Customer Reviews

The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens: A Novel

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I picked this book up when it first hit the book stores, and devoured it in a single reading (something I haven't done since reading Madame Bovary). I've never written a review on Amazon before, but felt somewhat compelled to do so by the New York Times flap, which demonstrated to me that Rechy is a thousand times more honest, self-aware and has a much better sense of humor than all of the hypocritical authors (never mind "professional" critics) who were alluded to, but apparently didn't have the spine to own up to their own creative doings on Amazon. So, in case any one is still reading this: this book is masterful, emotional without being sentimental. Rechy renders situations in a way that are at once heart-breaking and hilarious. The aging Hollywood actress who is able to use her imagination to turn each bit of humiliating news into, if not triumph, then at least hope; the nouvelle-riche porn producer's wife who frets about vulgarity-- the book is comprised of high adventure and wonderful characters. I think that what I liked most about this book is that Rechy never makes fun of or patronizes his characters the way, I think, a lesser writer might. As a result, the characterizations are rich, and I was completely lost in the characters' desires and pipedreams. Buy this book!

After all the hullabaloos in the NY Times over authors writing their own reviews, because of the comments of Rechy, I picked up this book over the weekend and couldn't put it down. Curiosity got the best of me. The book is hilarious. I enjoyed every minute. I recall reading Rechy's excellent but dark CITY OF NIGHT. This is such a contrast. It is humorous yet touching, proving Rechy's strong virtuosity as a topflight novelist. It is story telling at its best - a bewitching wickedly entertaining tome in which an irrepressible young hero is set loose in the "born again" world of Texas, the clubs of Las Vegas, and then on to the seductive allure of crazed filled Los Angeles. Finely written, a very good read, highly recommended and I'm pleased to rediscover this excellent writer.

I've really enjoyed most of John Rechy's work, particularly Marylin's Daughter The miraculous day of Amalia Gómez, and to a lesser extent, The coming of the night, but The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens, although clever in it's structure, was disappointing. This book just didn't work for me. I can appreciate that many readers will absolutely love the humor and comedy in this, but for me, it unfortunately, just fell flat. Part of the problem is perhaps that Rechy's dialogue just lacked sparkle and sharpness. The narrative works well as a type of "sit-com" situational comedy loosely modeled, of course on Henry Fielding's 18th-century classic The History of Tom Jones. But I just felt that the dialogue between the main characters lacked sharp acid wit, that we should expect from a writer such a Rechy. His writing seemed rushed and hurried, and I wanted him to take more time with his story; maybe relax and really consolidate his characters more securely in their time and place.

Lyle Clemens is indeed an endearing character, and there's an incredible sexual innocence to his character. Born in Texas, to the beautiful, but forsaken Silvia Love, who takes to drink when Lyle's father dumps her, and her hopes of becoming Miss America are crushed by her fundamentalist mother. Lyle is tremendously naïve and blissfully unaware of his good looks, lustiness and sexiness. People fawn around him like flies - there's Maria, the Mexican beauty, and Rose who teaches him about sex and how to seduce a virgin with confidence. Silvia's best friend Clarita - a rather staid stereotype of an older Mexican-American - who helps to raise Lyle and remains loyal to Silvia. There are lots of other minor characters that meet Lyle and help him along on his adventurous journey through life. Sister Matilda, is a gospel singer who befriends Lyle, the aging starlet Tarah Worth, the crooked evangelists Brother Bud and Sister Sis, and a couple of pornographers who have suspiciously well recognizable names. It's nice that Mr. Rechy has incorporated some gay content into his story with the character of Raul, a gay boy who falls in love with Lyle and falls into the "devilish" clutches of the evangelists.

Generally though, I felt that Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens read too much like an afternoon soap opera, rather than a satire of our contemporary age, which is what the story is supposed to symbolize. I'm sure die-hard fans of Rechy will love this - and they generally due judging by some of the other glowing reviews. But if you want the best John Rechy, I would venture into some of his earlier work, particularly City of Night.

Michael

A beautifully written story that will go down as one of the author's best. The tale of the lovable Lyle Clemens is not only funny but incredibly touching. The ending is sublime. Fans of Rechy and those who have never read a word of his work are in for a real treat.

This novel tells the tales of many people, but mainly focuses on Lyle Clemens, a young cowboy whose father deserted his mother after she became pregnant. This one act of Lyle Clemens the First changes his mother forever, and also shapes the thinking of Lyle the 2nd. Lyle leaves his home state of Texas and travels to Las Vegas and then Hollywood, meeting plenty of "characters" along the way. Men and women are attracted to him, and his basically honest and positive nature naively seeks the best out in everyone he meets. The many charlatans along the way attempt to use him for their own personal gain, but somehow, a guardian angel keeps Lyle safe each time and thwarts the slime-bags.

The characters in this novel are amazing; John Rechy does a great job of fleshing them out and I found myself drawn to each and every one of them. Still, I felt that there was no real high point in this book; I knew that with all the different characters and the detailing of each meant that there would be a final intertwining where their lives would intersect. Sure, this does occur but it is much more of a whimper than a bang. For such a frank, adult, and sexy tale, I felt that Rechy short-changed the reader...almost as if he got bored with the tale and didn't know what else to do with it. This book sure does cry out for a well-written sequel.

I think what people are missing with Rechy's latest -- and what's so expertly done it's nearly invisible -- is the sheer physical bravado of the writing. What other modern novels move with such lithe speed, evoking the physical world of both the picaresque and the screwball comedy with such wicked glee? None that I can think of. Like most great comedy, its seeming slightness is being used against it. Rechy doesn't linger over anything; he makes his points then moves on. If he turned lugubrious or ponderous, the praising would never cease!! But his footing is sure, his cutting wit swift, and his amassed technique does what all technique should do: it recedes to the (in this case) sheer visual power of the storytelling....

I guess the sex scenes were o.k., but with cardboard-stereotypical characters, and the protagonist being so perfect as to be odious, I couldn't finish this book.

That being so, I ask the Amazon readership if anyone kept count as to how many times Mr. Rechy used the running gag where, when someone addresses Lyle as "cowboy," he responds, "I'm not a cowboy! I've never even been on a horse!"

One problem with such a repeated device is . . . well . . . shouldn't it be funny?

If you love the "scathing critique" of common (read: pat, boring, moralist,) literature in Georgian England that is Henry Fielding's comic masterpiece "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling," look elsewhere for a great read. While Rechy does a credible job of attempting to honor the masterpiece, he falls far short both in terms of playful characterization, and in his attempt to modernize the ending sufficiently.

Problem the first is that Mr. Rechy's characters, while sketched lightly to mimic the style of Fielding in his grand satire, don't quite fit in a book that falls far short of the original's aims (and was aimed differently, to begin with). Where in Tom Jones the idea was to slap staid moralists with the reality that, in fact, a well-meaning black sheep could sometimes have a happy ending, too, Rechy's aim is far less definite. He seems to be making fun of his lightly sketched characters because they aren't educated, witty or urbane of their own accord. In short, this book isn't a satire of modern times or literary movements, it's really more of a burlesque show playing on the low-class trashiness of the characters to no real moral end.

Our second problem proceeds apace of the first, and that is the book's confusion over its' own identity. Fielding's goal was actually quite simple... SATIRE re: the bad, inflexible, interchangeable moralist plotlines of the Georgian novel! "The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens", however, seems to be a light novel about the differences between being seedy and being seedy with good intentions, albiet with no binding theme to said seediness. If the book had only been a little longer, the characterization hadn't been stolen directly from Tom Jones, and the moral dillemmas faced by the book's namesake, Lyle, had been a little less porno-centric, this might've been a literary tour-de-force. As it is, I can't recommend it at all.

Read it if you want. There's a decent deflowering scene, anyway... Though, as porn, the novel also leaves one wanting a good sniff of Teleny...

As a recent rewiewer stated, the story made me laugh, but not in glee. The characters are plastic; the human condition as experienced in real life is absent. Save your dollar; more importantly, save your time and read something else.

Until I read this novel, I don't think I would believe that a novel that is often laugh-aloud funny would also be so deeply moving--at times, I felt tears. It's a loose take-off on TOM JONES, but it's set in present times, and its hero is handsome Lyle Clemens, born in Texas, to a beautiful woman whose hopes of becoming Miss America are crushed by her fundamentalist mother in a scene that will have you laughing and crying at the same time. Lyle is something of an innocent, not even aware of his good looks and sexiness that attracts an array of lively characters, Maria, the Mexican beauty, Rose, the "loose" woman who initiates him into sex (and whose advice he follows when he's called upon to perform "the preacher strut" at a fundamentalist revivial, another scene that will have you howling with laughter). There's also Clarita, the somewhat daffy woman who helps to raise Lyle; Sister Matilda, a gospel singer who befriends him; aging starlet Tarah Worth, who wants, desperately, to get the lead in a remake of Valley of the Dolls, a screenplay that changes throughout the book until it becomes something entirely otherwise; she seduces Lyle into a mad scheme during the Academy Awards, another pricelss scene. Among the most hilarious and deadly characters are Brother Bud and Sister Sis, crooked evangelists, and a couple of uppity pornograhpers, a man whose wife is constantly toning down his language even on the set of their porn movies. In Los Angeles, Lyle falls in love with a poster-woman named Babette, that leads him into a trap to become the next porn sensation on the internet, a nasty plot devised by the porn king and queen. There's also Raul, the gay kid who falls in love with Lyle and falls into the clutches of the evangelists who want to rid him of "the devil," another scene that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Lyle moves from Texas to Las Vegas (he's sure a magician is really sawing up his assistant), and on to Hollywood. He alternately becomes the Lord's Cowboy, when the evangelists take him on tour to excite their congreation; Mr. Cowboy, when he accompanies a superstitious Las Vegas gambler; the Mystery Cowboy, after, at Hugh's mansion he "saves" Miss Universal from a peacock that has run rampant over the mansion grounds; and, finally, a surprising development on Hollywood Boulevard, one of the most touching endings I have ever read. This book is great--and on top of it all, it has terrific illustrations, one for each chapter. I won't ever forget this book nor Lyle and the wide cast of characters.