Book Review

CITY OF NIGHT, by John Rechy. 410 pp., Grove Press, New York, 1963. $ 5.95.

This novel, by your Editors standards, has no place. in TVia as it is entirely concerned with the homosexual world. However, the fact that it has been on the best- seller list for 20 weeks (as of Nov. 19) puts it into a special category. Some 250,000 people have presum- ably read it, and the TV will need to know what they have read, because it does nothing to improve our public image!

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The view given of the gay world is a deliberat- ely ugly and grimy one, as if the author knew it well and was repudiating it. The whole scene, from "male hustler to queen is presented in an underworld context reeking of narcotics, petty crime and casual violence. (A male hustler is a man who participates only for pay; the nameless narrator of the story is in this class, and the book closes with his frantic retreat when he realizes that he has crossed the line to active homosexuality.

For TV's, the main interest will lie in the sections describing the drag queens of Los Angeles (p102-129) and New Orleans at Mardi Gras time( p315-407 ). Never before have I seen so much print on these mysterious people, so like us in wearing dresses but so utterly alien in their thought processes. In these sections also lies the danger that the ordinary reader, having digested this package, will" know all about Transvestites " though that word is not used in the book. The distinc- tion between queens and TV's as we know them should be obvious and reassuring - to the more discriminat- ing reader. Any TV who is worried about his possible direction may take comfort in the obvious gap, which seems psychologically impass-

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drift in this width of the able.

SHEILA, 30-B 2 FPE

52.