Customer Reviews

About My Life and the Kept Woman: A Memoir

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Novelist. Playwright. Essayist. Hustler. John Rechy has been all those things and much, much more. He has written, deeply, about a range of subjects - male-perpetuated myths of `fallen women' (Our Lady of Babylon), an immigrant's descent through Los Angeles (The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez) - and has crafted his work in a breadth of masterful styles. This includes the sexually explicit works - Numbers, Rushes and, most famously, City of Night - that have defined him for generations of readers.
With fierce vulnerability and brave delicacy, his memoir About My Life and the Kept Woman depicts his poor childhood in El Paso's Mexican enclave; years in the numbing U.S. Army; life as a street hustler; and - always - of the alluring woman who intrigues, and then shadows his life, for forty years. Here is how he first encounters the Kept Woman at his sister's wedding:

"When my head resisted being turned away from the kept woman, my mother's hands directed it back to the nuptials, but not before I knew that my life had been invaded by an awesome presence."

The memoir takes its rightful place alongside Proust (an influence) and the best works of speculative fiction.

[[ASIN:0802118615 About My Life and the Kept Woman: A Memoir
This book chronicles in unflinching detail the story of the extraordinary life of this groundbreaking author. Humor and sadness are inextricably linked in this compelling narrative. This is no trite coming of age story; it is a definitive and powerful tale of self discovery and identity. Love of family and home are powerful themes. This book is a treasure.

As a preface to his compelling new memoir, El Paso native John Rechy offers a two-line caveat:

"This is not what happened; it is what is remembered. Its sequence is the sequence of recollection."

In this day of scandalously false memoirs, it is certainly refreshing to read such words. But Rechy's story is, by now, well known to those who have read his critically acclaimed 1963 autobiographical novel, "City of Night," which caused a literary sensation in part because of its subject matter: male prostitution, or hustling, as Rechy calls it.

In the new book, "About My Life and the Kept Woman" (Grove Press, $24 hardcover), Rechy revisits many of the events that wound up in that first novel and in subsequent novels -- but with an overarching theme to assist him in explaining decisions that led to a seemingly contradictory life of literature and sex-for-hire.

That theme is the "kept woman" of the title, the glamorous Marisa Guzman, mistress of the rich and powerful Mexican politician Augusto de Leon. It seems that Guzman's younger brother was engaged to Rechy's sister, Olga. Guzman had "conveyed her intention to travel from Mexico City and return to El Paso to attend her younger brother's wedding, thus challenging (her father), who had banished her years ago."

Intrigued by this alluring outsider, the young Rechy could barely contain himself when he caught a glimpse of the kept woman at the wedding reception. Throughout his memoir, Rechy repeatedly returns to this image of Guzman's defiant yet elegant appearance in the midst of those who were both fascinated and repulsed by her unashamed disregard for social norms.

Rechy struggled with his own outsider status, arising, in large part, from a mixed heritage as the son of a Mexican mother and a half-Scottish father.

Moreover, growing up in El Paso during the Depression and World War II, Rechy's budding sexuality and precocious literary tastes put him at odds with the socially conservative mainstream.

Rechy enlisted during the Korean conflict, which allowed him to travel in Europe while avoiding actual combat. After a two-year stint, he began his wanderings (and hustling) in New York, New Orleans and Los Angeles. But he kept alive the desire to express himself through the written word, a desire he possessed from a young age. He eventually wrote fictionalized accounts of his life as a hustler that appeared in a small but prestigious literary journal. These shockingly honest stories resulted in his first book deal.

In the memoir, Rechy tries to explain why he became a hustler. At one point, he turns to a vague and uncertain memory of sexual abuse at the hands of his father and father's male friends. But he pulls back and is unwilling (or more likely, unable) to give a definite justification.

As Rechy became more famous, he encountered other luminaries including, in one hilarious passage, the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who told Rechy to "relax, take your clothes off." "Why?" asked Rechy. Ginsberg answered: "Because you said you'd never grow undesirable. I hope that is true, really. For now, I want to see your body when I know it's beautiful -- and then it will be so forever in my memory." Rechy declined to disrobe.

As one reads this book, Rechy's warning that his memoir "is not what happened; it is what is remembered" often comes to mind. Whether each word is the unvarnished truth is of no matter: Rechy's life has been remarkable by any standard.

With 45 years of publishing both fiction and nonfiction under his belt, Rechy continues to create memorable and vital works of literature that honestly explore the importance of creating one's own destiny.

Marisa Guzman would be proud.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

Could it really be three decades since I read John Rechy's scandalous, mesmerizing and yes, titillating book The Sexual Outlaw? And now he has a new book out which is labeled a memoir - no way was I passing this up. Rechy's memoir About My Life and the Kept Woman is remarkable. Yes the "scandals" are still there, but this book, this life, plays out in multiple genres.

Unlike my distant memory of the Sexual Outlaw, this book is about people who are not anonymous. They range from Miss Edwards, to Chuck the Cowboy, Isherwood, Capote, even Marilyn Monroe and always to his parents and siblings -- not to mention Isabel and "The Kept Woman."

But the last thing I was expecting as I opened this memoir was an Aztlan tale. The story of Juan Rechy's upbringing in El Paso is told as a matter-of-fact autobiography, probably disguising for many readers the political story it actually is, adding him to a group of authors such as Americo Paredes and Ruben Martinez as a chronicler of this reality. And I dare say Rechy's a better story teller than Carlos Fuentes was in his acclaimed Crystal Frontier.

Rechy's coming out story ... or did he? ... is achingly familiar to millions, a genre that busts all demographic groups; as are his chapters on his years in the army. I'll leave it to others to conduct the psychoanalysis of his life - it frankly, is none of my business.

Yet, it is his public voice to the gay sexual underground that he will be remembered for: "That was the time, those were the times, of lost jobs, of threatened shock therapy, or gay men beaten and dragged bloody out of bars, exposed to rape by heterosexual inmates in jail `holding tanks' - a time of bashings, invisible years -- long incarcerations, suicides, uninvestigated murders."

Invisible still, but because of John Rechy not lost to our history.

"About My Life and the Kept Woman" is a very candid memoir, that seems to combine fiction and non-fiction, with this literary star and author of "City of Night" describing growing up Mexican-American in the racially divided city of El Paso, Texas, reflecting on his fascination with a notorious kept woman, his ethnic heritage, and his growing understanding of his sexual differences unpredictably leading him to a famous writing career.

For anyone with knowledge of San Francisco, the narrative has a surprising twist with the late Herb Caine (the famous columnist) and one of his several wives. She is not the "kept woman" in Rechy's memoir but the lady's niece. Like Rechy, this woman is a character of reinvention and masquerade.

Here is a moving, powerful story of a life that is witness to some of the most unruly changes of the past century. Booming with intense individuality and complete frankness, it is as much a study of intolerance as of a human being who rebelled against it to create his own very unique path.

The great thing about Rechy and the last thing you can say is that he's predictable. If you attempted to sell his life as a TV Movie or film pitch to hackneyed Hollywood they would say: "there's no basis on reality and who do we root for?" Mr. Producer: we root for John Rechy! He drops out of an Ivy League university to become a male hustler and turn it into the tour de force "City of Night" which became a major best seller, one of the most influential American novels according to Gore Vidal and then Rechy goes onto to be the first novelist to be honored by a lifetime achievement award from PEN. This is a life so filled with awakenings and discoveries that it is anything but convention and contracts deeply with the clichéd debris we see on TV and at the movies.

So be impulsive, never predictable, and order "About My Life and the Kept Woman" now. It is a must read and belongs on every bookshelf along with all of John Rechy's unpredictable works.

I recently read Rechy's novel "City of Night" and this new epic memoir takes you on the true life journey of the "youngman" hustler that became the controversial author. This autobiography roams from his Texas childhood through his years in the army and on to the hustling venues that would become so famous in his first novel. I found the book powerful and entertaining in suprising ways as well as shockingly honest. It allowed me to see the real people Rechy used as charactors in his novels and they proved every bit as fascinating. I found Rechy's story daring, funny and finally very inspirational.

"About My Life.." presents Rechy's life from adolescence to early adulthood. He recalls his life, with some obvious alterations. His San Francisco columnist is probably Herb Caen, although he uses a different name here. His chronology of Wilford Leach doesn't exactly line up with Leach's life. The important thing is that Leach was one of his first mentors, both as a writer and as a gay man. The columnist's wife is something of a metaphor for Rechy, as is the kept woman of the title. Like the wife, he escapes El Paso and becomes something else, obscuring his identity along the way. His duality is more stark than her's: writer/hustler, but not wholly different. Like the kept woman who captured his fascination, he takes pride and acquires a kind of mastery in what overtly seems to be a source of subjugation.

Rechy is matter of fact in his tone and unsparing of himself, even as he shows his bravado, as in his assertion to Alan Ginsburg that his body would always remain attractive. There is little analysis of his choice of hustling over going to Columbia University. Whether it was a matter of serendipity or something more is never discussed, perhaps if it were somehow predetermined and not to be questioned. When Rechy breaks through as a writer, recounting his experiences and the people he has met, he still easily moved back and forth between the writer's world and that of the butch, straight-identified hustler. Indeed, he takes the hustler role to a new place by developing his body and entering the world of cruising, as well as hustling after publication of his first book. "City of Night" was a departure from the more gentile and subdued work of gay writers who came before him, and the kind of middle class college boy coming of age stories that dominated in the years that came later. Even as he emerged as a gay writer, Rechy had not really come to terms with his sexuality which made the graphic quality of his writing perhaps more important to understanding him.

I'm surprised the other reviews have been so positive. Rechy's work and life tend to elicit controversy. The self-loathing and limited view of his sexuality evident in the years covered by this book often seems unsympathetic to younger readers (at least in terms of their revies of his early work). OTOH, the frankness of the sexuality and Rechy's involvement in a sexual underworld disturbs those who want to see their sexuality "normalized". Unlike the sort of middle class gay writing that began to emerge around the time of "The Sexual Outlaw", Rechy comes from a far more marginalized place, in terms of class and ethnicity. Like many characters in contemporary gay writing, he is a sensitive boy who seeks books and learning and emerges as a gay man in a flood of sexual encounters. Unlike them, he entered his sexuality as a hustler and, even as a published writer, was treated as a hustlerish plaything by wealthy prominent men who were often deeply closeted--sometimes this was cultivated by him, sometimes not. When David Leavitt gave the book a lacerating review in the NY Times, he did it by attacking the narcissism and double standard of Rechy's early life and through a schoolmarmish analysis of his prose (both Rechy & Leavitt teach creative writing at universities). Leavitt notes the circumstances of Rechy's early life but misses the place that this left for Rechy in much the manner of a sheltered, somewhat clueless middle class boy and Leavitt no doubt feels uncomfortable with a former hustler playing his game as an academic. Rechy treats his own narcissism and double standard in a very direct, unapologetic way that is very different from the self-absorption of characters drawn by writers like Leavitt. So, this is a book for people who are not looking for contemporary gay lit, but willing to deal with something that may seem, at once, dated and more forthright. There's been more to Rechy, including a long-term relationship (that emerged from his hustling, of all things), so hopefully there will be another memoir in the future.

John Rechy's new book, "About My Life and the Kept Woman," although more realistic than his past work, is hundred percent Rechy. He takes you by the hand and with passion and warmth, leads you into his life. Indeed, with great warmth and intimacy. Reading the book, you feel you're getting to know him and despite the struggles, putdowns and unabashed prejudice he has experienced, you smile in he sharing and say, "Yes, this is John Rechy."

As we read, we are led from the wild exhilaration and dangers of street hustling to the life-giving sweetness of his mother's arms, his sister's food and stories, his brothers' unconditional support. We are led from Rechysque descriptions of special childhood moments in the El Paso of his youth to special, more mature moments in New York and Los Angeles. We are led through memories of two early loves, one for a girl who recreates herself into a new person,the other for "Marisa Guzman, the kept woman of Mexican politician Augusto de Leon," the woman needled and threaded through Rechy's memory.

The last sentence in the book proclaims Ms. Guzman's pride in who she is despite years of social disapproval. John Rechy, despite the prejudice and judgement he has experienced, exhibits the same fierce pride in who he is and from whence he came. He is his own Pirandello. Soniarita Lazar

I read Rechy's "About My life and the Kept Woman" with admiring fascination for this smartly constructed portrait of a profound outsider. Responsive to beauty and painfully aware of the dramatic foreboding of everyday life in his El Paso home, John, boy to man, reframes reality with artistic invention of every kind--fashion design, poetry, and storytelling.

Though surrounded by a loving mother and siblings he's a solitary creature, identifying most with the brave isolated mistress of a Mexican politico glimpsed briefly at his sister's wedding. Though her page time is limited, her effect, on the protagonist and the reader, is not. The strength of her practiced detachment will carry John through decades of sexual adventure and the lucky reader to a better understanding of the glamorous sheen needed to protect the exceptional.

This is an amazing memoir, written with a loving heart and unflinching attention. Rechy's childhood and adolescence are depicted by him as a time populated with a multitude of fascinating people, most of whom loved him dearly. It's difficult to review this book, but so very easy to read and be caught up in its story. In all likelihood, Rechy's best work has been set down in these pages.