Customer Reviews

Mysteries and Desire: Searching the Worlds of John Rechy

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As many times as I have explored this amazing multimedia CD-ROM, I constantly find something new to appreciate. A photograph in a collage that links to an artifact with the voice of John Rechy revealing new meaning...a path through a thicket of trees that reveals the author standing shirtless above his beloved city.... Mysteries and Desire is a masterful, extraordinary work whose technique rises to the level of its subject. Anyone interested in John Rechy, literature, digital content or new media should not miss this experience.

Already own all 13 of Rechy's books? ... Got a copy of *Numbers* from a friend once, but never read anything else? ... Only know *City of Night* because it's on that list of "modern classics" you should have read? ... Well, no matter what your level of exposure to Rechy's brilliance, if he's an author you long to learn more about, this CD-ROM can help. Filled with fascinating images from his personal archives, it also contains multimedia pieces which dramatize and synthesize the themes of Memories, Bodies, and Cruising. One feature sure to please Rechy fans who haven't had the chance to meet him, is the use of the author's voice for narrative pieces and book excerpts.

Nonetheless, if you're looking for a definitive bibliography, or expecting a project resembling a flashy "book report" on Rechy, this CD-ROM is not the place to start. (For that sort of treatment, go to the library and/or search the Web). This CD-ROM will not familiarize you with all his writings, or give you biographical trivia, in the traditional sense -- but it does illuminate the style and substance of his work, and reveal aspects of his life, in new ways.

As to the CD-ROM itself: I would have preferred more detailed installation and navigation instructions -- but didn't have any great difficulty getting the various components up and running. Overall content seemed rather sparse once I started exploring it, and I kept wanting more detail and depth -- but that's to be expected. After all, there's only so much space on any CD-ROM, and no amount could be "enough" or "too much" when reveling in the beauty, passion, and glory of a work.