in-depth treatment of it's subject, you will be sorely disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. The story follows two friends, Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves), as they embark on a journey of personal discovery that takes them to Mike's hometown in Idaho and then to Italy in search of Mike's mother. Van Sant originally wrote the screenplay in the 1970s, but shelved it after reading John Rechy's 1963 novel, City of Night, realizing that it dealt with the subject of street hustlers better than what he had written. Over the years, Van Sant rewrote the script, which comprised two stories: that of Mike and the search for his mother, and Scott's story as a modern update of the Henry IV plays. Van Sant had trouble getting any Hollywood studio to finance the film, and at one point considered making it on a shoestring budget with a cast of actual street kids. He sent copies of his script to Keanu Reeves and to River Phoenix, assuming that they would turn it down, and was surprised when both agreed to star in the film. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 3405. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Chasqui, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 4985 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Interview with John Rechy.(author )(Entrevista)
Author: Ramón García
Publication: Chasqui (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 32Issue: 1Page: 39(8)

Article Type: Entrevista

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more