Adiós muchachos

Book Description

Twenty years after the hopeful triumph of the Nicaraguan revolution and almost ten years after its defeat, one of the central figures, Sergio Ramrez, narrates the story of the Sandinista decade, sometimes successful and at times tragic and imperfect.

Customer Reviews:

Well worth reading.......2006-03-12

This political memoir is very fair, lucid, and self-aware. Very helpful if you would like to understand more about what has gone on, and is going on in Nicaragua.

Verdades y Mentiras de la Revolucion.......2001-08-09

Ademas de un poco de Historia de la Revolucion Sandinista encontramos al estilo unico de Sergio Ramirez una gran Novela, Daniel Ortega(Lider Sandinista y ex-presidente de NIC) lo califico en signo de burla como un gran "Cuentista" y no lo podemos negar este Señor es un gran Narrador sus novelas han triunfado a nivel internacional y a ayudado a muchos otros escritores Nicaraguenses a salir adelante. Adios Muchachos esta lleno de sinceridad me agrado mucho ver que se aceptan que hubo muchos errores en la decada de los 80 cuando el regimen sandinista estaba a cargo,lo recomiendo tanto para todos aquellos que se enamoraron y apoyaron la revolucion en sus inicios como para todos aquellos que salieron de Nicaragua por motivos politicos, "un libro escrito con valor"

Interesante reflejo del poder.......2001-04-17

El poder corrompe y el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente, ha dicho Garcia Marquez. El libro de Ramirez es sin duda una prueba adicional de esta afirmacion, dolorosa prueba para aquellos que crecimos creyendo que la revolucion sandinista marcaba un rumbo para latinoamerica.

Extraniamente, la energia personal de Ramirez refleja la corrosion (no puedo decir corrupcion) del poder: nunca he conocido a otra persona con tan mala energia y desilusion del genero humano, hablando de ideales y de luchas en las que no cree. Juraria que este señor se levanta añorando las tardes dulces del poder, como el coronel Aureliano Buendia con sus calzoncillos de godo, la bacinilla en la mano, camino al taller de orfebreria.....

The Mistakes of Nicaragua, Retold........2000-10-16

The life of Sergio Ramirez has been an effort to bring about logical, intelligent change to the Central American isthmus and to develop his narrative along revolutionary lines. This book is a prime example of the importance of Sergio as one of the most essential and overlooked authors in Latin American literature. His ability to bring alive the dreams, plights, success and defeat of the Nicaraguan revolution, more than 10 years their electoral downfall, shows how politics and human sensitivity are intertwined in Latin America. His account of the Sandinista revolution is excellent because from its start, he was a player, and although he did not fall within the dogmas of some of his contemporaries, he is not without fault. At its core, his account continues that old school adage "Don't mess with Uncle Sam".

He was part of Nicaragua destruccion........2000-06-07

A nuestro amigo Sergio Ramirez parese que la memoria le esta fallando o quiere hacer parecer a Daniel Ortega como unico rsponsable de todos los crimenes, abusos, vejaciones, torturas y asesinatos que tuvieron lugar en Nicaragua durante su "democratico" gobierno, que como el mismo dice en el libro esa es precisamente el gran legado que dejaron en Nicaragua, yo y muchas personas que conocemos la realidad de Nicaragua sabemos que el gran legado que dejaron fueron la fatidica Pinata, y la cantidad de madres con hijos muertos en nombre de la Robo-lucion y un pais que solamente es superado en miseria por Haiti en este hemisferio, es facil hecharle la culpa a los americanos de todos los males que aquejan a Nicaragua, cuando la revolucion triunfo el 99% de la poblacion apoyo al nuevo gobierno, pero la prepotencia, el desprecio y la creencia de que ellos eran invencibles los llevo a manubriar de una manera que iba en contra de la misma indiosincrecia de los Nicaraguenses, ahora nos llega este senor con estas memorias de la fatidica revolucion, y nos quiere hacer creer que los errores fueron por simples equivocaciones, por favor senor Ramirez o ud se quedo sin memoria o ud anda fumado de marihuana, por que fueron once largos anos de errores y equivocaciones, yo creo que tiempo suficiente tuvieron para tratar de enderezar un barco que poco a poco se hundia, y uds nunca quisieron rectificar, por eso en las elecciones del 96" el pueblo de Nicaragua le mando un mensaje bien claro a ud, nunca mas el pueblo de Nicaragua quiere saber de proyectos y experimentos de gobiernos en la que el pueblo tenga que pagar una cuota tan elevada de sangre, muerte y destruccion, y en una eleccion libre ud nunca llegara a nada, si no intentelo, y buena suerte.

Adiós, muchachos.(argentinos radicados en México) : An article from: Letras Libres

Average customer rating:

Adiós, muchachos.(argentinos radicados en México) : An article from: Letras Libres
León Krauze
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Letras Libres, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2006. The length of the article is 923 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Adiós, muchachos.(argentinos radicados en México)
Author: León Krauze
Publication: Letras Libres (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 8 Issue: 86 Page: 93(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Postal desde Managua.(TT: Postcard from Managua.)(Reseña): An article from: Letras Libres

Average customer rating:

Postal desde Managua.(TT: Postcard from Managua.)(Reseña): An article from: Letras Libres
Carlos F. Chamorro
Manufacturer: Editorial Vuelta, S.A. de C.V.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Letras Libres, published by Editorial Vuelta, S.A. de C.V. on September 1, 1999. The length of the article is 585 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Postal desde Managua.(TT: Postcard from Managua.)(Reseña)
Author: Carlos F. Chamorro
Publication: Letras Libres (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1999
Publisher: Editorial Vuelta, S.A. de C.V.
Volume: 1 Issue: 9 Page: 106

Article Type: Reseña

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

Good, but not his best
This edition is in Spanish!
A definite winner
A disappointment
Doing the Horizontal Rhumba, or Dutch Treat

Adiós muchachos
Daniel Chavarría
Manufacturer: Rivages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2743601981

Book Description

Alicia is a smart, confident and gorgeous prostitute in Havana. She is not a street-walker. Rather, she displays her wares on bicycle, seducing men through the irresistible pull of her fine derriere. John King, her new client, is a Canadian businessman with a striking resemblance to movie star Alain Delon. This is no ordinary "John" and Alicia's feelings for him grow; she sees in their relationship the possibility of escape from her dead-end life in a Havana plagued with scarcity. When John King's wealthy and sexually deviant boss is suddenly killed, Alicia and John hatch a get-rich-quick scheme. A web of deception is woven, but just as quickly unraveled disastrously, and only one person is able to say "adios" to the dilapidated island of Cuba.

Daniel Chavarria was born in Uruguay in 1933. He spent the 1960s involved in several South American liberation struggles. He fled the continent and settled in Havana, Cuba, where he has resided since 1969. From 1975 to 1986, Chavarria worked as a translator of literature into Spanish, and taught Latin, Greek and Classical Literature at the University of Havana. His novels, short stories, literary journalism, and screenplays have reached audiences across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Chavarria has won numerous literary awards around the world, including a 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award. Adios Muchachos is his first novel to be translated into English. In 2002, Akashic Books will publish his mystery novel, The Eye of Cybele, set in ancient Greece.

Customer Reviews:

Good, but not his best.......2007-08-13

I agree with those who say the first half is better than the rather stale ending, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm really writing to say that I just finished a great book by Chavarria called Lo que dura, dura, -- a somewhat untranslatable pun on dura "hard" and dura "to last long" -- that I bought in the Negra y Criminal bookstore in Barcelona, though it's a "mystery" only by a stretch: It's about an outbreak of priapism in the Cuban countryside and an attempt to make a Cuban herbal-based Viagra. But it's really a portrait of Cuban society through the lives of four guys who grow up together in a post-revolution neighborhood where professionals live in close contact with "marginals" (two become doctors and two become criminals), and about Cuban attitudes towards penises, homosexualtiy, sex roles, etc. Unfortunately it's not translated -- and I think it would be hard to translate well. (The Spanish (Spain) paperback edition even has a glossary of Cuban slang.) Chavarria is a wonderful writer in Spanish so now I'd like to go back and read Adios Muchachos again in the original.
To respond to a couple of previous reviewers: Chavarria is not at all young, he has a long association with Cuba including teaching literature at the U of Havana, and he has published fiction and non-fiction in several fields, including a novel about ancient Greece.

This edition is in Spanish!.......2006-01-03

Just a warning - even though the excerpt is in English - imagine my dismay when the book was delivered to me in Spanish! Upon closer inspection of the description, it does say the language is Spanish, but unfortunately I didn't pay enough attention. I can read Spanish, but it's harder and I was hoping for a quick read.

A definite winner.......2004-03-10

It seems like every year the Edgar committees nominate one book that is so unusual that it stands out amongst the usual fare. Sometimes these books are excellent and would otherwise have remained undiscovered. For example, immediately comes to mind OUTCAST by Jose Latour, which was first published in English by the same publisher as this book. ADIOS MUCHACHOS is a black comedy that also could be considered a noir fiction. Characters are quite wacky and the plot extremely clever.

In Havana, Cuba, Alicia literally pedals her wares as a bicycle hooker. However, she isnýt simply out for money. She views each ýclientý as a prospective ticket out of her poverty-laden life via marriage or a long-term commitment. With the help of her pragmatic mother, Margarita, she seduces her johns with food and drink prior to their sampling of her sexual wares. Into this set up wanders her latest john, Victor King. Victor is involved in hunting for treasures on shipwrecks around the island. The people backing him are extremely wealthy. At first Victor uses Alicia for his own purposes. Later he proposes using her for his plan entailing voyeurism. However, a very unfortunate accident might possibly, with a bit of scheming, leave Alicia and Victor extremely wealthy. The question is, can they pull it off by outwitting the wealthy backers?

The rampant descriptions of blatant sex would preclude placing this book among the ranks of the cozies. For those who enjoy hard edged humor, this book will very well fit the bill. The characters, all despicable creations are a pure delight. In spite of their immorality, the reader will find them quite sympathetic. Interest never wanes as the reader roots for Victor and Alicia to succeed in their deception. The book never tries to be a social commentary in that the living conditions in Havana never plays a central role. ADIOS MUCHACHOS is a definite winner and is my pick as the best of the paperback original nominees. However, I really donýt think it will win in that it is too unconventional.

A disappointment.......2004-02-06

I had read very optimistic comments on this book and its author in the New York Times for some time, so I finally decided to get into the Latin mood. The expectations were high and the starts very promising, really amusing. But little by little the emotion goes down. It's like you are expecting some twist in the story or something great to happen but there is nothing. It is just that. The story is told in a fast pace but it lack interest, at least to me. Only can I save from drowning this book the gorgeous hips of that belle cuban female, or that's how she seems to me.
As a side note, I should say that the idea of touring Cuba for good and cheap sex -taking advantage of their slavery- is not a laudable one, on which the author doesn't seem to agree.
No problem of conscience?

Doing the Horizontal Rhumba, or Dutch Treat.......2003-01-22

Usually, a novel that splits right down the middle -- like a house divided against itself -- cannot stand. This one manages to, just barely. The first half is a raunchy romp with a Havana prostitute named Alicia, who manages to fall off her bicycle in an interesting way, and who strives to "trade up" toward a higher class of client. When she tangles with a shady international entrepreneur named Victor King, she finds her match until ...

Well, I shouldn't say what happens midway through the book, if only because it is so surprising and outlandish that it should be experienced without any lead-in. Suffice it to say that, quite suddenly, one finds oneself in a standard crime caper novel of the shaggy dog variety. The author's style metamorphoses into another genre, and the lovely Alicia is relegated to a subordinate role.

Only the ironic ending keeps me from downgrading the book to three stars. Daniel Chavarria obviously has talent as a writer, and has some of the juiciest sex scenes in recent literature, but he is no master of the genre. Paco Taibo, whose praise appears on the back, stands head and shoulders above him with his Hector Belascoaran Shayne novels. Yet I suspect that Chavarria is still young and has room to grow, and I look forward to reading his other works.

Book Description

When John Rechy's City of Night first appeared in 1963, it was greeted with equal parts fanfare and horror. The unapologetically sexual story of a young gay hustler shocked readers with its frank treatment of a subject most knew about but chose to pretend did not exist. Yet more shocking was Rechy's revelation that the book was largely autobiographical. For a street hustler to reach literary fame and widespread acclaim was unheard-of, especially if he was gay. Rechy continued to publish explosive novels, including Numbers, The Sexual Outlaw, and Rushes-even as he continued hustling seedy Hollywood Boulevard-and soon became an integral part of the new literary elite that included Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and Christopher Isherwood. In this enlightening biography, Charles Casillo provides an absorbing picture of the outlaw writer, examining the dichotomy of Rechy's life as both a respected author and professor and a tough-as-nails sex worker. Working closely with Rechy himself as well as his family, friends, admirers, and colleagues, Casillo presents a complex portrait of a man who found sexual liberation through prostitution and used it to create a vivid and influential artistic legacy.

The work of John Rechy: Bodies and Souls, City of Night, Coming of the Night, The Fourth Angel, Marilyn's Daughters, Numbers, Our Lady of Babylon, Rushes, The Sexual Outlaw, and The Vampires.

Charles Casillo is a Los Angelesâ€“based freelance writer. He is the author of The Marilyn Diaries, a novel about Marilyn Monroe.

Customer Reviews:

Informative, personal and unpretentious.......2007-04-14

Whether you are a fan of John Rechy's writing or have never even read a sentence of his, this book is an enjoyable and informative read. Rechy broke many barriers and continually strived to do so throughout his writing career. There have been many imitators but few who will ever come close to his originality. If you are a fan of gay literature - hell, if you are just a fan of literature - you owe it to yourself to know Rechy's work and this book offers not only an excellent introduction, but is a valuable resource for all the legions of Rechy fans who became (and continue to become) fascinated by the man behind the words. Casillo manages to provide that delicate balance between admiration and critical analysis without ever pandering to the reader or his subject. His prose is simple, precise, thoughtful and never pretentious. I highly recommend this book for all readers. Read it, then really treat yourself and pick up a few of Rechy's novels along with a few of Casillo's. You won't be disappointed.

not a biography, rather a bit of a loving massage.......2007-04-04

a pleasant read, but the author gives the impression that the burp mr. rechy let loose back in 1983 carries massive cultural significance.

Will the Real Rechy Please Stand Up?.......2004-04-02

Charles Casillo's biography "Outlaw: John Rechy" proves that since the 1963 publication of City of Night, Rechy's life pales in comparison to the lives explored by his daring and complex protagonists and supporting characters. Nevertheless, this biography attempts to track the course of Rechy's life as an introverted but artistic child who grew up into the "sexual intellectual" who pushed the boundaries of sexual expression as a fiction writer.

In part one, titled "Seeds," Rechy's biographer lays out Rechy's family history and Rechy's early life in El Paso. He tells us of Rechy's grandparents settling in El Paso, Texas after fleeing Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The reader is introduced to Roberto Sixto, Rechy's Scottish-Spanish father, an aspiring musician who ultimately failed as such, which preceded his second marriage to Guadalupe Flores, a loving Mexican woman who would become Rechy's mother and Rechy's muse. A violent father, sexual confusion and ethnic alienation riddled Rechy's childhood. As an overachiever in school with artistic longings, Rechy sought refuge in stage performance and writing. As a teenager, he longed to escape El Paso by attending college. After quitting college, Rechy entered the military, which suffocated any possibility for him to explore his (homo)sexuality. He later returned to college. This time, he attended college in New York--the city where the "sexual intellectual" would be born.

"Exploring Night," the second section, tells the story of how Rechy carved out his identity as a rough trade hustler in the underground scene in New York that would become his inspiration for City of Night. In New York, and later in Los Angeles, Rechy met the individuals who would become immortalized in his now classic novel. For example, "Pete" and "Miss Destiny" became characters loved by readers that Rechy found to represent the loneliness and distance that he felt as a child and into maturity.

The third installment, "A Screaming Need," describes the publication of City of Night and the response it received from critics and readers. Despite literary success, Rechy continued to find refuge in the streets as a rough trade hustler. His experiences included links with famous writers and wealthy intellectuals who primarily saw Rechy as a less-than-intelligent trade who couldn't possibly have written the novel that exposed the underground life of hustling. The most notable experiences, of course, described Rechy's several run-ins with the law during his sexcapades. Rechy performed his masculinity as a hustler just as his hustling experiences became the fodder for his latter writings which included Numbers. As he grew into a respected writer, Rechy continued to find hustling the source of life to drive away the loneliness and distance that had plagued him since childhood amidst poverty, alienation and an intolerable and demonic father. As a result, death and loneliness became central in his fiction, as laid out in "This Day's Death."

The last section of the book, "Sexual Intellectual," tells the story of how Rechy's sexual identity and intellectual identity merged after Rechy continued to hustle in the streets only after finding a secure job as a professor of writing. Rechy then faced a struggle between true love (with Michael Snyder, who changed his life for the better) and a fierce hunger to continue hustling. However, as the 1970s unfolded, Rechy found the hustling underworld to have changed, which alienated him. Rechy continued to write in the 1980s and into the 1990s. After the tragic loss of his beloved mother, Guadalupe, Rechy wrote The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, an homage to her that became the premier novel in Chicano/Latino Literature. In 1997, Rechy finally became honored as a literary trailblazer when he received the PEN Center USA-West award in 1997.

Casillo has certainly succeeded in weaving interviews with family members, Rechy interviews and novel excerpts to unfold this interesting biography that proves complex to tell in a span of 300 pages. The disappointments included Rechy's choice to remain silent on a specific discussion of sexual abuse suffered as a child. Also, Rechy remains vague on how he came to embrace his femininity as a gay man considering that he built a persona that promoted a narcissistic butch/top/trade role. Sometimes the book appeared ahistorical since Rechy's life in the public eye became relative to the changing times in America between the 1930s and 1980s. Nevertheless, Casillo carries his role as a biographer carefully instead of a role as historian (I tend to conflate both roles in the excellent writing of a biography).

Yet, the end result is a biography that will delight readers who are now being introduced to Rechy's work. For Rechy scholars however, the biography leaves us with many questions about "The Legend": What is the actual root of Rechy's literary genius? How is Rechy the subject instead of an object of his life? How has Rechy's fiction stood the test of time since the times changed without him (as revealed in the biography)? Does his work describe the changing of the times?

How can we get away from psychoanalyzing Rechy's life considering his Oedipal childhood and Rechy's obsession with his mother? The most interesting of questions to me is: Will Rechy ever consider presenting his true self through a memoir? John, remember that memory is sacred. To dismiss an autobiography is to dismiss someone's memory and consider it irrelevant for an understanding of the self. Some food for thought.

A Spellbinding Read!.......2003-07-19

I read this book voraciosuly - a comprehensive, fascinating study which sheds a lot of light on one of the most mysterious most interesting characters in the history of American fiction!!

I enjoyed this book so much I carry it with me and pull it out on the train to read it at whim!

A GREAT READ!

Skin Deep.......2003-04-18

I think the statement in the preface is interesting - about biographers being "literary liars" - because despite the author's "honest intentions" I think he was compromised by John Rechy's direct contribution to the project as a "primary source". One is left with the impression that everything has been filtered through the sure and certain knowledge that Rechy will read the book himself.

Consequently, the portrait is more flattering than Rechy might deserve. Outrageously so, in the case of the quote where he is ranked alongside Norman Mailer and said to "outshine" Philip Roth and Gore Vidal. Even accepting that Casillo is a fan, it's preposterous. Jaw-dropping even. What a load of baloney!!

The pandering to his subject continues through the portrait of Rechy's mother. I found it extremely unsatisfactory - shallow and one-dimensional. Casillio presents her through the rose-coloured recollections of others - not least, Rechy's own. And never really attempts to scratch the surface of a complex - even bizarre - relationship.

Sadly, it's the same story with Rechy himself. Is he really as superficial and lacking in self-awareness as this biography suggests? Has he learnt nothing during his 70+ years on Earth? Or is it just down to a superficial treatment of the subject? Rechy's self-obsessed narcissism is handled with kid gloves. Casillo does not examine it in any depth. Though he does occasionally make half-hearted attempts to excuse it.

Ultimately, for me, this book raised more issues about the authenticity of biography than anything else. As a genre I find it increasingly dissatisfactory.

Book Description

This angry, elegant outcry against homosexual oppression is an explosive nonfiction account, with commentaries, of three days and nights in the sexual underground of Los Angeles in the seventies.

Customer Reviews:

Important as a Social Document of the Era.......2005-05-01

Described as "A Documentary," THE SEXUAL OUTLAW is an unexpected construction and as such it is an extremely, extremely difficult work to describe--part fact, part opinion, part autobiography, and part fiction--and often blurring the distinction between the four.

Published in 1977, the book is essentially a snapshot of the underbelly of the Los Angeles community through John Rechy moved in that decade. The fictional material concerns Jim, a man that the rest of the book encourages us to read as Rechy himself, who travels a stream of sexual contacts over the course of a long weekend: sex at the beach, in the park, on the street, in the bar, in the alley. And always running one step ahead of a highly hypocritical society and police department that is forever in hot pursuit to arrest, eradicate, and destroy him and his kind forever.

These are the "sexual outlaws." The remaining portions of the book veers from sado-masochism to double sexual standards to corrupt police officers to newspaper headlines--and all, ultimately, in an effort to explain why a person such as "Jim" would actively select such a nihilistic way of life. And Rechy does indeed have a point; to a certain extent, the choice is between rebelling against or being buried by the status quo.

In one sense, the book will--or at least should--make your blood boil in its highly accurate depiction of the horrific repression homosexuals have faced in the past and indeed might again face in the future. It also conveys a sense of the excitement of the illicit sexual chase. At the same time, Rechy does not spare you the emptiness and ugliness of such a lifestyle; indeed, he makes such aspects of wholesale promiscuity extremely apparent.

In the end, Rechy seems to be saying that when the choice is between rebelling or being buried, he prefers to rebel. But there is a catch in here: he presents a street-sex lifestyle as the only possible rebellion and to a certain extent tries to posit his own choices as a commonplace.

At one point in the book, Rechy states that he has had over 7000 sexual contacts up that point--which breaks down to an average of about one contact per day for twenty years. I don't doubt that such people exist and I don't doubt that some of them are homosexual, but I have extreme doubts about how statistically typical this would be of any segment of the population, male or female, gay or straight.

Because of this Rechy tends to undercut his own argument, and a whiff of self-justification begins to enter the mix as the book progresses. That aside, the adventures of Jim become repetitive and seem less included than to make a point than as expertly written pornography. I need hardly add that the advent of AIDS and changing attitudes and laws about homosexuality have left the book extremely dated.

Even so, this is in some respects the best of Rechy's work, very direct, passionate, clearly written in white-hot anger; it is remarkably driven in tone, furious in execution. I would not really recommend it to a casual reader, but I think it is important as a social document, and it deserves to be read on that basis.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A Journey to the End of the Night.......2004-02-20

Like many of Rechy's books, THE SEXUAL OUTLAW is powerful, fascinating, and very depressing. The themes present in his novels are here in this non-fiction work - the power of physical beauty, narcissm, sex as liberation, unfulfilled desire, etc. Along with a narrative of one hustler's quest for validation through his sexual encounters, Rechy threads in a treatise on what it means to be homosexual in twentieth century America. Much of what he says is relevant to the twenty-first century as well, as the current battle over same-sex marriage attests.

Those looking for explicit sex will find it in abundance here. Rechy pulls no punches in his depiction of homoerotic love. Yet he is wise enough to see the sadness in the "sexhunt," and his "character" Jim, we know, will never find that elusive thing for which he searches, the combination of sexual gratification and personal intimacy. None of us will find it. We hate Jim for his narcissm and his superficiality but admire his rebel stance. He is a man-loving man not ashamed of the fact.

Rechy's accounts of police corruption concerning gay men and the hours spent nabbing "sexhunters" that could otherwise be spent apprehending murderers, rapists, and thieves are enough to make one's blood boil. And I love his comments on gay sensibility. But I find his whole stance on S&M somewhat puzzling and hypocritical. While no advocate of or participant in that particular sexual lifestyle, I fail to see the difference between the physical pain inflicted by "masters" upon "slaves" and the psychological pain engendered in the course of the sexhunt. Indeed it would seem the latter pain would be the more enduring and damaging.

This is an important book, more than twenty-five years old, but still relevant.

The last days of Sodom.......1999-06-22

A masterpiece of Gay literature, broke so many taboos before its time.I remember reading this novel in the late 70s before AIDS became prevelant,when so many queers walked the backstreets and alleys not to mention bathhouses in there search for free sex and lust. This is a monumental exploration into the psyche of homosexuality and being wanted by all means .necessary. I cant wait for the movie!

Average customer rating:

"The Sexual Outlaw" by John Rechy

Sexual Outlaw
John Rechy
Manufacturer: Random House~trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0394413431

Customer Reviews:

"The Sexual Outlaw" by John Rechy.......2002-10-25

...This book has something for everyone. If all you want is a steamy read then just read the sex chapters, if you're only interested in the history of gay rights/oppression just read the other chapters. The sex chapters are graphic, and romantically rendered (the author being a big fan of public sex.) The historic chapters are fascinating and disturbing, a first-hand account of the persecution that has ruined lives, the kind of persecution that a younger person might find extreme, appalling, and entirely un-American.
I suggest you read the entire book, as the author's intention is to make the persecuted more personal, and to explain that a life of street-sex may be more than a self-involved search for orgasms. (Rechy actually makes a pretty good case for narcissism as a life strategy.) The book is made truly beautiful by Rechy's intense honesty (always surprising coming from such an overt egotist.) The ugly and the beautiful, shown side by side, simultaneously, run concurrent, until one may be prompted to ask which is which. Rechy does not just defend his lifestyle, he also faces its many problems.
In the end , my favorite thing about the book is that it raised so many questions in my mind. Throughout reading the book I found myself becoming angry with many of the author's declarations, and the questions piled up. By the final chapter, however, Rechy had answered every one of them, ultimately offering a sort of philosophy of what it means to be gay, and what it means to live under the gun of others' ideologies.
I would recommend this book to ANYONE with an open mind, or ANYONE who needs to open their mind a little more.

Average customer rating:

The Sexual Outlaw -
John Rechy -
Manufacturer: Grove Publishing -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P13QD2

Average customer rating:

The Sexual Outlaw, a Documentary
Rechy John
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W512LO

Average customer rating:

Sexual Outlaw
John Rechy
Manufacturer: Grove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O64N76

The Sexual Outlaw a Documentary a Non-fiction Account, with Commentaries, of Three Days and Nights in the Sexual Underground

Average customer rating:

The Sexual Outlaw a Documentary a Non-fiction Account, with Commentaries, of Three Days and Nights in the Sexual Underground
Rechy John
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF5TII

Average customer rating:

The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary - A non-fiction Account, with commentaries, of Three days and nights in the sexual Underground
John Rechy
Manufacturer: Futura
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLYCZE

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books