City of Night (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Rechy
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: El Paso, Texas; New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; New Orleans
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Mr. King, Pete, The Professor, Miss Destiny, Neil, Jeremy Adams
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- 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: New York, New Orleans, LA, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, El Paso, TX
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...
[The entire page is 2682 words long]
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