The Coming of the Night - Hardcover

Rechy, John

3.65

153 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802116507 ISBN 13: 9780802116505

Publisher: Grove Press, 1999

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It is 1981, a hot summer night, and an unscripted ritual is about to take place. Jesse, "the kid," is celebrating one year on the dazzling gay scene and plans to lose himself completely in its transient pleasures. Clint has fled New York with a sense of unease in the wake of a vicious gay-bashing and a night in the sexual underground. Buzz, Boo, Toro, Fredo, and Linda are cruising the city looking for danger, and so is Dave, a "leatherman" devoted to S&M and testing limits. And a priest is searching the streets for a young hustler named Angel, determined to bring him to Jesus. As the Santa Ana winds, renowned for stirring up desires and violence, breathe fire down the hills of Los Angeles, this cast of characters circles ever closer to the night - and to a confrontation as astonishing as it is inevitable.

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From Publishers Weekly:

In a return to some of the themes of his first novel, the gay classic City of Night (1963), Rechy follows an ensemble cast of mainly gay characters over the course of one day in 1981 Los Angeles, just before the AIDS crisis hits. As the Santa Ana winds, said to provoke violence and desire, blow fire toward the city, the characters are introduced in short, interlaced sections. Beautiful Jesse, celebrating a year on the gay scene, plans to abandon himself to unlimited desire; Clint has fled troubling experiences in New York, where the first rumors of AIDS are surfacing; Dave, into leather and s&m, is looking for new and dangerous pleasures; Father Norris, a troubled priest, searches gay haunts for a young hustler named Angel, who supposedly has a tattoo of a naked Jesus on his back. Meanwhile, a trio of armed thugs is intent on gay bashing, and everyone moves inevitably toward a West Hollywood park, and tragedy. The gay characters are obsessed with sex, hustling, body building and cruising; sex scenes are plentiful, graphic in the extreme and certainly not for the squeamish. At the same time, Rechy doesn't skimp on plot, character or action, and the ingenious ending takes an unanticipated but thoroughly logical turn. In its gritty evocation of time and place, the novel goes beyond its narrow subject matter, reaching for a broader and deeper understanding of an era. (Aug.) FYI: Rechy recently received the William Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 10th annual Publishing Triangle Awards for gay literature.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Rechy's landmark 1963 novel, City of Night, broke new ground through its open portrayal of a sexually active homosexual underworld. His newest novel continues to document that life. Set in Los Angeles in 1981, The Coming of the Night follows a cast of colorful characters as they confront the dangers of being gay and passionate. Police harassment, gay-bashing, and public scorn and humiliation are ever-present dangers. And AIDS looms on the horizon, blowing into the lives of Rechy's characters like the Santa Ana winds that also figure into the narrative. Throughout, Rechy creates a stark, stinging, and anxious atmosphere in which desire makes people do awful things and lust commingles with promiscuity, obsession, self-hatred, depression, and narcissism. It's pretty raw stuff but a good read. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-ARoger Durbin, Univ. of Akron
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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