The Coming of the Night (Rechy, John)

No one can match Rechy in taking us along on a journey of discovery, and this new novel sweeps us into the lives of about a dozen or so men and a few women throughout one single hot day in Los Angeles. Rechy captures the eerie sexual mood of the city when the Santa Ana winds are blowing, and distant fires are blazing, just as he captures the lives of his characters, focusing on the moment they wake or appear in the City. They all come to life, Jesse "the kid" and Chas the strange biker--and the obsessed priest, so many others; they stayed in my mind, and I didn't intend to read the book in one sitting but I did, couldn't put it down--it's that kind of book. Very sexual, yes, and beautifully, even poetically written. No one does this better than Rechy.

I've read this novel twice, because, the first time, I raced through it to see how it would end. The second time, it's even better. I've been able to see how expertly Rechy uses language, how vividly the characters are drawn; he uses a different prose style for each of the many characters, a style that conveys the voice of each, from the driven priest to the hustler, the drag queen porn director, the black cowboy. Rechy is masterful at creating an oninous mood, employing the fierce Santa Ana winds of Los Angeles, the raging fires in the city, the approach of the night to arouse a sense of foreboding. It's a very sexual book because he is documenting a time when sex was everywhere, and he conveys that expertly. That he is able to bring all the diverse elements of his novel together in a stunning, startling climax is an accomplishment that ranks with his classic "City of Night." I would include this novel among the top books of the year.

I'm surprised, and really delighted, that a novel about gay characters and gay subjects can still make it to the top of the bestseller lists--it's been a Los Angeles Times Bestseller for several weeks. But when I read it, I wasn't surprised. It's a novel that goes far beyond its subject, becomes a stunning picture of an era--the 1980's. I don't know of any other book that has captured more exactly what was happening on the "sex front" right before "the coming of the night." That the book can be so serious and yet so humorous in places is surprising. When I read one of the characters asking another after sex, "Would you die for sex," I felt very moved and illuminated, and somewhat terrified. But it has places of great humor. The drag-queen Za-Za LaGrande had me roaring aloud. Its difficult to describe a novel that is as rich as this one, and so beautifully written, with a cast of characters that includes almost every one you'd find on the gay scene, in one day--a bodybuilder, an older man who loves opera, an S & M-er, a group of punks with their tough girl, a black guy, a hustler, etc. One day--that's how long the book takes. That one day, though, becomes an epic, and I'm sure that's why so many readers, gay and straight, are picking it up. This is Rechy's best since "City of Night."

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.

Ever since I read "City of Night" in highschool a dozen years ago, I've been waiting for Rechy to write another book like his first classic novel. "The Coming of the Night" was worth the wait. I read it through in one sitting. It's a stunner. I won't ever forget the characters Rechy follows for one day and night, when whispers about AIDS were beginning but not believed. Rechy brings that very sexual time to life, and the book is very, very sexy. Rechy leads you with compassion to understand what was going on, how AIDS struck gay people with as much indifference as the heated wind blowing across the city. The book is beautifully written, and very pertinent to today. At times, it's surprisingly hilarious. I laughed aloud at the drag-queen rehearsing her porn stars for a private performance before a closeted movie executive. The book races back and forth from character to character, all different, all alive. I especially like Jesse, the beautiful 22-year-old kid celebrating a year of being gay; the picture Rechy draws of him is very accurate, very moving. The ending almost knocked me out. I sat there, stunned, absorbing it all. Frankly, this may be Rechy's best novel, as good as "City of Night."