The Coming of Night [Paperback]

John RECHY (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Grove Press; First Paperback Edition edition (1999)
• ASIN: B000UZZMOY
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable journey, October 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coming of the Night (Hardcover)

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."

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning, unforgettable and timely novel, July 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coming of the Night (Hardcover)

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."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading, great writing, March 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coming of the Night (Hardcover)

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.