City of Night
by John Rechy
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At a glance:
- Author: John Rechy
- First Published: 1963
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: El Paso, Texas; New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; New Orleans
- Characters: The narrator, Mr. King, Pete, The Professor, Miss Destiny, Neil, Jeremy Adams
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, South or Southerners, New York City, Prostitution or prostitutes, California, Los Angeles, West, U.S., New Orleans, Mexican Americans, San Francisco, Latinos, Texas, Androgyny
- Locales: California, United States, New York, Texas, North America, Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, New Orleans, Louisiana, El Paso, Texas
The Novel
Based in part on John Rechy’s own experiences as an itinerant male prostitute in the late 1950’s, City of Night is a powerful evocation of a nameless narrator’s journey through the underside of America’s urban wastelands and a haunting description of the different people he encounters there.
City of Night is divided into four parts, roughly equivalent to the narrator’s stays in New York, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and New Orleans. It is further divided into short character sketches—named after the individuals who are described—that...
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