Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$27.99$27.99
FREE delivery: Monday, Feb 5 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Best Buy Sell
Buy used: $12.40
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
97% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
City of Night (Rechy, John) Paperback – January 13, 1994
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGrove Press
- Publication dateJanuary 13, 1994
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100965071919
- ISBN-13978-0802130839
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
"One of the major books to be published since World War II."--The Washington Post
"City of Night is a remarkable book.... Mr. Rechy writes in an authentic jive-like slang: the nightmare existence is explored with a clarity not often clouded by sentimentality and self-pity. The book therefore has the unmistakable ring of candor and truth."--The New York Times Book Review
"Rechy's tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness. tells the truth, and tells it with such passion that we are forced to share in the life he conveys. This is a most humbling and liberating achievement."--James Baldwin
"Probably no first novel is so complete, so well held together, and so important as City of Night."--The Houston Post
"[City of Night] illuminates, it stirs the heart, it is unforgettable."--Herbert Gold
John Rechy is the recipient of the PEN-USA West's Lifetime Achievement Award (he was the first novelist to be awarded the prize) and the Publishing Triangle's William Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of eleven other novels, among them Numbers, Rushes, The Sexual Outlaw (all from Grove Press), The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, and Our Lady of Babylon. His most recent novel, The Coming of the Night, was published by Grove Press in 1999. An NEA recipient, he is also the author of several plays, essays, and short stories. John Rechy lives in Los Angeles.
Product details
- ASIN : 0802130836
- Publisher : Grove Press; Reissue edition (January 13, 1994)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0965071919
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802130839
- Item Weight : 15.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #810,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,749 in LGBTQ+ Genre Fiction (Books)
- #37,208 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #42,008 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The book is more of a peripatetic collection of vignettes and verbal tableaux than an actual novel. Rechy’s story lacks a conventional plot structure, and the characters are developed only to the extent that their brief appearance in the narrative will allow. Although no character (other than the narrator) sticks around very long, many are nevertheless quite memorable. Drawing on his own experience, Rechy uses exquisite detail and a perceptive ear for authentic dialogue to sketch distinct, almost allegorical characters. Flamboyant queens, butch hustlers, desperate scores, gruff bartenders, and reckless partiers populate the book’s many locales—New York City, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans.
Despite their differing appearances and motives, every character—and most notably Rechy’s unnamed hustler narrator—experiences a profound sadness borne of loneliness, which is the theme that unites every scene in the book to every other. Every human connection between characters is predicated on physical contact (often sexual)—and every connection evaporates at the first sign of intimacy or emotion. Desire—or, more precisely, the desire to be desired—always conquers love in Rechy’s world.
Nearly 500 pages in length (this edition includes Rechy’s Introduction, an Afterword, and an interview with the author), “City of Night” is required—and worthwhile—reading for anyone interested in queer American literature.
Top reviews from other countries
a world of hustlers and scores that I know nothing about, or have any interest in exploring outside of literature.
Written in 1963, the sex is [thankfully to me] not graphic, more implied. He introduces a dizzying variety of characters
most of whom are loveable and extremely colourful. A wonderful exploration of the almost universal search for something outside of ourselves,
of alienation, of the need to keep moving, moving, but to where, and why ?
Le récit se déroule dans plusieurs villes - New york, San Francisco, New Orleans, ...- mais les décors restent finalement les mêmes: la rue, les parcs, les bars, les toilettes publiques, les chambres d'hôtel; et les protagonistes sont aussi les mêmes partout: les prostitués et leurs clients, les homos, les folles, les travestis, ...
Au prime abord, c'est un milieu qui parait sordide, peuplé d'êtres souvent déplaisants ou ridicules, mais, passé outre cette première impression, dès que l'auteur s'arrête sur un personnage, nous le fait découvrir, le met à nu (un chapitre sur deux est ainsi consacré à un 'portrait'), une autre vérité se détache soudain. On fait connaissance avec des figures tragiques, voire poignantes; et sous les masques exubérants, c'est toujours la solitude, la tristesse, le manque d'amour.
Un livre profondément humain donc, et qui, en dépit d'un sujet sordide, n'en est pas moins un livre magnifique!
A noter encore que, bien que le héros soit un prostitué, l'écriture n'a rien de pornographique et qu'on ne trouve pas de scènes explicites de sexe. Au contraire, c'est bien écrit (malgré une typographie déconcertante parfois), avec des passages pouvant être émouvants ou drôles.








